Not only stars can look good in their older years M

Y grandma never looked like Susan Sarandon.

But the 70-year-old actress and grandmother grabbed the glamour headlines at the Los Angeles Emmy Awards, along with Jane Fonda (79) and Jessica Lange (68).

All the years I knew her, my grandma was an old lady; I never considered she had ever been a young woman.

Back in the 1950s and 1960s, my parents, aunts and uncles had been born middle aged, going on elderly, even though they were probably in their prime.

Auntie Mary was the only one who kicked against convention, glammed up every day of the week and felt life was for living. Others viewed her with disapproval.

These days, Susan Sarandon and Jessica Lange look to be in their prime. How times change.

Before youth culture had been invented, society expected youngsters to step straight into adulthood when they left school at 15, with girls in curlers and the start of a bottom drawer, and boys in suits and tank tops smoking Woodbines, looking for a wife and a job for life. The future was mapped out right down to retirement slippers.

Attitudes changed with rock and roll and pop, horizons expanded and opportunities broadened. Young people liked their new freedoms and the lyrics of the songs from The Beatles, Stones and The Who gave them a voice.

“I hope I die before I get old” was a rebellious line. Now my generation has made it to elderly status, they’ve found old age is not as old as it used to be. Jagger still struts, Keef still plays mean guitar, Susan Sarandon is a freethinking grandma who openly talks about her septuagenarian sex life, and Jessica Lange is an awardwinning actress, photographer and UN Goodwill Ambassador.

Getting older used to be summed up by the Jenny Joseph poem: “When I am an old woman I shall wear purple, With a red hat which doesn’t go and doesn’t suit me. And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves …” As if hitting a certain age meant life was over: Give up, sit back and take your place in God’s waiting room.

But now ordinary men and women, not just celebrities, live longer, have a positive outlook, remain active and young at heart. They know age is just a number. Auntie Mary would have approved.