It’s easy to be irritated with the New York Times “Booming” section, or subdomain, or whatever we are supposed to call it. Like many features aimed at Baby Boomers, it seems to slide easily into the morbid. There are upbeat stories, certainly (like a recent slideshow on attractive women who have decided not to dye away the gray). And you can’t fault a newspaper for drifting into the bleaker side of older age given what the economy has done to many of those approaching what was supposed to be retirement age.
Also, it is what newspapers do. No crisis, no story, no one buys the paper.
So now that we’ve established that the section is a reliable downer, we’d like to draw your attention to a story we like. “Answers for the Wandering Boomer” gives some reasonable advice about undertaking out-of-the-ordinary trips and does a good job of walking the line between sucks-to-be-us self-pity and insufferable you-can-do-it cheerleading.
Such as: If you’re working with a tour operator, let them know if you’ve had a hip replacement. If drugs can upset your stomach, check out this CDC website for tips on a malaria prophylaxis. If you’re afraid of heights, maybe don’t ride that camel. Nothing here that qualifies as startling insight—but the tone suggests that yes, people still get to do some pretty interesting things, despite the limitations of age.
If you’re a Boomer, this won’t be the last you hear from the travel industry. Tour operators and hoteliers and virtually all the other industry players see Boomers as the age group with the time, money, and curiosity to hit the road. That’s not true for all 70 million, but for a good-sized subset it is.
Photo: A senior couple traveling in a motorcycle with sidecar. New Zealand, 2006, by Jorge Royan. Via Wikimedia Commons.
