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Fresh meat

I overheard somebody say this today: “we really need more energetic, younger people to join — people in their 50s and 60s.”

Amazingly, it was not being said about me nor by my employer. But I am in that magic demographic and I’m beginning to understand why my new boss was so chuffed to find me. For I am younger and energetic.

This is a county full of ancient things. It’s a great source of both scholarship and tourism, and hence our biggest moneymaker (next to sheep, of course). And the tending of ancient things is mostly done by ancient people. The local scene is run by a sort of geriocracy, people in their seventies and eighties. For the most part retired and, for the most part, volunteers.

Vital to this lifecycle is pulling in younger people and training them to take your place before you fall off the perch. It’s like a whole ecosystem. It’s the Circle of Life, Golden Years Division.

Docents in the museums. Guides in the National Trust houses. Local history researchers and writers. You mostly have to be of a certain age to be into those things, and you mostly have to be retired to have time to do them. And you mostly have to have a decent pension to afford to do them as a volunteer.

I’m not a volunteer, but I reckon I get paid one hour in three. And I’m what passes for a kid in this world. It’s kind of nice to be in the apprentice class again.

Oh, the picture? No idea. I did a Google images search of “old ladies” and those four Victorian dames brandishing bananas was on the first page.

January 28, 2015 — 11:22 pm
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