All of this began with a dream. Dreams come true. It was hard getting started and getting support. But as a seventy-three year old professional single woman, I’m tired of ageism in our country. I and my committee worked endlessly. I envision a society of a work place with all ages, all levels, education at all different starts and beginnings. Everything is possible at any age.

At the MARCH on AUG 8, 2010, I saw this hunger for Age Pride and freedom from restricted ideas. Vans with people of all ages came from the East Bay Marin, Peninsula. People I had never met were there. At eight a.m. they were standing in line for their AGE MARCH T shirts. They held signs-I’m Not A Senior! I’m A Person! Celebrate Your Age! Don’t Lie About it! I’m 96 and I Have Dreams Too. It went on and on. Some wore stickers on their t-shirts with their age numbers printed on the stickers. Other carried gold pon pons and wore gold hats.

A Table of pastries were donated along with coffee. Silvia Cicardini and her saxophone and band played the blues and San Francisco Songs. It was an air of celebration. It was magic. It’s a new movement and it’s San Francisco!

How thrilled and proud I am. Christopher Springman/radio host did a superb job, introducing everyone and making it fun.

“Time to make history! Time to March,” he announced. Behind a red ten-foot banner, with the gold letters AGE MARCH/SF 2010 we marched. Next to me was Dr. Nader Shabahangi/Phd/CEO/AgeSong, sponsor of the age march next to me, my daughters and their husbands. My daughter’s dog Fred, a black lab wore a sticker on his collar that said I’m five. A low fog along the Bay was lifting and the sun burst behind the clouds. We walked along the bay, facing our gorgeous Golden Gate Bridge, orange and hovering in the mist like a glass necklace. Sailboats bobbed on the Bay like toys and birds flew low along the tide.

Those who had trouble marching, still marched slowly in the back. When I turned around and looked behind  at the hundreds of people behind me, it was thrilling. “This is the beginning of a dream,” I said to Dr. Nader. “People are hungry for this,” he said.

That night, on Channel 2 at five p.m. the age march was covered. On Channel seven, at five-and on Channel 3, NBC.

The next march will be in December in Los Angeles. The date will be announced.

THANK YOU for helping me make us make history.

To be continued.

Below are some points to look at about the meaning of this Age March.

I will keep adding to it.

March for age awareness.

March for age pride.

Don’t be ashamed of age.

Be proud of it!

March to be hired no matter what your age!

March to abolish phases like Age Appropriate!

March to end social and media pressure to look a certain way. To act a certain way!

March to abolish requirements to give age. It’s no different than having to give race.

March to merge and unify a society where all ages can work at the same levels, can educate themselves to begin new ideas and projects.

March for women over fifty who are treated as if they’re commodities and throw-aways.

Abolish terms like cougars and sugar daddys.

Treat people of all ages the same.

It’s not justice for some. It’s justice for all~

To be continued.

July 15, 2010 | By Sam Whiting

To prove that age means nothing, “Viagra Diaries” author Barbara Rose Brooker lives like a writer just starting out, in a rent-controlled junior one-bedroom. It is on the second floor of an apartment building at Broadway and Franklin Street in San Francisco. Traffic noise is her constant companion.

Q: Latest project?

A: The Age March. I had a dream a couple of years ago that every man and woman in every city in the United States was going to march in an Age March, and their real age number would be printed on their button. They march in protest of our anti-age society. The dream is being brought to reality Aug. 8 at Crissy Field.

Q: How long is the Age March?

A: The march is 1 mile. It costs $10 to register if you want a T-shirt. If you don’t want a T-shirt, just put your name down at www.agemarch.org. There are no age requirements. We have people in their 20s who have registered.

Q: What will your age button say?

A: We’re going to have stickers instead. My sticker is going to say “73.” I am so proud of it. I love it. It’s a fabulous time, and I’m sick of lying about it.

Q: You used to lie about your age?

A: Of course I did. How else can you get a job or a date?

Q: Describe your novel “The Viagra Diaries”?

A: It’s about Anny Applebaum, who is 70. She has all kinds of ambitions and goals and refuses to settle. She inspired my Age March. I have a film option on “The Viagra Diaries” and I’m writing a sequel. I think maybe 70-plus is in.

Q: Seventy is the new what?

A: Seventy is the new 70. I’m not going to say “the new 50″ and all that. We don’t have to go back.

Q: Where did you grow up?

A: I’m a native San Franciscan. I grew up on El Camino Del Mar. I went to Lowell High School and graduated in 1954.

Q: What did you want to be?

A: I always wanted to be a writer and an actor. I wasn’t really able to be an actor because I was told to get a real estate license and a husband. I did all those things, and I hated it. Now I’m performing in my first one-woman show, at the Commonwealth Club. It’s called “The Viagra Diaries.” My first one was Oct. 19 last year. My second one is Nov. 23.

Q: First job?

A: I worked at Saks when I was 16, selling bridal clothes, I think.

Q: Childhood nickname?

A: Bobbie.

Q: Describe your neighborhood?

A: This is not the fancy part of Broadway. Van Ness is one block away. This is how 73-year-old struggling authors and actors live.

Q: Favorite vacation spot?

A: Paris.

Q: When were you last there?

A: Twenty-five years ago.

Q: Aren’t you about due?

A: I’m due for a lot of things.

Q: What would you buy if you could?

A: Dozens and dozens of orchid plants. I’d give them to all the people I like.

Q: What would surprise people to know about you?

A: That I really love solitude. I love staying home and writing and painting and not talking to people for days. When you’re in the media, you develop a persona that you’re “out there.” I’m not “out there.” I’m “in there.”

Q: What would you call your autobiography?

A: “There Is No End, Only a Beginning.”

Q: Who plays you in the movie?

A: Diane Keaton.

Q: What haven’t I asked you?

A: Am I having fun doing all of this?

Q: Well, are you?

A: I’m having a fabulous time, because I still have hope that anything can happen at any time.

E-mail Sam Whiting at swhiting@sfchronicle.com.
(C) San Francisco Chronicle 2010

The Age March — billed by its organizer as the first age march in history — is set for Aug. 8 at Crissy Field in San Francisco.

“Let’s get rid of age segregation and discrimination and labels,” organizer Barbara Rose Brooker of San Francisco writes on the event’s Web site. “I’m not a senior. I’m a person!  Let’s do away with phrases such as ‘age-appropriate.’ Age is a spirit not a number or a rule!”

The aim of the march is to protest against living in “an anti-age society that is ashamed of age, where the media gives the message to lie about our age to get jobs and romance, to go back and not forward,” writes Brooker, the author of “The Viagra Diaries.”

Participants will wear their real age number on either a button or on the front of their T-shirts. Brooker, 73, said she expects thousands of men and women to participate.

“Aging isn’t about Botox. It’s a spirit. The fountain of youth is inside of us. Let’s show that we’re proud of our age and not ashamed of it,” writes Brooker.

The one-mile walk will begin at Crissy Field across from Sports Basement, 610 Mason St., the Presidio, in San Francisco at 9 a.m. and the full event is scheduled to last for three hours. For more information, visit http://www.agemarch.com.

All the women portrayed in Madsen’s film are between the ages of 64 and 94 and are living according to their own rules, not society’s stereotypical expectations of older women.  They are living, learning, and continuing to be active in all of the activities that they love.  These women really show that age is not about the number, but about a spirit.  Everything is possible at every age, especially after 50!

Thank you Elaine for showing the world a message we hold dear.

For a preview of I Know A Woman Like That, please visit Elaine’s website  http://elainemadsen.com/movie.htm

“Honey, It’s too late. Act Age appropriate. ” Janet says.

” Age has no rules. I’m not a senior. I’m a person.”

My experience trying to publish The Viagra Diaries inspired my dream to have an age march. I hope that every city in the US, will march for age pride; to celebrate our real age, for every race, color, sexuality, gender, to march for age pride and to end age discrimination; end social pressure to lie about our ages to keep a job or get a mate.

Mainstream publishers had said: “No one is going to read about a seventy-year old protagonist.”  So I published with a small press and now I have a major HBO television option for a series.

I believe that everything is possible at any age.  Age discrimination is at every age. We live in an anti-age society: anti wrinkles, anti- gray hair, anti-be-who- and after sixty we’re told to be “age appropriate.” Who decides what’s appropriate? Age is not a number, it’s a spirit and there are no rules.

After fifty we’re supposed to be invisible, told how to live and to die. I’m sick of it.

Look at Helen Thomas, Betty White, Gloria Steinham, and others. No one knows when one is going to leave the planet. And while we’re here every human being, no matter what age, has the right to pursue passions, dreams, old and new.

At forty I went back to college. I wanted to pursue my dream of writing, performing, and teaching. “Get a real estate license,” I was told. “It’s too late. At fifty, I got my MFA in creative writing and published two novels. I wanted to teach others my age to write their books in any genre. “Get a husband,” I was told. I went on to write other books and column, and since 1990 I have been teaching at universities and private seminars. I have seen miracles. Age is a miracle, not a hardship. Aren’t you tired of having professionals and legislation tell you how to be, to live, feel?

In 2009, I performed my first one woman show, The Viagra Diaries, based on my latest novel, at the SF Commonwealth Club. I am performing it again in October, 2010, and my show is steadily televised. I am studying acting this summer.

There is no such thing as age, only the spirit of age. No one really knows how old we are. It’s a number system.

Aren’t you tired of age segregation? It’s no different from the military’s bigoted legislation: ‘Don’t ask. Don’t tell. Social pressure makes us feel ashamed of our age, and to lie to get a partner or a job. Celebrate your age. Don’t lie about it! Media pressure presents aging as negative-we get the message to botox up, to look like those silly housewives of Orange County.

How we age is who we are. There are thousands of books on finding the true self, yet we’re pressured to go back in time instead of forward with passion and new ideas, goals, education.

Martin Luther King marched for human justice, equality, and to end racial segregation. Though it still exists, he made great strides. I feel he would support a march to end age segregation.

We have organized the first age march in history on August 8, 2010, in my native city, San Francisco. In the following months my age march will be in Los Angeles, Washington DC, Chicago and New York and set examples for other cities.

We must stop this ageism.

Barbara Rose Brooker/founder

We’re certainly not the first group to fight against an outdated name or label that brings with it a long list of negative stereotypes and cultural attitudes that are remnants of a less enlightened time.  In my life I’ve witnessed the transition of many groups as they let the rest of the country know how they see themselves and the new way they want to express their identify.  Indians became Native Americans, Negros became Blacks and then African Americans, girls and ladies became women. I think it’s time to find a new way to express the identity of those 55+.  Some have used the word elder yet for many there are negative stereotypes associated with this term as well.  Lately I’ve been using the term older adult while others seem to split the older adult category into boomers (those 45 – 65) and older adults (66+).  It’s a tricky business but something that I think would be nice to eventually standardize if at all possible to help us move towards a more positive and neutral image of aging.  What do you think?

What makes Macy’s post so compelling is that she brilliantly expresses the idea that ageism doesn’t just affect older people.  All generations — X, Y, Z, or any future letter, have substance and should not be dismissed as out of date or superficial.

Have you ever experienced a similar double-ageism?

Age March Organizers

“I’m seventy-three and I want to be a movie-star.”

“Honey, It’s too late. Act Age appropriate.,” Janet says.

“Everything is age appropriate. Age has no rules. Only outdated fallacies.”

” Tell that to the world.”

“I will. I’m not a senior. I’m a person.”

But why?  Our thirst for life, to grow, to learn and experience new adventures doesn’t stop when we hit the 55.5 mark.  Yes, we may have children, grandchildren, and a satisfying career spanning 30+ years.  Although very fulfilling, these events are not the only things on life’s must-do list.   Maybe we would like to open more doors at this time of life but often find that many are shut because we’ve reached a certain age.

We are certainly not advocating that there is one right way to grow and age.  Quite the opposite.  We encourage everyone to live life according to their own set of rules.  We believe that work/life choices and options should continue to be available to us at every age.  Deciding on issues such as plastic surgery, romance, as well as career and educational pursuits should be up to each individual.  We should not feel obligated to look 10-15 years younger, nor should we be ridiculed for choosing to do so.

Joan Didion once said, “To free us from the expectations of others, to give us back to ourselves – there lies the great, singular power of self-respect.”

There is no right answer regarding how to age, and we’d like to encourage everyone to celebrate their real age, and never feel held back from Shining-On.

We have accomplished so much in our post 50 years.  What are your favorite achievements thus far?  Are there things you want to do that you have been afraid to express?  What are your experiences, positive and/or negative, as an older adult in the world?  How are you living beyond aging stereotypes?  We are honestly curious.

It is our goal for this blog to engage you in different dialogues on aging.  We welcome your feedback, and look forward to having you join us at Age March 2010.

Age March 2010 Organizers