Book excerpt: “Roctogenarians” by Mo Rocca and Jonathan Greenberg

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“Roctogenarians: debuts, returns and triumphs at the end of life” (to be published June 11 by Simon & Schuster), a new book by “CBS Sunday Morning” correspondent and “Mobituaries” podcast host Mo Rocca and co-author Jonathan Greenberg, celebrates role models who excelled at a stage in life where society would have made them pack everything in.

Read an excerpt below and Don’t miss Rocca’s report on Roctogenarians on “CBS Sunday Morning” on June 9!

“Roctogenarians” by Mo Rocca and Jonathan Greenberg

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In the summer of 2015, I was in Chicago taping an appearance on the NPR comedy quiz show. Wait, wait… Don’t tell me! At that point, I had been a regular panelist on the show for over a decade, so I was used to all kinds of big-name special guests coming to talk to us. I mean, who could top Dick Van Dyke when he actually sang the little-known lyrics to The Dick Van Dyke Show theme for us? We’ve had presidents, Supreme Court justices, and tech titans answer completely absurd questions. (When then-Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer appeared, host Peter Sagal questioned him about — you guessed it — lip balm.)

But this appearance was different. Instead of recording in the basement auditorium where we had been doing the show for years, this episode was recorded outdoors, in the Pritzker Pavilion at Millennium Park, in front of thousands of fans – thousands of people. young fans, as the special guest was 22-year-old hip-hop star Chance the Rapper. People were screaming. Some were trying go up on stage. As much as I love our NPR audience, they don’t typically show that kind of enthusiasm. Okay, for Neil deGrasse Tyson or Ina Garten they come close. But this was another level of energy.

Chance the Rapper was charming, telling us about pretending to be Michael Jackson at his kindergarten graduation. Virtually every comment he made elicited screams, even when he talked about his grandmother and declared himself a “good kid rapper.” I did my best to play the role of the dorky middle-aged white guy who grew up listening to show tunes, a role that comes naturally to me. (When we talked about his writing process, I mentioned my favorite rhyme of all time, from the musical funny girl: “Boy, my heart ain’t made of marble / But your rhythm is really horrible.”) Chance played ball and the audience seemed to enjoy it.

And then I asked Chance a question I hadn’t seriously intended, at least not consciously: “Could you please explain it to me directly? I’m forty-six years old. Is it too late to become a rapper?” The question itself provoked laughter.

“No, I don’t think so,” Chance replied with a straight face. “Some people might say it’s too early for you to become a rapper.” There was another big laugh and the conversation continued. Peter Sagal would question Chance about “Saran the Wrapper”.

But I was stopped by Chance’s comment. At that moment, I realized that I had already started to think of my life as a life with fewer and fewer opportunities, with doors closing. I had accepted the conventional wisdom that the older I was, the fewer paths were open to me; that aging was just a process of gradual decline in capabilities. Basically, although I hadn’t admitted it even to myself, I saw myself as someone who was over the hill. You see, I was forty six!

But Chance flipped the script for me. Why was I too old to be a rapper? Okay, you’re laughing. And the truth is, my beatboxing isn’t where it needs to be. On the other hand, getting older would only increase the likelihood that I will gain the life experience, wisdom, and skills (FYI, that’s how kids spell it) necessary for meaningful creative expression.

I wouldn’t be able to write this if I had been born fifty years earlier. Men born in the United States in 1919 lived on average to fifty-three years. Considering I’m fifty-five now, I wouldn’t be able to write anything. But in 2024, if you’re in your forties, fifties, or sixties and you’re reasonably healthy, then – to quote one of my favorite lyrics from Bye, bye, little bird– there is so much to live for. (Indeed, Bye, bye, little bird starred the aforementioned Dick Van Dyke, who at the time of this writing is ninety-eight years old and still singing in a barbershop quartet.)

Don’t just take my word for it. According to renowned geriatrician Louise Aronson, author of Aging: Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine, Reimagining Life, “We’ve added a few decades, essentially an entire generation, to our lives, and we still haven’t figured out socioculturally how to deal with it.” Today turning one hundred is not a big deal. The big question is what to do with all this extra time.

Fortunately, there are many models from yesterday – and more and more every day – who stood out in the phase of life when society would have forced them to pack everything. My co-author, Jonathan Greenberg, and I call these individuals Roctogenarians.

Some of the people in this book were unknown before they appeared. Introduction 3 Laura Ingalls Wilder published her first little house book at sixty-five. A nearly bankrupt Harland David Sanders was just a year older when he hit the road with a bucket of seasoning that would help make Colonel Sanders the face of a Kentucky-fried empire. Both were mere girls compared to abstract expressionist artist Carmen Herrera. She was 101 years old when she had her first solo exhibition in a major museum. It took a long time for critics to catch up.

Some emerged early in life and continued to be noticed, peaking in their final chapters – a late-life culmination for a monumental life. Fittingly, architects are well represented in this group. Frank Lloyd Wright submitting his project to the Guggenheim at the age of eighty-four is the ultimate microphone release. Rita Moreno is also in this category. One of Hollywood’s first EGOTs, she is still ninety years old.

Others had unfinished business that needed to be resolved. Brian May was an aspiring astrophysicist when his musical talent led him to go in an entirely different direction – and he became Queen’s superstar guitarist. But he never forgot his first love and at the age of sixty he returned to school to obtain his doctorate in astrophysics. Swimmer Diana Nyad managed to put her dream aside for thirty years. But who was she kidding? She had to swim from Cuba to Florida—and did so at the age of sixty-four.

One thing everyone in this book has in common: the belief that the end of life is not the time to surrender. Perhaps no one sums it up like Mary Church Terrell, who was born just nine months after the Emancipation Proclamation to enslaved parents. As a young woman, Terrell was a leader in the fight against the barbaric practice of lynching. In middle age, she co-founded the NAACP. And at the age of 86 — when her rest was more than deserved — this veteran led protests at a diner in Washington, DC. The ensuing process resulted in the legal desegregation of the nation’s capital.

Terrell was fighting not for herself, but for the future. The same happened with Samuel Whittemore. The seventy-eight-year-old patriot took up arms on the first day of the American Revolutionary War, had his face ripped off by a redcoat… and continued fighting. No retirement for him. Or for Mr. Pickles the turtle, who at ninety became a father for the first time. Seriously, if you have kids at ninety, you can’t retire. Mr. Pickles isn’t the only one to find love late in life. Hello, Carol Channing. The woman famous for playing matchmaker Dolly Levi reconnected with a high school crush and, finally happily married at age eighty-two.

We’re not trying to sugarcoat things here. There are inevitable challenges that come with aging, especially physical ones. The way these challenges are faced makes a fundamental – and inspiring – difference. Henri Matisse was seventy when the ravages of cancer made painting very difficult. But he didn’t stop creating. Instead, he swapped his paintbrush for scissors and began making his famous series of paper cutouts. Describing one of his most exuberant creations on paper, The Parakeet and the MermaidMatisse wrote: “As I am obliged to stay in bed for the sake of my health, I have made a little garden around me where I can walk. the work.”

May you, reader, future Roctogenarian, find yourself in these pages.

Excerpted from “Roctogenarians” by Mo Rocca and Jonathan Greenberg. Copyright © 2024 by Mo Rocca and Jonathan Greenberg. Excerpted with permission from Simon & Schuster, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

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