Wow. You were born 4 years before my mother.
God bless all you members over 50. I've always gravitated towards older people my entire life much more than people my own age. Like in college I had 2 choices for an internship. Volunteer at a youth rehab facility.... or a senior center. I immediately checked off the senior center.
Anyway, at that time, I had a
very serious problem speaking in public. The owner asked me to run Bingo of all things, (on a stage in front of 50+ people) and I was shitting bricks that's how nervous I was.
First time I had to do it, I was shaking, stuttering, nervous as hell... but the members were so cool about it. Instead of the crowd freezing up and getting all awkward on me (like use to happen when I had to give speeches in college) they started cheering and egging me on like "son, you can do it! just announced the numbers! it's not a big deal!"
Believe it or not, announcing Bingo is what ultimately squashed my fear of public speaking. An older crowd is really the best crowd to practice on. And when my internship was finished I was sooo bum'd out, asked the owner "can I still come back once a month for Bingo"? She said "yes". I came back with a brand new Bingo machine, and still do it once a month just to keep myself public speaking skills sharp. Plus the fact it's also A LOT of fun.
-BB