The scientific community simply wasn't ready to consider that senile dementia might be more than a naturalconsequence of aging. In the carly fifties there was no self-conscious category of "seniors," no explosion of Sun Belt retirement communities, no AARP, no Early Bird tradition at low-end restaurants; and scientific thinking reflected these social realities. Not until the seventies did conditions become ripe for a reinterpretation of senile dementia. Bythen, as Shenk says, "so many people were living so long that senility didn't feel so normal or acceptable anymore.