Killing It In My Sixties

A few years ago, a group of us women, in – or approaching our sixties, formed to meet on Friday nights during Happy Hour. How it came about: One of the husbands of the women apparently attended a “safety meeting” on a weekly basis with a group of his men friends. This group held a certain degree of mystery – we wondered… did they really discuss safety topics? Were there guest speakers? Were instructional videos shown? These meetings are held in the warehouse at a local hardware store after business hours. The location alone lended some credibility to the concept.

It was sort of an old person’s version of the idea. – that Friday night was either ‘girls or boys night out’. And then Saturday was always ‘date night’, with the couples. It worked back then – so it made sense that this trend resurfaced in our later years. The grown-up version was deemed to be a “Safety Meeting”. So the women in my circle decided to form our own ‘safety group’. Hence, the weekly tradition commenced.

Our first meeting was a very obvious play on the name. We all wore some sort of safety gear; a hard hat, a fluorescent vest, safety goggles, sound-blocking headphones or steel-toed boots. We even pulled a safety cone heist – we had a getaway car ready – staked out said safety cone – threw it in the trunk and headed off to our first official meeting.

We chose a neighborhood watering hole for the first gathering and attracted a fair amount of attention as we held our first official meeting. Topics on the agenda were: cocktails, appetizers, networking with other patrons and planning the location of the next meeting. All very official. We made somewhat of a ‘tour’ that first night – making our way to other establishments to round out the evening.

Over the years, members of the troupe have fluctuated, but our core group has remained loyal to the Friday night ‘safety’ meeting. There are four of us now and the happy hour should probably be, more aptly called an “Early Bird Dinner”. We meet right after work, have a beverage – sometimes two, and all kinds of yummy food. Gone are the pub crawls, the safety gear, and the ‘bar networking”.

The safety topics we talk about now are real: slip hazards in our homes like bathroom rugs, best treatment for our arthritis, how long is the hospital stay for a hip replacement, how is the transition to Medicare, and when is the best time to finally retire? And when we do retire – where will we live, how we will take care of ourselves as we age, and how often we hear from our kids?

We bring our sweaters for when we catch a chill as the sun goes down, we start yawning around 7:30 and talk about how tired and achy we are. But in between – we laugh hysterically, tell each other outrageous stories of our younger days, flirt a bit with the cute waiter or bartender, look at photos of each other’s kids and grandkids, and comfort each other during difficult times.

As we stand up from the table – we all groan a bit – pause to straighten out after sitting for a couple hours, hug each other goodbye and wish everyone a good week. I always drive home with such gratitude for my tribe of women – our “Safety Group” and our weekly ‘meetings’. If you don’t have a safety committee where you live – consider forming your own – it’s free and no permit is needed! And the meetings just may save your life!