Getting old?

   Now that we are getting old-er, our family reunions, which we manage to arrange, usually for some family celebration a couple of times a year, become increasingly meaningful.  As we become older, the younger members of the family and some of the older ones too, insist that we, the siblings and spouses, are looking unbelievably young for our ages, and I guess that most other families have a similar tall story. 
   Talking to my brother on the phone the other night, we remarked on the phenomenon and reflecting on the appearances of many of the people who looked incredibly old to us in our youth, we decided that there is more to it than just the fact that we were the young looking at the old.
   "Well, what do you think accounts for people looking comparatively younger today?" I asked, "Better nutrition?" I added helpfully.
    "I thought Dad looked old when he was fifty," he said. "I remember him on the beach in a three piece suit."  That meant wearing what Americans call a vest and we used to call a waistcoat, in the old country.
   "Yes, " I agreed, "I remember him with his jacket off and his waistcoat unbuttoned on the beach on a nice hot summer's day at Malahide Beech. And it certainly wasn't modesty.  He was a strong swimmer and would go for a lengthy swim, to Malahide Island, which was a good mile of a swim.  Once he got back and dried himself off, he got back into his three piece suit again.  In fact, I have archival  photos in which the younger men and women were sitting on the beach dressed just as they dressed every day."
   "I think the clothes played a major role in making them look older.  I think when you see an old guy in a pair of jeans and no tie, just an open necked sports shirt, it does make him look younger."
   "I certainly couldn't imagine our grandfather in anything but a suit and tie, usually dark gray, even when he was sitting in the house doing nothing".  
    However, not all that long ago I couldn't imagine young women all dressed up to go out in something that looks strangely like my grandfather's winter underwear!  But then, not so long ago if one of my family medicine residents came into the office in a grubby pair of jeans, looking as though he hadn't shaved for three days and without a tie, he heard all about the dress code of our department and was told not to show up like that again.  In fact, their orientation stressed that they were expected to look professional. Those expectations no longer exist and would be considered an intrusion on personal freedom of expression.  The erosion of those basic standards is just one more minor sign of our decline.
   Despite the above comments, on perusing some of my archival photos, I think people do look younger, and not all due to botox and plastic surgery.  Nutrition, major scientific advances in health care, easier life styles, less worry, less poverty, better education all play a part.  Last, but not least so do clothes and some of the crazy and unattractive styles.
   Personally, I owe my youthful appearance mostly to my failure to mature over the years.