Kilpatrick tells ‘How to Be an Old Guy’

  In his introduction to “How to Be an Old Guy: Dispatches from the Retiree Front,” Bill Kilpatrick quotes none other than Leon Trotsky: “Old age is the most unexpected of all things that can happen to a man.”
  “Were the old Bolshevik still among those present,” Kilpatrick continues, "I could assure him that, indeed, any man who meets the definition of an old guy finds it hard to believe what has befallen him.”
  I’m not an old guy — not even an old woman, though my kids would disagree — but I certainly empathize with Kilpatrick. Who among us who has passed even age 30 has not been astounded at the numbers on the birthday cake and wondered how in the world we arrived at this point?
  Kilpatrick, who notes that he “has at various times been a radio news reporter and announcer, play-by-play baseball broadcaster, corporate PR executive, movie press agent, magazine editor and utility infielder” clearly has been to the rodeo a few times (the book’s foreword is by Sid Caesar, among the legion of interesting characters with whom the author has been associated along the way). Kilpatrick, an 80-something, is a certifiable old guy and as a resident of Florida, he finds himself surrounded by others of the species. Thus, “How to Be an Old Guy” is fueled by a wealth of research gained through experience.
  Much of the book is practical; the 19 chapters include “S-E-X,” “Ah, Yes, the Little Woman,” “Loss of Spouse,” “Food for the Gander” and “Meeting New People,” among others. Most of it is humorous, some of it poignant. All of it is infused with a great deal of wit and wisdom.
  “The only one who can make being an old guy a worthwhile and rewarding, even pleasant experience is the old guy you see in your shaving mirror,” the author concludes.
  Well, that guy and Bill Kilpatrick.