Revolt of the Old

To the Editors:

Revolt of the Old [Oct. 10]--you better believe it! I used TIME'S story to present the pros and cons of Claude Pepper's bill to my nursing home's "Keeping Current" group. They demolished the cons.

One nursing-home patient summed it up: "If we had worked longer, we would have been able to buy more and thus create more jobs. To mandate the retirement of the able, experienced older worker is like burning all the encyclopedias in the world."

Blanche Levy

Milwaukee

Why not "revolt of the aged," as in fine wine and good cheese--instead of "old" as in newspapers and shoes.

Patricia Ann Roczey

San Diego

It is usually overlooked that for a retired person, a new life begins: a new life with new opportunities and new challenges. So-called love for the job and the position one holds is frequently nothing but a mask to conceal mental lethargy and fear of change. Retirement at 65 is like the quality of mercy: it blesses him who retires and it blesses the unemployed for whom the gates to a productive life are finally opened.

Fred S. Mott

Cincinnati

The proposal to raise to 70 the age at which a person can get a maximum Social Security check was made by the desk set, whose hardest job is making it to the water cooler and back to their desks. They can "work" until 98 before throwing in the towel.

At 62 my back finally caved in, and the doctor said any man who works 46 years in a mine, mill or construction job, as I have, deserves a rest. So I retired on 80% Social Security and a small carpenter's pension. Millions of Americans work very hard for their money and are glad to retire at 65 or earlier.

Chester Degenkolb

Pittsburgh

Where are all these jobs that people want to work at till the day they die? And where are all these people whose interests are so narrow that they want to die on the job?

In all my years I've met only two neurotics who waited to be shoved out at 65. (They should have been kicked out at 20.)

If there are these wonderful jobs around, then why not give minorities a chance at them?

J.M. Hermerl

Chippewa Falls, Wis.

What the hell good does it do to have a retirement age of 70 if you can't get a job after 50?

Dorothy Quincey

Los Angeles

Kicked out of the California educational system at 65, I was hired by Western Illinois University (half time at my request) to start a remedial English program. The program is now flourishing, and I have just published a textbook (The Least You Should Know About English) that has sold 27,000 copies in its first eight months.

Teresa Ferster

Glazier Macomb, Ill.

I for one am glad Winston Churchill was around at 65 to pull our civilization out of the coals.

Catherine Ausrotas

Cambridge, Mass.

Fish-and-Chips in Soho

If Freddie Laker's air fares to London [Oct. 10] are still in existence come next summer, it will be fish-and-chips in Soho instead of squid in San Francisco for me.

Jolly good show, Freddie!

Barbara Cavagnaro

Manhasset, N. Y.

My jaw fell open when I saw that the first-class fare from New York to London was $1,312. I found it hard to believe that the airlines have the audacity to charge such fares. Then I had to laugh at the fools who would pay such a price.

Bravo to Freddie Laker, and give the man who undercuts him a standing ovation. Now that's free enterprise!

Patrick Mills

Buffalo

Energy Addicts

Your Essay entitled "Yes, There Is an Energy Crisis" [Oct. 10] expressed the same criticisms of the President's energy

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