Retired Folks hanging out at the Shopping Mall and the Library seem sad!

[Forced to Retire]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ronin Maybe you could try striking up a conversation on occasion and finding out more about others. Might make some new friends. Find out what they were thinking about you.

I have tried and they looked at me like I had two heads.

I suspect many of them are bored and have lost their social skills being out fo the work force can do that to you. I miss the great conversations I used to have with my coworkers around the water cooler and copy machine!

[Walt34]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Forced to Retire I suspect many of them are bored and have lost their social skills being out fo the work force can do that to you. I miss the great conversations I used to have with my coworkers around the water cooler and copy machine!

You will adjust. Resistance is futile....

Really, retirement is a good thing. I had to adjust to leaving a fast-paced high energy job too, but six months later my sister said she hadn't seen us looking so relaxed in years. If there were any lingering doubts that retirement was the right decision that erased them right there.

[2017ish]

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Originally Posted by bclover LOL, I think I'll go to the Library and check out this book. never did read it.

Or, it's public domain and available on Gutenberg.org in e-reader formats and audio: Books: connecticut yankee (sorted by popularity) - Project Gutenberg

(I love Gutenberg--both US and Australia)

[ER Eddie]

Quote:

Originally Posted by aggie76 Several years ago I saw a article ( with pics) about " old sad grumpy mean"....old facial expressions. It showed a bunch of pics and medical diagrams and such to help make a point that the sad or grumpy or mean looks that so many old people ahem is actually nothing more than a natural physiological change in our appearance. To boil down a bunch of med-o-babble its simply that our facial muscles start to fail just like ALL human muscles age. The natural relaxed facial expression for most of us is a rather downturned mouth. A smile takes a conscious use of the muscles. As we age our skin sags and the muscles relax resulting in that old man frown. Do NOT equate the so-called SAD and pathetic faces you see in the malls or the library for their state of mind.

Ah, good point. Origin of the grumpy old man stereotype, maybe.

[InTheSticks]

I found myself reading birthday cards at Walmart today. Does that make me a sad retiree?

[aja8888]

Quote:

Originally Posted by HFWR Sounds like a real moneymaker...

It was...Tommy cashed out his ownership during the sale to Baker Hughes.

Quote:

BJ Services Company was an oil and gas equipment and services company that is now a subsidiary of Baker Hughes. It was founded in 1872 as the Byron Jackson Company by inventor Byron Jackson and at its peak operated in more than 50 countries worldwide. The link below from fundinguniverse.com tells how BJ was acquired by Hughes Tool and then became independent when Baker Tool bought Hughes and was recently acquired by Baker-Hughes. BJ Services Company is a leading worldwide provider of pressure pumping and oilfield services for the petroleum industry. Pressure pumping services consist of cementing and stimulation services used in the completion of new oil and natural gas wells and in remedial work on existing wells, both onshore and offshore. Oilfield services include completion tools, completion fluids, casing and tubular services, production chemical services, and precommissioning, maintenance and turnaround services in the pipeline and process business, including pipeline inspection. On April 28, 2010, the company was bought by Baker Hughes in a $5.5 billion stock and cash deal. Greenhill & Co. advised on the transaction.[1]

[omni550]

Forced To Retire,

I've joined a bunch of meetup.com groups which has put me in contact with people who hike, do yoga, ballroom dance, travel, attend theater, go to major league ballgames, dine out, go kayaking, play trivia weekly at a local bar, etc. Some folks are still working and others are retired. No one I've met via meetup.com is sitting around with RBF.

I'd suggest checking out meetup groups in your neck of the woods. Plus, if you decide to move, it's a quick and easy way to meet some locals with common interests.

omni

[Idnar7]

Here in MN malls are prized for being a safe, warm, ice-free area to walk in the winter. They open the malls 3 or 4 hours before the stores to accommodate walkers. My SIL's mother, who worked in a dept store in the mall into her 70's, has walked there 3 or 4 days a week for over 10 years. During those years she had a couple knee replacements, lost her husband, and had to move from the family home to a town house. She still goes because that is her morning community. People come and go, move, die, etc. It carries on with whomever is still there. They are not bothering anybody, making a mess, or in anyway being disruptive. They are generally gone long before the shoppers start to arrive. The alternative would seem to be staying indoors and not getting any exercise or social time. I wouldn't possibly begrudge them their community. We lived here 13 years before I went to our local library which is only a mile away. I went one winter day when the wife was driving me crazy and I needed to get away. I now go there often to read different news papers, Consumer Reports, browse books, rent movies, and just people watch. It is a nice library in an arboretum setting and just a hospitable welcoming place. Maybe others look at me and feel sad for me. Well I just turn the page. I do a lot of our grocery shopping because I like to go out around people. I do notice I enjoy after the school year when the stores are more populated by my peers. Things just move a little slower and people are generally more friendly. Sorry to ruin the OP's vision of us.

[dixonge]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Forced to Retire I miss the great conversations I used to have with my coworkers around the water cooler and copy machine!

OK, now I feel like we're being trolled LOL

[gauss]

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Originally Posted by Options If you're in Lost Angeles, you might see one like myself not amused wondering why time and again in a library some woman finds it necessary to talk to her kid at the top of her lungs as if she were auditioning for something, why someone else is talking loudly on their cell phone as if "all the world's a stage" (spilling over into everyone else's space in the process), or why even the librarians are joking as if they were in a bar during happy hour.

+100

Cell phone use might get you asked to step outside at our library but nobody confronts the parents with children who together are behaving inappropriately (running, outside voices etc).

[Choices]

I was an actor in community theatre for lotsa years and I love to people watch at shopping malls! I would probably spend more time lurking at the grocery store but my ice cream would melt!
I like the idea of the meet- up groups and will try that when we move next year.
OP, why don't you volunteer somewhere? It could help keep your skills sharp and develop new ones and you might meet some fun people.

[Chuckanut]

Obviously, all the the people who have replied are in denial of their misery.

[purplesky]

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Originally Posted by Forced to Retire Since I was forced to retire due to an employment termination and lack of job opportunities for folks like me, I have been out and about visiting places I never spent any time in when I was working 12 hours a day. Two of those places is the library and the large regional shopping center near my home. At the mall there is always the same tired old group of senior citizens sitting in the middle area waiting for the day to end. (Killing time). They look so miserable and for some reason are not open to socializing with me or each other. At the library, there is also a sad looking group of folks hanging out next to the newspapers and magazines. Libraries can be great if they are a once in a while activity, not someplace to go every day just to kill time. As I sit in the mall, and look at these sad people I wonder what they may have been in their working life before society and the corporate employers sent them packing. Maybe a bank Vice President, A Lawyer, a Public Relations Executive, a HR Manager. Who knows. But this week they are just killing time.

These people are just hiding from their adult children who still live at home.

[Nemo2]

Another song that this thread reminded me of, from Winnipeg, Manitoba, in the 1970s

"You get up every morning
From your alarm clock's warning
Take the 8:15 into the city
There's a whistle up above
And people pushin', people shovin'
And the girls who try to look pretty
And if your train's on time
You can get to work by nine
And start your slaving job to get your pay
If you ever get annoyed
Look at me I'm self-employed
I love to work at nothing all day"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dSzaScsWh4

[kcowan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ronin Find out what they were thinking about you.

What other people think of me is none of my business!

[kcowan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nemo2 If you ever get annoyed Look at me I'm self-employed I love to work at nothing all day"

In my career, I held 17 different positions under 29 bosses. Of those 29 bosses, there were only 2 that were a-holes. But #30 was the toughest. That would be me!

[Amethyst]

No, they just don't see anything about you (a stranger) that interests them. People don't welcome approaches from strangers in malls and similar places.
As a rule, strangers who come up to you and start talking are after something.

Possibly, if you were young and attractive, they'd talk to you because that would constitute a form of entertainment.

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Originally Posted by Forced to Retire I have tried and they looked at me like I had two heads. I suspect many of them are bored and have lost their social skills !

[ExFlyBoy5]

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Originally Posted by dixonge OK, now I feel like we're being trolled LOL

You're not kidding. Some of the best conversations I have had over the years were with co-w*rkers and sometimes, they were even fun. Do I miss it though? Uh...yeah, no. Actually...hell no.

I love Office Space. A cult classic to be sure. Here's a clip about having a lot of bosses.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwlZQJyKZ2A

[Major Tom]

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Originally Posted by FI by 2024 +1 Personally, spending time at the library everyday sounds AWESOME to me. But I definitely suffer from RBF

RBF = Resting Book Face?

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Originally Posted by W2R +1 I think Ha nailed it.

Me too. Instead of looking for ways that things could go wrong, or accepting at face value information that doesn't help you (your management office telling you there is no way you can break your lease, for example, which is a load of old hooey), it is always better to take your situation in life, whatever that may be, and look for ways to make the best of what you have.

Time to begin doing that

[jim584672]

The OP can join a Pickelball league.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmYF67dqNaQ