Retirement
Retirement is actually a fairly new concept. Back in 1900 the average lifespan in this country was only about fifty years, so there was little reason to even talk about such a thing. Slowly though, advances in medical technology and new drugs have raised it to nearly eighty today. Against a whole bunch of odds, both my folks passed even that age, an achievement that would have been laughable when they were born in the early twenties.
Then too, until the Industrial Revolution, when so many took jobs outside the family home, there was no reason to retire. To those who lived on family farms, as so many did, life went on as it always had, regardless of your age. You took care of the crops and the animals, and you did what you could to maintain, and sometimes improve, the property as you were able to. As you got older, your knowledge and wisdom became more important than your physical exertions. Then one day, you died and were likely buried in the family burial plot.
Now to the couple I mentioned earlier. I first met them back in the early nineties, at a mall of all places. Uneducated, they lived hard lives, neither ever rising to any heights to speak of. Unlike today, both had only one employer their entire lives. Often, they were forced to work outside in terrible weather, usually without foul weather gear. Sometimes the smells they had to endure would have gagged the proverbial maggot. I dislike saying it, but it's like they spent their whole lives being walked over, rarely getting a break. They've been retired for a couple of months now, but as you can tell by looking at them, they, as much as any couple I've ever known, deserve it.
