Race to the Finish Line: Social Dynamics in Retirement Communities

The majority of America’s baby boomers as well as the silent generation are now seniors. Will we live our last years as gloriously as we lived our younger ones? We bounced through economic booms with panache, accumulating more and more symbols of the great life and realized our dreams with triumph. Our parents, most of whom, were born during the Great Depression or WWII had every hope that our blessed generation could enjoy success beyond their wildest dreams. And they did. Narcissism among our generation was fueled by parents who knew their progeny would advance farther than they could.

Explosions of education and frenetic activity happily coalesce from feelings of entitlement for getting it all in. For many of us, retirement has become one big return to hedonism.

We establish retirement communities and nursing homes and assisted living facilities where we ruminate with our contemporaries and recharge as best we can. This book explores factors that define our generation’s approach to aging, dissects the characteristics of some of our retirement communities, and offers observations and insights that may be amusing, identifying, or useful.