Ashton Applewhite is a leading American ‘inspirer’ on how to make the most of being over the hill. She has followers to whom she dispatches her inspiration by blog, YouTube, TED, magazine column and talk-show interview. This Chair Rocks first came into the world, three years ago, as a ‘networked book’. It now presents itself in a form more congenial to ‘olders’ as Applewhite likes to call them. Whether to go large print must have been an option considered by its current publishers.
Applewhite’s previous book-qua-book was Cutting Loose: Why Women Who End Their Marriages Do So Well. ‘Upbeat’ is her middle name. There is one passing reference to her ex in This Chair Rocks and we gather she now has a partner, Bob. All we are told about this not-spouse is that he gets very angry if anyone calls him grandpa.
The occasional allusions Applewhite makes to herself can be startling. ‘It was a bad day,’ she wistfully recalls, ‘when I was diagnosed with periodontal disease and vaginal thinning in the same morning.’ The older’s little helpers put all right.
A largish section of the book is devoted to ‘dating for olders’ and how sex — no rush and tumble, more caress and fumble — can be better than it was when hormones raged hotly. And if you’re asexual by nature or choice, well, regard age as a haven. Peace at last.
As olders will fondly recall, the allusion in Applewhite’s title is to the classic Jack Teagarden number ‘Old Rockin’ Chair Got Me, My Cane by my Side’. In one sense the amiable Dixieland trombonist lives forever, through his recorded music. But he died in the flesh aged 59.
During the 20th century the average American (and Briton) gained an extra 30 years of life.
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