Using as a vehicle the history of “Speculative Excursions into the Everyday Lives of Old People” (or some variant of that title) sessions at the Gerontological Society of America's Annual Scientific Meetings, this article is a semi-serious discussion of the place of humor in gerontology. The article describes the purposes of these sessions, the reactions of colleagues, the rejections of papers, and the hopes and future prospects of Speculative Excursion Gerontology.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
KaplanA., The Conduct of InquiryChandler Publishing, San Francisco, 1964.
2.
KoestlerA., The Act of CreationThe MacMillan Company, New York, 1964.
3.
LoebM., The Older Person and the Massage Parlor, oral presentation at the 28th Annual Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, Louisville, 1975.
4.
SeltzerM. M., The Social Ideology of Social Gerontology, oral presentation at the 28th Annual Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, Louisville, 1975.
5.
ColeM., Aging as Depicted in Science Fiction, oral presentation at the 28th Annual Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, Louisville, 1975.
6.
TrollL. E., The Senior Center's Edogamous Functions in Marriage and Other Social Endeavors, oral presentation at the 28th Annual Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, Louisville, 1975.
7.
HuyckM. M., Older Women and the Beauty Parlor, oral presentation at the 28fh Annual Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, Louisville, 1975.
8.
WoodV., The Sociology of Meals on Wheels, oral presentation at the 28th Annual Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, Louisville, 1975.
9.
HickeyT., The Shared Laundry Room as Social Control Mechanism and Norm Source, oral presentation at the 28th Annual Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, Louisville, 1975.
10.
LoebM., Jack and Jill Went up the Hill, presented at the 32nd Annual Scientific Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, Washington, D.C., 1979.
11.
WoodV., The Nonservice Using Older Person: A Case Study of An AoA Defined Deviant, presented at the 32nd Annual Scientific Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, Washington, D.C., 1979.
12.
HendricksJ., oral presentation at the 42nd Annual Scientific Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, Minneapolis, 1989.
13.
BinstockR. H., The Aged as Scapegoat, The Gerontologist, 23:2, pp. 136–143, 1983.
14.
KalishR., The New Ageism and the Failure Models: A Polemic, The Gerontologist, 19:4, pp. 398–402, 1979.
15.
NydiggerC. N., Family Ties of the Aged in Cross-Cultural Perspective, The Gerontologist, 23:1, pp. 26–32, 1983.
16.
ShanasE., Social Myth as Hypothesis: The Case of the Family Relations of Old People, The Gerontologist, 19:1, pp. 3–9, 1979.
17.
AisenbergN. and HarringtonM., Women of Academe: Outsiders in the Sacred GroveThe University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst, 1988.
18.
SeltzerM. M., Speculative Excursions: Old Hopes Never Die, They Just Fray around the Ages, Unpublished speech, November 1989.
19.
AtchleyR. C., Private Conversation, March, 1990.
20.
Unpublished Letters, The authors' names are omitted to protect their anonymity. May 22, 1979.
21.
HendricksJ., Verbal comments at a Gerontological Society of America Retreat, June 1988. Subsequently reproduced on a tee shirt available through the Gerontological Society of America. First printing available November 1988. (An original and different colored version was made available to Dr. Hendricks by Dr. M. M. Seltzer of Ohio in late summer 1988.)
22.
NahemowL.McCluskey-FawcettK. A., and McGheeP. E. (eds.), Humor and AgingAcademic Press, Inc., Orlando, Florida, 1986.
23.
AdamsD. (ed.), Using Humor in Teaching Sociology, American Sociological Association publication, Washington, D.C., 1983.
