Where do they all go?

Christmas Island, so called because it was first 'charted' on Christmas Day 1643, has about 2000 human residents. However it is not the human residents that cause the interest on this little Pacific Island because Christmas Island is famous for its population of crustaceans.

These chitin covered critters are the Christmas Island Land Crabs which each year assemble together coming out of their jungle homes and marching in a swarm towards the ocean. Once they reach the sea, they release their eggs into the water and the juvenile crabs hatch and swim for their lives.

http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/assets/images/blogposts/8119/christmas-island-red-crab-migration-tree-blog.jpg

Sometime later these tiny crabs come back out of the water and head inland. Depending on the tides these little animals can be billions in number, literally making vast swathes of the island pink in colour. When they reach the rainforest they disperse disappearing to grow and mature. Where they all go to is a bit of a mystery.

We have a similar situation in this country. Expect its not crabs, its old age pensioners. As a man just entering middle age I am constantly being told that I have to pay more into my pension and work more years until retirement because the number of OAPs is increasing. My question is, 'Where do they all go?' Like the Christmas Land Crabs disappear so do the pensioners. They seem to melt away into society until something causes them to group together.

Well today I can answer my own question because I found many of them at a local garden centre. My family considerably lowered the average age of the customers when we arrived as aisles were full of pensioners.

http://www.klondyke.co.uk/files/imagecache/470/files/images/carlisle%25205.jpg

Then I discovered the reason for these high numbers, the restaurant was offering a Monday deal for lunch for OAPs. They obviously weren't coming to buy gardening sundries but instead to eat haddock and chips. And most arrived in fancy cars rather than using their free bus pass. There are a lot of these deals for pensioners, for example get your hair cut on a Wednesday for half price, special OAP days at the local DIY store and cheap meals.

I think that these deals should be available for the rest of us. Wednesdays should be half price for people aged 40-50 for instance. Thursdays for the twenty somethings, and Fridays two for the price of one if you are in your thirties. Maybe this would encourage younger people

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