As a young American in the Sixties, Maggie Kuhn was one of the few older people on my radar who were labeled as cool. The organization she founded, the Grey Panthers, got its name after one of the Black Panthers, the radical liberation organization, suggested it to Maggie. To me, Maggie seemed mouthy and fearless and she was raising a ruckus. She was shaking up what we used to call, ‘the system,’ and her campaign called for ‘young and old together’ (1972), because our concerns were, in many ways, the same. And then, I forgot about her. She was not one of my heroes, just a cool old woman who ‘got it.’ Fast-forward about 40 years and, at the age of 60, I had my first experience of ageism. Upset and angry, I started to read about the experience of ageing and ageism. I remembered Maggie Kuhn and read everything she had written that I could get my hands on.

So much of what she had to say and what she stood for holds true today; she was a true visionary. Much of what she campaigned for and was about is relevant today. Some ageist ideas have gone by the wayside, while another new, virulent rhetoric has risen up – that of the ‘selfish generation’ and ‘stolen futures.’ Some of the stereotypes of ageing that Kuhn and the Grey Panthers agitated about have been dispelled. She stated that old people are not ‘wrinkled babies’ and senior care homes are not ‘glorified playpens.’ Longevity, understanding, and exploration of the meaning of old age are central to the postwar generation's comingof age.