During the 60s, some guys escaped the Vietnam War by going to Canada. Some by swearing they were conscientious objectors. And one guy by being very lucky.
Nearly 50 years later he recalls his good fortune: Part w...
Don't Act Your Age podcast
Adventures in Aging, for Boomers and beyond.
Episodes
June 18, 2021 • 21 mins
Meet Socrates G. Cretekos, nicknamed "Odg." It's a miracle this Greek-American from Tarpon Springs, Florida, lived to tell his story, 77 years after landing at Normandy on D-Day. Odg knows it as an eye witness who led and lost men through the landing, then helped free Paris, rescued skeleton-like prisoners at Dachau, and suffered two wounds along the way. He doesn't look like a history-making hero, but he's the kind of guy the book...
Mark as Played
October 14, 2020 • 7 mins
Having a reason to get up in the morning can make life more meaningful, enjoyable — and even add years to that life. It’s one of the secrets for positive aging. There’s even research to prove it. Maybe your reason to bounce out of bed is an energizing hobby. Or the soul enrichment found in volunteering to help others. Or it could be the satisfaction of fulfilling work — like Dan the blacksmith, the seemingly ageless a...
Mark as Played
June 13, 2020 • 26 mins
In the early 70s, busloads of flower children trekked cross- country from Haight-Ashbury to the sticks. With no agricultural experience, they brought nothing but grit and determination to make a go of farming. And the goal of building a utopian refuge of peace and love. True to their communal philosophy, they signed a Vow of Poverty giving up everything they owned for the common good. But instead of b...
Mark as Played
March 15, 2020 • 13 mins
Arm yourself during the virus crisis with a soothing agent to fight fear and frustration. You'll find it on the Unleashing Kindness Facebook group. Launched long before the virus hit by retirees Rich McGuinness and Pat Fiorello, it's a resource and reminder that treating each other with compassion and respect is not only a good habit, it’s free. Rich and Pat join us on this episode to reveal the effec...
Mark as Played
January 4, 2020 • 14 mins
This story starts and ends in Woodstock. A daughter digs into the past to learn about the Mother she barely knew. She discovers a woman named Didi from a wealthy family, who rejected an upscale lifestyle to became a hippie during the 1969 music festival in rural New York. Instead of a trophy husband, two kids and house in the suburbs, the impulsive Didi went on to live a gypsy existence. As they would say in the 60s, relationships ...
Mark as Played
November 14, 2019 • 15 mins
Sitting down with the author of the best seller "Elderhood," we found Dr. Louise Aronson pleasant but with a forceful message. It's about about disrupting stereotypes and demanding fairness from a healthcare system geared to coddle youngsters and help ease adults from their 20s through middle age. In the author's own words, it's for anyone who is "an aging, i.e., still-breathing human being....
Mark as Played
May 22, 2019 • 11 mins
One dictionary defines a gym rat as “someone who spends all leisure time playing sports or working out in a gymnasium or health spa.” The last guy you’d expect to fit that is a 97-year old Holocaust survivor named Ben Heller. But six days a week you’ll find Ben on the treadmill or cranking one of the weight machines at an Atlanta fitness club. Ben has won the respect of millennial club members amazed ...
Mark as Played
December 8, 2018 • 13 mins
“I’m living on borrowed time.” That’s how a former GI describes his incredible luck in surviving the 1968 Tet Offensive, turning point of the Vietnam War. Fifty years later, he and a buddy relive the bloody attack that found them under siege in a house in Hue. His small unit fought a pitched battle against the Viet Cong until forced out by flames. Dodging heavy enemy fire, the two soldiers ran in opposite directions —...
Mark as Played
September 19, 2018 • 10 mins
Receiving a draft notice in the 60s felt like a death sentence. Add a growing resistance to the Vietnam War and it's easy to see why guys 18-to-26, like our friend Bob, looked for any way to avoid induction. His crafty ploy? LSD.
Rumor was that taking it could make you unfit for military service. So with the help of his girlfriend, Bob dove in. Did it work to avo...
Mark as Played
July 3, 2018 • 12 mins
You didn't have to attend high school in a small midwestern town to know a couple like Denny and Karen. They were always together, holding hands and whispering secrets. In the hall before class. After school. At the mall. Everybody knew a graduation ring would soon be followed by an engagement ring.
It all rings true for Karen and Denny — except the last part.
Mark as Played
April 24, 2018 • 11 mins
How are high-mileage Americans outliving the undertaker?
Mark as Played
February 14, 2018 • 16 mins
Most of us remember little or nothing about being 5 years old. Frank Gregor is the exception. He recalls it all too clearly. Far better than he'd like to.
Mark as Played
August 4, 2017 • 18 mins
Ashton Applewhite’s book (“This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Aging”) is a wakeup call for a society obsessed with youth. The stigma of wrinkles. The stereotype of being feeble and forgetful. Ashton believes our worship of everything young creates a caste system where anybody over 50 is marginalized at best and shunned at worst. While you may not agree with everything Ashton says, she...
Mark as Played
June 7, 2017 • 14 mins
Break-ups, shake-ups and couch surfing at 60. Is it too late to rebuild your life when fate knocks you around like a piñata?
Mark as Played
March 25, 2017 • 17 mins
Honk if you didn’t have dreams of getting rich when you were in your 20s and 30s. Well, we know a guy who turned that dream into reality. An Iowa boy from humble beginnings, he became a savvy entrepreneur, and later sold his company for the big bucks. Now in retirement, he’s found that money
Mark as Played
January 1, 2017 • 12 mins
A 60-something woman trying to hold a relationship together. A crisis at 8,000 feet. A certain...eh, bodily fluid. Dealing with loss without losing your mind. It's like a whole season of a TV drama in one short and sweet episode.
Mark as Played
August 31, 2016 • 13 mins
Lessons learned the hard way about what’s truly important, whether you’re 25 or 75. Listen as Hospice patients look back with the perspective only someone at the end can see clearly. Even their regrets can teach us how to live with purpose and dignity.
Mark as Played
July 5, 2016 • 11 mins
Ebola. Even though it's no longer a scary headline doesn't mean that it's gone. But why in hell would a comfortably retired Granddad go looking for it?
Mark as Played
March 19, 2016 • 9 mins
Vampires, werewolves and Godzilla gave you a chance to cuddle with your sweetie at the drive-in movies. But they couldn't compare with the scare of those gory training films your friends dared you to see in Driver's Ed. class.
Mark as Played
March 19, 2016 • 7 mins
Mark as Played
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