Threescore years and ten.

I'm told seventy is the new fifty. I say no thank you!
At fifty I was working 18 shifts out of 21, 7hr days 8hr afternoons 9hr nights.
Earning good money but no time off to spend it.
As young men we used to read the Steel News the firms newspaper, the first page we turned to was the obituary page. The scary thing was that not many retired workers reached 68 years old.
So in the 80s and 90s when voluntary redundancies on a full pension were offered at age 55 and over the men at the right age jumped at it. Luckily for me I got the choice July 2000. I was 56 had done 41 years on shifts and had had enough; the terms offered were too good to turn down so I took Early Retirement Redundancy.  

It did not guarantee that I would live any longer but if I had only made it to 68 I would have had 12 years of freedom, as apposed to 3 years if I had retired at 65 the official retirement age.

Funny the things that go through your head when you are working your soul case out.