That thread seems to be in response to a particular question raised by the OP. It sounded to me as though cheesehead was suggesting an entire forum as a gathering place for retirement-specific threads (versus just leaving academe in general).
Can one make new, close friends after a certain age? As people age, are they open to new friendships? I'd like to try, but I don't even see any opportunities.
Yes, of course one can. It's true, there are no friends like old friends, and it does get harder as we get older. But it's not impossible. My mother moved to an entirely new state at the age of 66. She knew only two people (a married couple) when she arrived. By the time she died more than 10 years later, she had made some very dear new friends who mourned her death as only close friends can.
Similarly, my MIL moved to a new community very far from her former home when she was in her 70s, and she, too, made some very close new friends. Now that she's in her early 90s, many of those friends have died, and she's finding it harder now to make new ones--but that's largely because she's become very hard of hearing (so it's hard for her to chat and get to know people) and she is also less interested in (and less able to do) the activities that enabled her to find new friends in the past.
But, while I think it's possible to make new friends as you age, I think you have to work harder at making friends when you're older, and it can be harder even to
find (meet) the people who are likely candidates for friendship. So the real question is, how much effort do you want to put into it?
