FWD: inquiry

[Baker, John]

        It's a little old for Humphrey.  The OED has 1938:  "Time 24 Oct. 12/2 Mr. Downey had an inspiration to do something on behalf of what he calls, for campaign purposes, 'our senior citizens'."  I have no idea who Mr. Downey was.  The State of Washington passed a Senior Citizens Grants Act by ballot initiative in 1941.

John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: Beverly Flanigan [mailto:flanigan at OHIOU.EDU]
Sent: Saturday, December 28, 2002 1:49 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: FWD: inquiry


My memory is that the phrase was coined by Hubert Humphrey when he was
promoting welfare reform in the late '50s and early '60s--probably when he
was running for President in 1960.  At least we loyal Minnesota DFLers gave
him credit for it in the good old days before Vietnam.  He also conceived
of the Peace Corps, which Kennedy then appropriated when he beat out
Humphrey in the primaries (I remember, sadly, the day he lost West Virginia).

At 08:57 AM 12/28/2002 -0500, you wrote:
>Any thoughts on this request?  Send them to Joe (or the list).
>
>
>Quoting Joe <pagejoe at wizwire.com>:
>
> > Hello Terry Irons: I came across your name while playing around with my
> > laptop in search of the origin of the euphemism "senior citizen." I'm
> > told it was coined by an ad man in the '50s or '60s who didn't want to
> > call people "old." I'm still unable to check it out. Any help will be
> > welcomed with this old guy's open arms. Thanks, Joe Carroll
> >
>
>
>
>**************************
>Terry Lynn Irons