At That In-Between Stage

Remember as a teenager when you weren't supposed to behave like a kid anymore but weren't yet treated as an adult? One day you're told that it's time to put away the Bosco. The next day your request for coffee is denied because you're not old enough. Yet, once you reach 18 the child/adult confusion ends. At 18 the law says you're an adult.

Now as a fledgling 60-something I'm at that in-between stage all over again -- this time without the zits and far less angst. Here we are, millions of Baby Boomers, no longer young but not yet ready or willing to be labelled a senior.

There isn't a year when one legally becomes a senior. AARP reels you into the fold kicking and screaming when you're facing the big 5-0. Movie theaters give discounts at 62 or 65. Well, those are officially stated ages and it's probably not a good example. Usually the kids selling tickets should be home studying for SATs and to them anyone with so much as a strand of gray looks old enough for a discount.

I went to a step class recently and was determined to keep up. I haven't felt so much knee pain since high school. That's when Sister Agathona made me kneel in the corner after she caught me rolling my uniform skirt higher than the mandated, good-girl level. Alright so I overdid it in the step class. I tried an exercise class geared to seniors thinking it was more my speed. While my knees were pain free, I barely broke a sweat. That in-between stage rears its head again.

That certainly is middle age I see in the rear view mirror, but at 61 I'm just barely reaching late afternoon, not the sunset years.

So who are we 60-something Boomers? Fogies? Elderly? Geezers? Gammers (definitely one of my favorite, albeit somewhat obscure, words to use when 'geezer' just won't do)?

Can you honestly use any of these adjectives to describe Mick Jagger, Paul McCartney, Hillary Clinton, Dave Barry, Mikail Baryshnikov or the majority of we 60-ish folk?

We need to coin a new word for we ageing Boomers. One that will carry us through these in-between years -- or at least til we're ready to answer to senior.

Any ideas?