LET'S TALK It's no fun to act our age at 50-plus

LITTLE ROCK — How does one grow old gracefully?

Guess when you think about it, there's no official cutoff date for the things we're supposed to put away when our youth runs out. Exactly when youth runs out is now a subject of great debate, 50 being the new 30 and so on.

There's also no rule that says when we get older, we don't have the right to make mistakes or exhibit behavior that we normally associate with our more carefree, wild oats-sowing, less enlightened youth.

We've got enough examples of old people behaving badly. They're brawling, defying police, cussing out family members and taking tumbles on TruTV's Most Daring: Senior Smackdown shows. They're hollering back at the president. And looky there: It's Hugh Hefner, who must be at least half Methusaleh's age, still partying with the honeys a few centuries his junior.

Back in the old days, the linesweren't so blurred. I still remember laughing about that back-inthe-long-dresses-days practice of a woman actually wearing a spinster's cap if she made it to the ripe old age of 25 or so without being claimed by some guy as his wife. (Of course those were the days in which your life expectancy was shorter, so you'd best get on with things - including marrying and starting a family as soon as your voice changed or you needed to start bra-shopping.)

Now it's not so easy. Every time I think I'm about to tiptoe quietly into into the night and start living a life ruled by Law & Order reruns and History Channel shows, wearing knee-high hose with skirts and no longer worrying about color-coordinating my wardrobe, something whaps me upside the head.

The next thing I know, the urge hits to don the latestthings in fashion and go somewhere and hang out past 10:30. And at the back of my mind I wonder if, during one of these moments, somebody's going to point and say, "Hey look at that old chick trying to make out like she's young."

Then again, they may not even notice me. There are quite a few folks older than my 47 years who are doing things a lot more daring than strapping on platform gladiator sandals.

One of my favorite commercials is the V8 ad featuring the now 84-year-old celebrity water-skier - Frances Woofenden of West Palm Beach, Fla. - whose age isn't revealed until the end of the commercial. Viewers sure can't tell by her phenomenally youthful figure as the camera shows her slicing through the water at warp speed.

And there are the not-sofamous of the spry senior citizens. Earlier this year my husband and I attended a friend's birthday party in the teemingmetropolis of Rayville in northeast Louisiana. The guy having the best time was a gent who, while obviously on in years, still wanted to and knew how to cut a rug. He spent the whole party doing just that, with as many ladies as would consent to dance with him. We had fun watching him and wishing we had his energy.

Both Frances and our partying friend appeared to have one important thing in common: a lack of care about anyone's disapproval of their display of vim and vigor.

Works for me. For anyone else pondering the issue of when to act "old," the best plan there is to follow is to go with this cliche: You're as young as you feel. Really. No matter how many people may be laughing and pointing. And they may be doing that only in your mind.

Speak up, Sonny! Or just e-mail:

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