Talking 'bout my generation

And so it begins. Starting Saturday, and continuing every day for nigh on two decades, the country's largest generation hits an age that it has been approaching with dread, disdain and maybe even denial.

Finally and irreversibly, the first baby boomers are turning 65.

Over the next 19 years, 77 million Americans are slated to reach a milestone that has enormous implications. And if two of the Minnesotans who will celebrate the big 6-5 New Year's Day are any indication, the 1.4 million boomers in the state will meet that milestone with widely different mindsets.

"Right now I'm kind of pessimistic," said Charmaine Stillwell of Bloomington. "I thought up until this time that the 30th birthday was the worst. Now I kind of feel like it's the last chapter."

Not so for White Bear Lake's Paul Burgio, who, like Stillwell, was born on Jan. 1, 1946.

"I don't feel like I'm turning 65," he said. "The only thing I do differently is that I probably take a slower cup of coffee in the morning. Other than that my life is much the same. So turning 65 is not a magic number."

What's more, even though it is the traditional retirement age, boomers don't consider 65 "old." According to a recent Pew Research Center survey, the typical boomer said old age begins at 72.

"I went to the places people normally retire," he said. "All of these places were just wonderful. Some people like to play golf or tennis or do crossword puzzles. Commercializing technology, that's what I like to do. These are just really nice places to live, but what is Paul gonna do here? I decided 'I'm not ready to live in the beautiful cities of the Southwest.'"

He returned to the Twin Cities and "put my two feet into building my private enterprise." He now works six days a week commercializing technology and inventions, both on private business projects and as a team leader at the University of Minnesota's Office for Technology Commercialization.

"Ultimately what people want is to feel that their dreams are being fulfilled," he said. "There comes a time when you can live them more fully because you have the freedom to do it instead of working 40, 50 hours a week for someone else."

Stillwell, too, is experiencing that freedom. After working for years in medical records and raising three children, the empty-nester has become an animal activist and takes part in four bridge clubs and several other ladies' conclaves.

But, unlike many of her peers, she's not fighting the aging process. "I know a lot of women who don't want anyone to know how old they are, so they get lots of cosmetic procedures, go to the gym all the time," she said. "At some point you need to just give up. ... When I was growing up, all my aunts had gray hair and all the people were so jolly."

For much of their lives, boomers have taken upward mobility for granted. But they're coming into retirement age at a less-than-ideal time economically. Many saw their retirement funds take a major hit in recent years, which means that a lot of them may hold on to jobs, said state demographer Tom Gillaspy.

And with so many boomers retiring and/or becoming eligible for Social Security and Medicare, "we're entering the age of entitlements," said Gillaspy. In Minnesota, there are now five workers for every retiree. At the end of this decade that ratio will be 4-to-1, and in 2030 it will be 3-to-1.

The sheer number of boomers already is affecting the economy in another way, Gillaspy said.

"In a typical stimulus, the government would put more money in the pockets of consumers and they'd spend it," he said. "Now a lot of it is in the pockets of consumers who are a lot older, and instead of spending, they're putting it in savings or retirement programs that they need to build back up, and that slows down the rate of recovery."

That makes for a far different climate than when boomers first entered the workforce, Stillwell noted.

Stillwell, for one, is concerned about her children's generation -- and critical of her own.

"Our generation has been very me-oriented," she said. "We've done very well in acquiring wealth and material things, but I think we've lost some things. We've lost our compassion and some of our values. ... I think we can change, but our kids are going to have to solve a lot of it."

Burgio acknowledged that the future could be daunting -- "there are so many cracks in our foundation" -- but gives his generation a better grade.

"The people that did a lot of bad things, taking so much money, they're a minority, a speck," he said. "When you look at it overall, people in their 50s and 60s have lived much of their dream. I think they have tried to do good. They've done a lot to broaden our view of life on this planet as not just the United States, it's the world. ... How they started out is maybe not how they wound up, and maybe that's a good thing."

Thanks to advancements in medicine, it's likely that the boomers will be around for a good while -- and maintain their "think young" mentality.

Easy for him to say. He's only 63.

Bill Ward • 612-673-7643