Tuesday, October 19, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

BABY BOOMERS: Changing the Face of Aging

Exhibit hall at AARP expo shows getting older doesn't mean slowing down

Gloria Decker, from left, Betty Ryan and Jan May watch as Kazue Kendrick shows them how to make paper designs at the Yokoso! Japan travel booth at the AARP convention. Janie Cummins gets her ears examined by Jerry Clements of the Deafness Research Foundation at the AARP convention at the Sands Expo and Convention Center last week. Robert Butts emerges from a giant colon display at the AARP convention. PHOTOS BY RONDA CHURCHILL/REVIEW-JOURNAL

Sure, some of the exhibitors who set up shop at last week's AARP National Event & Expo were exactly what you'd expect at a gathering of Americans age 50 and older.

Scooter makers and companies that touted easily accessible, wheelchair-friendly vehicles. Health insurance companies and providers of all sorts of financial and retirement services. Makers of pain medications and blood glucose monitors.

But the exhibit hall of Life@50+ also offered ample evidence the road to retirement might be more active and more fun-filled than you may have thought.

The fourth annual AARP National Event & Expo ran Thursday through Saturday at the Sands Expo and Convention Center. And while most of the media coverage of the event came with Thursday's appearances by first lady Laura Bush and Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry, the gathering offered a window into just what today's older Americans are all about.

You might know the AARP better by its former name, the American Association of Retired Persons. It's a fitting name change, too, because people now may join at age 50, long before they clock out after that final day at work.

Given that, it's not surprising the expo's exhibit hall offered evidence baby boomers -- members of that pig-in-a-python demographic born between 1946 and 1964 -- are making their presence felt in the AARP.

Take the Good Life TV Network, a boomer-oriented network making its first appearance at an AARP event.

Boomers are "our target audience," said Gaye Dyer, director of marketing for the network, which features original programming aimed at boomers and reruns of such boomer-era classics as "I Spy," "Hawaiian Eye," "Maverick" and both "The Man ... "and "The Girl ..." from U.N.C.L.E.

What better incentive to lure boomers to the booth -- and, Dyer hopes, call local cable and dish operators to carry the network -- than to have a drawing for an actual ticket to Woodstock and a replica handbill signed by Country Joe McDonald of Country Joe & the Fish?

"I said to my boss, `Who's Country Joe McDonald?' " Dyer admitted. "He goes, `I cannot believe you don't know who Country Joe is.' "

Dyer -- who can't join the AARP for six more years -- did note the broad mix of expo attendees.

"Some people know Woodstock," she said, "and others say, `I'm not a boomer, but I have children who are boomers.' "

What are older Americans into? Computers, certainly, and Earthlink and America Online Internet services both came to the expo. So did Gateway computers, which offered both daily computer classes and a large bank of computers that attendees happily descended upon.

Seniors are "a huge market" for the company, said Adam Hoskins, a Gateway sales manager.

Older Americans -- particularly those who live far away from their children and grandchildren -- are among the most avid e-mailers, digital photographers and Web surfers around, he said. "And eBay, that's another big one."

Some older Americans also use their computers to find potential significant others. Eharmony.com, the online dating service, made its charter appearance at last week's event, said spokesman Joe Zink.

Zink said a significant percentage of the service's 5 million users are seniors who are going online to find love again after divorce or the death of a spouse.

"It's just such a safe way to get back into dating," he said.

Older Americans are adventurous, wandering souls, too, so tourism representatives at the expo heralded the wonders of vacation spots from Texas to Ireland, not to mention the wonders of Amtrak, Hawaiian condos and Mexican retirement villas.

Carolyn Bettes of the Alaska Travel Industry Association said AARP members are a prime market for the travel industry.

"When you look at the different pieces that come together to say `Who is our visitor?' it's the AARP," she said. "You can see the AARP is (made up of) very energetic, youthful, interested, educated people, and those are the people who are coming to Alaska."

Granted, the less-fun effects of aging weren't ignored at the expo. AARP members could, for instance, receive free hearing and osteoporosis screenings and learn about medical alert systems, pain medications and conditions ranging from depression to weak bladders.

Visitors also could saunter through an inflatable colon -- don't hit your head on the basketball-sized polyp -- as a vivid, and certainly memorable, means of learning about colorectal cancer.

The exhibit by the Cancer Research and Prevention Foundation is on a 13-city national tour, and also focuses on skin, lung, oral, prostate and breast cancer.

Foundation spokeswoman Anne Banner said the emphasis is "on cancers that are either preventable or, when found early, are treatable."

Thursday, in a bit of only-in-Vegas surrealism, an Elvis Presley impersonator could be seen posing for a photo at the colon's tail-end. The punch line is yours.

Actually, Banner said, Elvis "doesn't stay with this exhibit. They were just taking a picture."

But, she added, "I wish we did have him. He'd do a good job."

Meanwhile, Dan DePasquale offered aging boomers his company's FashNStix, a women's walking stick/cane made in 10 stylish colors.

The sticks are made of the same carbon-fiber material found in golf clubs and topped with a stainless steel head that resembles a jewel-eyed lady bug.

"What we found in all our research is that most people don't want to use a cane because it makes them look old," he said.

DePasquale said more than 100 FashNStix have been sold over the Internet during the past four months. Two sticks and a handle run $99.95, and DePasquale expects the item will be popular among boomers.

Actually, the event's attitude toward aging was set during its opening hours, when -- between Laura Bush's and John Kerry's appearances -- poet-author Maya Angelou read pieces that poked fun at both the rewards and the tribulations of getting older.

Later that day, Jerry Lewis spoke to a standing room-only crowd in a presentation that mixed classic film clips in among his remarks.

The Las Vegas-based actor-comedian-director said he decided to speak to the attendees about "the human condition, and laughter and healing, and the importance of sharing your laughter, and that if you have a life without it, you don't have a life."

Before his presentation, Lewis was asked why he chose to accept the AARP's invitation to speak.

"Thirty-five million people," he answered, referring to the group's membership. "It's a very strong force in this country."

Besides, Lewis added, "the wonderful thing is, this group grew up with me. So it's not like you have to walk out there and introduce yourself."