What Is It About Age John McCain Doesn't Understand?

An old friend of mine who lives in California sent this to me this morning and while it's six weeks after McCain's birthday, I thought it brought up some worthwhile thoughts that were worth sharing. All of us who have stepped, jumped, stumbled, limped or crept into our 70s can recognize the things he talks about, but if we "ordinary" folks can recognize how these things affect us and whatever tasks we take on, why is it that John McCain has so much difficulty recognizing them?

Happy Birthday Wishes to John McCain

Dear John,
As we celebrate our respective 72nd birthdays it is apparent that we have a lot in common. You were born on August 29, 1936; I was born two days later on August 31st. While you went to the Naval Academy, I attended Stanford and we both graduated near the bottom of our respective classes. We were commissioned as Naval Officers in 1958 and each of us failed in our first marriages. Luckily, however, we both are now happily married to successful women who each are over 18 years younger than we - quite a challenge to keep up with them, and a real incentive to enjoy life after 72.

While I cannot claim an experience comparable to five years in captivity in Vietnam, it is apparent that our Navy service has substantially affected our lives. You recovered from your captivity to become a lobbyist for the Navy and then a Congressman and Senator. After the Navy, I "grew up," applied myself, headed the University of Chicago Law Review and became a trial lawyer. We both have been life-long Republicans and we both personally knew and were influenced by Barry Goldwater. We both believe in service to our country, but have we learned to recognize our limitations?

Where we differ - John - is that I know that I am too old to be President of the United States. From every indication, you are too.

There is a reason that nobody our age has previously run for the highest office in the land. I am much too old to be a CEO of a major corporation. How many captains of industry have assumed the helm at age 72? And, as you more than I know, by 72 virtually all of the Generals and Admirals have been sent off into retirement. What I absolutely do know John is that I am now too old to run a major law firm or to try a major case as lead counsel. Where I used to bill over 2,000 hours a year and work late into the night and on weekends, now I am awake late at night contemplating my prostrate. It's not a complaint, John - just a fact of life - I just don't have the stamina anymore to work the hours required of a chief executive much less as our nation's President.

While unlike you, I regularly use the internet, I recognize that technology is passing me by and I must rely upon others to do things I used to do well myself. While I have been in good health, exercise strenuously and play hardball in a league with players as young as 30 year olds, I am just not what I used to be when it comes to dealing with a crisis or working long hours. Each morning as I climb out of bed my aching limbs remind me of my age and mortality. Given your POW experience and medical history, I cannot imagine that you are not experiencing the same.

I also find that my memory is slipping. I have always had excellent recall, but now and again I am frustrated by the fact that I am occasionally drawing a blank when seeking to remember a name or event. I can still come up with the information, just not as quickly or as accurately. In that connection, I often find myself either embellishing or confabulating events of my past life. Those old stories just keep getting better and I find myself telling them over and over again to the point of tedium. I also find that I am less diplomatic and more prickly than before, so I fully understand your frustration in dealing with that Time writer who wanted to know your definition of "honor." From observing you throughout this campaign I know that you are sharing my experiences. At 72 we should not have to explain ourselves and we have earned the right to lose it occasionally. That said, however, John I am not sure that approach works in diplomacy or that it is appropriate for the President of the United States.

John, we both have a wealth of experience in our chosen areas of endeavor and we have much to contribute based upon our age and experience-but I know that given our age we both have blind spots in dealing with the challenges of the 21st Century. Our experience can only take us so far - at some point we must pay our respect to father time. That is the reason why, in business, law and politics, age matters.

John, on our 72nd birthdays I wish you well for a long and distinguished career in a role that is appropriate for our age - the United States Senate.

With all best wishes and Happy Birthday,

William A. Wineberg
Stanford, Class of 58
U.S.Navy 1958-61

Attorney at Law
150 Post Street, Suite 742
San Francisco, Ca. 94108
Phone: 415 434 1200
Fax: 415 296 8552
Email: bill@wineberglaw.com
Web: http://www.wineberglaw.com/

Never Too Late For a Great Opportunity

In the early 90’s I was living in Dallas, Texas – where I was born and had spent a good part of my life. I had moved back there in 1983 when my husband and I separated, but even after nearly ten years in Dallas I still missed the northwest and wanted to go back before I got too old to move at all, let alone across the country. I loved Montana where we had lived, where our children had grown up, but I knew the chances of finding a job that would do more than keep me off food stamps was probably next to impossible. So, I moved to Oregon, to Portland and fell in love with the city and with the state, with its incredible coast line and magnificent mountains. Now, the only question was, would I be able to find a job? I was just about to turn sixty. It was the early 90s and the economy in Portland wasn’t the best.

I did find a job – finally, as office manager for a landscape architect’s two man business. Not the most promising employment for an old broad, but I had some money put back, I finally found an inexpensive little apartment belonging to one our contractors and I settled in to see where the fates would take me next.

After two years it became painfully obvious that I was not going to be able to prepare for my elder – more elderly years where I was, so I took another one of those deep breaths, handed in my resignation and I began searching for something with a little more future – even short termed future. I decided to work as a temp which would give me a better chance to check out the work environment before accepting a position. The economy was in much better shape by then with numerous high tech companies moving into the area.

Things just felt right the first day of my first temp assignment. It was with a Japanese silicon wafer manufacturing company – an old company in Japan, a new venture in the US. They had been selling silicon wafers to computer companies for years and had finally decided that the time had come to build a plant in the US, manufacture the wafers, as well as have a sales office, engineering department – the works.

I was hired to handle the phones and the front desk of the small, crowded office space they were using while the new $450 million dollar plant was being constructed. But my time on the front desk was short. My boss came to me one day and told me he wanted the company to take part in a job fair and he needed someone to take it on as a project and would I be willing to do that. I was thrilled at the opportunity, one to get out from behind the front desk and the phones, two, to be able make the most of my several years of experience in the Public Relations department of GTE to work for me at my new job with Komatsu. They had me hire a replacement for myself on the front desk and I went to work having a brochure designed, organizing space at the job fair and pulling it all together.

It was exciting and fulfilling because they left it totally in my hands, signed off on everything I requested and it was soon organized. The Fair was very successful and so were we and two months later the CEO called me in and offered me a permanent position as assistant to the new President.

Looking back I have to say that other than the job with the Independent Living Project, my job with Komatsu was the best, the most exciting, fun job I’ve ever had. I studied Japanese so I could at least be able to exchange greetings with the many executives and officers from the home office in Japan when they came for business trips and it was my job to help entertain them. We had many Japanese engineers that arrived to help get the plant up and operating and I arranged housing for them all. I helped get their families settled in, find doctors, schools for the children. I planned the parties, meetings, conferences and handled much of the publicity.

One of the lovely things about the company was the fact they hired young and old – I wasn’t the only sixties person, they hired people from many other countries – Russia, China, the US as well as Japan. And everyone seemed to feel the same excitement and enthusiasm at being involved with this new company. I was able to travel, to take classes in various aspects of the business that took me to San Francisco, Atlanta and always a chance to learn, to be involved.

We moved into the new building and it was magnificent! But isn’t it strange how things happen? Three years into this new project there was a big downturn in the Japanese economy and it soon became obvious that we would have to cut back and numerous jobs were eliminated. I managed to survive the first cut, but a little over three years after the exciting beginning, the plant was shut down. A $450 million dollar white elephant!

By that time I was sixty-seven and it was obvious even to me that my working days were about over. It was one of the most difficult times in my life. I wasn’t ready to stop or even slow down, but it was soon apparent that there was – is such a thing as age discrimination whether anyone wants to admit it or not.

But I took a deep breath, rented an apartment in San Miguel de Allende in Mexico and spent a fabulous year nursing my hurts and disappointments in the high desert county south of the border. Two of my kids came down for Christmas that year and we had a fabulous time. I slipped into the 21st century that December 31 and watched the world celebrate the beginning of the year 2000.

I returned to Oregon and settled down to try and make the most of retirement and I have to admit that life is still good – different, but good. It’s all in how you choose to see it.

A Remarkable Centenarian

When I lived in Portland, Oregon I took a water aerobics class at a local pool three days a week. They kept the water very warm – 87 degrees, we had terrific instructors and it gave me a “feel good” feeling knowing that I was doing something that was truly good for me. There were lots of people attending the class some younger and some older than I am, but the most remarkable person I met there was a man by the name of Bill Schultz. He was quite tall, white-haired – a nice looking man, but the thing that amazed me was the fact that, unlike most of us who climbed down the stairs into the pool, Bill dived in and swam the back stroke back and forth across the pool for nearly a half hour. So what is so amazing about that? Bill Schultz turned 100 on August 16 of this year!

But Bill has always dived into life. As a teenager in the 1920s, he taught himself mountain climbing and skiing. He canoed and camped across Canada before vans and jeeps made it convenient. On his 50th wedding anniversary, he and his wife, Rose, bicycled the Northwest Coast. He had met his schoolteacher wife, Rose in a Portland ice cream parlor. They were married for 63 years, until her death in 2001. Bill still takes care of their three acre farm where he raises sheep and collects eggs from his chickens -- most of those he gives to friends at the Harmon Pool.

This past week he celebrated the number 100 by swimming with friends at the Harmon Swim Center in Beaverton, ate some cake and ice cream, then drove his ’68 Mustang home for a backyard barbecue with many well wishers. He has been asked many times what’s his secret for living a long life and his answer is always the same, “Breathe in and breathe out”. Bill is considered a celebrity at the pool where he swims three times a week and is known for a happy-go-lucky, easygoing nature.

Bill was born August 16, 1908, in Prosser, Washington, the year William Howard Taft was elected president, the first Model T Ford rolled off the assembly line and Mother’s Day was observed for the first time. And what is his advice for a long life – ‘eat better, keep a sense of humor’. It would seem to have worked for him, that’s for sure.

I’m happy that I had the chance to meet Bill, he is most definitely a remarkable man and I want to send him my very best wishes for many more years. He is an inspiration to all that know him.

If you would like to see more about Bill, check out the video about him at www.blog.oregonlive.com/multimedia and look for “Life is going swimmingly for Bill Schultz”.