I might as well throw my 2 cents into the mix. I am 72 and never played until I was 65. I was never allowed to go to the local pool hall as a kid let alone play. My dad was always in there playing cards, and the one time I did slip in he got ahold of me and pulled me outside threatening me with an ass-whupping. He was serious about that, too. He didn't have any business gambling and didn't want me telling Mom about it. I never knew, and I'm satisfied she didn't either. So, after making a believer out of me, I just stayed away. I was one of those skinny, intellectual kids until high school when I discovered hunting which became my passion. I became very fit but still not stout enough for sports. I had grown up watching the TV show Lassie and decided I wanted to become a forest ranger, so when my senior year rolled around I focused on picking a college to which I could get scholarships and that offered a forestry program. I was still hunting and shooting as much as possible and mowed 20 some lawns every week, so I remained fit. College came and went successfully, but that was at a time when a lot of servicemen were returning from Nam, and many of them had been drafted while employed as foresters. Those who worked for the Forest Service got first dibs on their old jobs. Of the 100 plus forestry graduates in 1971, only 2 got jobs in the field ourjust not something I could continue doing with everything first year out. Their dads were politically connected. Many went on to graduate school, but I knew that my parents could no longer help me financially. I did get a summer job with the Forest Service, but I had met a gal and fallen in love...or so I thought, and when the summer was over I moved back home and we got married. I worked a number of physically demanding jobs that kept me fit and continued to hunt. She became a nurse, and we eventually had 2 daughters. I still had a strong interest in forestry, and her parents gave us the chance to purchase 40 acres at a very reasonable price. I planted it all in Christmas trees and kept working other jobs. All of this kept me very fit, and so it continued until we divorced. I was in shock and stress took over my life. By this time I needed stability more than anything else. I had been subbing on a local rural mail route for 13 years to help make ends meet as well as doing forestry consulting, landscaping operating a stump removal service, etc and as age had crept up on me, I jumped at the chance when a full-time rural carrier position came open. I continued the forestry consulting which kept me fit. I had also bought out her interest in the 40 acres as part of our divorce settlement, and I planted it in hardwood trees instead of replanting the Christmas trees as I harvested them. For those who don't know, there is a lot of physical work involved in growing and maintaining trees, and even though it was a labor of love, it was