The Class of ’65 turns 65 [The Press Democrat, Santa Rosa, Calif.]

April 08--They were coming of age "on the fringe of a golden era," as Time magazine declared in a 1965 cover story.

Compared to generations before, who fought in world wars, toiled in fields and factories, survived the Great Depression and had to take on grown-up responsibilities by the age of 12, the teenagers of the mid-1960s were pampered, protected, privileged and forever young. Or so it seemed.

Members of the high school graduating classes of 1965 turn 65 this year. They weren't dubbed baby boomers until the label was coined in 1980, but they did start life on the cusp of a cataclysmic social and cultural revolution. Now those rebels with a thousand causes are facing traditional retirement age and signing up for Medicare, which became law in 1965 and provides health insurance coverage for those age 65 and up.

At the same time, they're taking on new challenges and delaying retirement -- some out of economic necessity, others just determined to stay relevant and in the game.

The Class of '65 is celebrating 65th birthdays at a rate of more than 7,000 a day. The cohort includes GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, rocker Sammy Hagar and late-night TV talk-show host David Letterman.

It also includes Loretta Castleberry, an Analy High School songleader who is still married to her teen squeeze Chip Castleberry, captain of the football team. Chip taught, coached and served as athletic director of their alma mater. Now they head up an extended group of 1965 Analy alums who gather on Facebook and their own Web page to share life news, mourn lost classmates and offer best wishes to each new entry into the 65 Club. They're planning a party this year to mark the transition.

"We still have a lot to offer. We talk about that. Our grandparents were always old. We don't feel like we're old," said Loretta Castleberry, who retired from teaching in 2009 and stays fit at The Coach's Corner in Sebastopol, which Chip opened in 1983.

This leading edge of the 79 million-member baby-boom generation is dramatically redefining the "golden years" from a time of bridge games, fraternal clubs and cruises to distance cycling, Pilates, encore careers and active-volunteer vacations, said Christina Clem, a spokeswoman for AARP.

Old age starts at 72

The generation that didn't trust anyone over 30, that graduated the year Mary Quant introduced the miniskirt and the Grateful Dead played their first San Francisco concert, seems determined to delay their dotage. The typical boomer believes old age starts at 72 -- two years older than the life expectancy in 1965 -- with 61 percent saying they feel nine years younger, according to the Pew Research Center.

"That was a rude reality, getting that (Medicare) card and using it. I don't think of us as 65. We're in denial," admitted Glen Ellen vintner Bruce Cohn, who lived on a goat dairy in Forestville before graduating from San Francisco'sLincoln High School in 1965. He dove into the city's exploding music scene of the late 1960s, where he met the Doobie Brothers and became their lifelong manager.

Cohn feels lucky to have come of age in such an intense time.

"For me, 65 doesn't really signal anything other than maybe I better get the bucket list out and get going," he said, "because you do think about how many years of good health are left."

It's a common attitude among his peers.

"We baby boomers don't retire. We just invent something else wonderful to do," said Donna Fisher Pittman of Santa Rosa, a retired west county teacher and principal, and 1965 Analy High graduate. "Our generation experienced life while also analyzing where we stand in the culture or in history. We play it back. We're very interested in ourselves as a movement.

"We must have invented being 65," she said with a laugh. "I'm quite sure we did."

Susan Hillier, 65, a psychology professor and head of the gerontology program at Sonoma State University, said today's 65-year-olds won't let their age define them and are committed to doing what they want to do as long as possible.

"This is a healthier generation," the Petaluma resident said. "There is more focus on remaining physically healthy. You go to yoga and the gym. Part of that is a sense of personal ability, that I can stay healthy and not be decrepit if I take action."

The Class of '65 was born in the post-war optimism of 1946-47. Raised on TV and Top 40 radio, they were courted by the ad agencies of Madison Avenue as they spent billions every year on entertainment, clothes, cosmetics and record albums.

Times of turbulence

But the innocence of their 1950s upbringing was shaken in 1963, when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Within months of graduation, race riots broke out in Los Angeles and the Vietnam War escalated. Their orderly world came unhinged, morphing into civil-rights riots, anti-war demonstrations, assassinations, campus unrest, women's lib, sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll.

Time magazine in 1965 wrongly predicted that the "classic conflict between parent and children is letting up," completely missing the massive generation gap that was just beginning to crack open.

Writer David Wallechinsky, son of author Irving Wallace, was so miffed by how Time mischaracterized his Palisades High School class in that article that he and his buddy Michael Medved 10 years later wrote a book entitled, "What Really Happened to The Class of '65." It was later turned into a TV show, immortalizing the Class of '65 as emblematic of the '60s generation.

The book recounted the multiplicity of life paths taken by members of Wallechinsky's upscale Southern California high school class, few of whom thought they or their generation were going to change the world when they accepted their diplomas.

"My parent's generation didn't plan the Depression or World War II, but they were born into it. They didn't have a choice," said Wallechinsky, who dropped out of San Francisco State University, organized anti-war demonstrations and was arrested at the 1972 Republican convention in Miami before settling into a writer's life in Santa Monica. "We were born into a different situation. We males were told to go to a war that another generation planned for us."

David Hinkley of Sonoma, who was profiled as "The Maverick" in Wallechinsky's follow-up book, "Mid-Term Report" in 1985, characterized his generation as more divided than people recognize.

"I came from Iowa and grew up in California. I have seen some of both worlds," said Hinkley, who joined the ROTC at UC Berkeley after graduating from Bellarmine College Prep School in San Jose in 1965. He eventually quit and joined the anti-war movement and student strikes at San Francisco State, and wound up fighting for human rights as western regional director and chairman of the board of the human rights organization Amnesty International. For a decade, he directed social justice and homeless programs for Catholic Charities in Sonoma County.

"Ours was a generation with great privilege and great expectations," he said. "We were the first students in American history to lead a movement. In the past it was labor and intellectuals and political figures. But we were at the vanguard for change."

At 65, the father of five remains engaged, working on a movie about the life of Sudanese Muslim reformer Mahmoud Mohamed Taha.

A 2011 survey by AARP of "Boomers Turning 65" found that 78 percent felt "largely satisfied" with their lives and 7 in 10 felt they had achieved most of their life goals. Yet only 40 percent felt they were where they had hoped to be financially at 65.

Retirement delayed

Karol Ruderman, who graduated from Taft High School in the San Fernando Valley and who turns 65 in July, said she and her husband, Barry, have a septic installation business. But a plummeting economy forced the Santa Rosa couple to put off retirement and travel.

"Our investments are worth half of what they used to be. Our house is worth half of what it used to be," she said. "We're struggling with that now and some of our friends are in the same boat. But even with those who aren't having the economic issues, we're all talking about being 65, Medicare, medical problems and aches and pains. We have friends we've had since 1965 and yet we all are kind of the same people."

United Airlines flight attendant Sylvie Anne Moore, Santa Rosa High School Class of '65, earned her Pan Am wings in 1970. But she's facing five more years in the air, thanks to the 2008 stock crash. From her home base in Santa Rosa, she scuba dives and hikes all over the world, belly dances and does everything to stay healthy in order to keep up the pace of international flying.

"I'm going to stay sharp," she said. "I'll take up jazz or classical piano and still continue to work on my Chinese and Japanese."

Some 88 percent of boomers say they don't plan to retire at 65, said Matt Thornhill of the Boomer Project, a marketing firm that consults for AARP, Lowe's department store and other major companies.

"It's part of our generational DNA that through work we have defined ourselves," he said. "But we're reaching that state that what is more important is not necessarily to acquire more stuff, but to have better and richer experiences."

Santa Rosa attorney Peter Axelrod was part of that Palisades High School Class of '65 that Time wrote about with such glowing expectation. He's still working half time, is building a house in France, cycles when his knee behaves and plans to write fiction.

"I don't want to say the world was our oyster, but we felt there was a lot to see and do and learn," he said, reflecting on his youth. "There were a lot of new ideas. We were testing the norms and going places where generations hadn't gone before.

"It was exciting and we thought it was a dynamic time. But looking back," he said with a chuckle, "it seems a lot tamer than it did back then."

You can reach Staff Writer Meg McConahey at [email protected] or 521-5204.

___

(c)2012 The Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, Calif.)

Visit The Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, Calif.) at www.pressdemocrat.com

Distributed by MCT Information Services