Thanks for the info Nameno1had, I agree with all of your points. And that Jack Lalane was quite an inspiration, he was doing stuff in his old age that I had no chance of keeping up with even back in my 20's and 30's  lol. I have heard of studies where they mention that fitness in old age is good as it helps to circulate the blood up to the brain. Crossword puzzles are also supposed to be good exercise for the mind.

Preparing my tax returns forces me to calculate, and I wouldn't recommend it to my worst enemy!

...which reminds me of a comic strip called "Diamond Lil" which I read just last week.  The characters are all elderly.  One of the geezers is telling his friend about exercising his mind, stating "I just did a big Sudoku this morning," to which the other geezer replied, "I hope you had the fan on!"  It's a good thing I didn't have a mouth full of coffee at that moment...

Hey! How about showing some sensitivity....we are not "geezers", we are "geriatrically challenged."

We aren't geezers but those fellows in the comic strip are...

Did you prefer I edit my post and make it say something you enjoy...

As the old saying goes, "figures don't lie but liars surely can figure!"

You must have seen some politician's tax return!

Thanks Everyone for all of the posts. As for the " geezer " problem I'm reminded of a expression that I first heard many years ago when I was around people involved in Agriculture. The term can be applied to horses or to people: he is kind of " long in the tooth " lol. 

Well I'm a person who enjoys a good chuckle. So I'm reading thru one of the forums and someone has a thead going about people who play Live Chess and who have more than one game going at one time. That brought a couple of chuckles right off. Here I am playing along one game at a time ( and at a fairly slow setting of 15 & 10 ) trying to keep up on my single game and these speedsters are playing muliple games, good grief Charlie Brown ! rofl etc.   

lol...yeah, I'll second that.

Do you mind? We'd like to keep this thread limited to ranchers...

I'm 70. I haven't played a live game since the late 70s (last USCF rating 1480). I don't ever intend to resume doing so, since I don't have the time to be online that long, and it would be impolite and inconsiderate for me to begin a game that I couldn't finish.  I find the chess mentor and tactics training good exercise for the brain. 

Chess is good at any age.

Thanks for all of the recent posts. My feeling is that we should look upon this thread as working like a Democracy and let anyone post here ( within all of the Chess.com site rules of course ). As for Rural or Urban folks I can't really play favourites there as during different times in my life I have lived in both locations. One theory out there is that it takes all kinds to make up the colourful mosaic that is life on this little planet  lol.

Sorry cabadenwurt, that was an inside joke for AndyClifton....

Oh okay, Thanks for letting me know what was happening  lol.

That's just the sort of theory ranchers traditionally hide behind (as part of their conspiracy for global domination).

Okay, fine. Let's be inclusive and build a skyscraper...who's next?

I find myself in the minority on the use it or lose it theory with regard to mental functioning.  Time spent in Intellectual activities may well be correlated with higher scores on mental functioning tests as we age---but correlation doesn't mean causation.  Smart people (like most of us) enjoy certain mental challenges, so they/we Choose to spend time on those things.  Enjoyable activities protect against depression, and depression Does slow mental functioning. Physical exercise Does reduce depression and get more blood into the brain---but crossword puzzles?---I'm not so sure---especially if you Don't Like crosswaord puzzles!

So do what you Like doing and don't expect time spent on tax preparation to make you a better chess player or vice versa---that's my motto!   Or it used to be....it does sound familiar, but........well, I'm 68, so I forget .........things......