Medford mail tribune., March 05, 1961, Image 38

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Here is the new American dream:
retirement at middle
age-but like any dream it must
stand up to stark realities
By JOHN HOCHMANN
Family Weekly J
March 5, 1961
Imagine a couple moving into a new house.
Most likely, you will visualize young newly
weds, perhaps with the groom carrying his bride
across the threshold of their first home.
But nothing illustrates the change in Ameri
can society as well as the number of middle
aged couples moving into their own new houses,
retirement homes a thousand miles or more
from communities where they lived, worked,
and raised their children.
For tens of thousands of couples, retirement
no longer means waiting till 65 or 70; even fami
lies of modest income now begin a new way of
lifeat middle age, thanks to pension, insurance,
and investment plans.
Typical of this new pattern are the Mc
Adamses of Port Charlotte, Fla. At 50 and 51,
Wilmuth Lowell McAdams and his wife, Elea
nor, moved south last fall from Reynoldsburg,
Ohio, where they had lived most of their lives.
Leaving meant saying good-bye to their son,
daughter-in-law, and grandson, as well as to the
friends and business associates of a lifetime.
Even with the prospect of mellow years in
Florida sunshine, this wasn't an easy break, and
if it hadn't been for Mac's heart attack a few
years ago and Eleanor's ulcer and colitis, they
might have postponed the move. Illness plus the
hard Northern winters decided them, however,
and after a few exploratory trips to Florida, they
chose a site on the Gulf Coast.
They purchased a furnished model home on a
water-front lot because Mac, an enthusiastic
sailor, was bringing down his boat.
(Continued)
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The McAdamses' house on Florida's Cuf Coast, far left, is
graced by a water-front lot. where Mac keeps liis boat.
Boats have been a long-timu hobby of Mae, who bulla's Ilium
himself. Below, wife Eleanor feeds hubby at beach barbecue.
After deciding to retire to Florida, the McAdamses found
that leaving family and old friends in Reynoldsburg, Ohio,
wasn't easy. Here they pause for the last time at the door
of their Ohio home. Below, frionds throw a farewell parly.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY ARTHUR LEIPZIG
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