Posted on 08/12/2003 9:54:22 AM PDT by bedolido
As baby boomers head into their 40s and 50s, the bill for their glory days is coming due.
Musicians and their fans are discovering that their ears don't work as well as they used to, and the loud rock music they reveled in is at least partly to blame.
It's a frightening prospect. Once you've battered some of the thousands of inner-ear hair cells that transmit sounds to the brain, they are lost forever. And the only remedy for most people is hearing aids.
Bill Clinton owned up to his rock 'n' roll past when he was fitted with hearing aids in 1997. Now other baby boomers face the prospect of purchasing an electronic gadget they never expected to need, and a pricey one at that.
Hearing aids generally cost from $600 to $2,400, although state-of-the-art digital aids can cost much more. Analog aids, using pre-digital technology, can cost as little as $300. In any case, the cost seldom is covered by health insurance. An analog model "would do the minimal job of a hearing aid, which is to make things louder," said Jane Gilbert, an audiologist at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis. But busy people whose lives take them into a variety of settings need more flexibility and better sound than analog models can provide, she said.
Vanity, once an issue, shouldn't be one anymore. Today's custom-molded aids can be slipped into the ear canal where they can't be seen. Still, the prospect of wearing hearing aids is a big step, and many people procrastinate.
"The average person with a hearing loss will duck and hide for about seven years," said Bill Austin, president of Starkey Laboratories, a hearing aid company based in Eden Prairie.
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
Pictures baby, Pictures!
I must agree with my phantom friend... pics please.
The boomer females were always the best... sexy without being slutist like the females have to dress to be in style. The boomers wore very un-sexy clothes, but love did fill the air... lol. I still miss all the females I loved in the 60's. But have been with my wife for 32.5 years, with our 4 kids and 8 grand-kids.
Now wait just a D#@@ minute here... your 30 and so is your wife and you prefer women in the 40's & 50's? You're a better man than I, Gunga Din!
Just stay faithful to your wife and someday she will reach that age you prefer. My only concern would be when you reach mid-life your preferences don't include females in their 60's and 70's...lol... the goal must someday be reached or you'll forever be wanting.
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