Name: Nathan Hoffman, 73
Occupation: Retiree
Background: Hoffman was born in Chicago and has lived in the area all his life. A former executive with Helene Curtis, he retired in March, 1981, after almost 40 years with the company. He was first employed in 1931, during the Depression, at the age of 15. Hoffman earned an MBA from the University of Chicago in 1953. Married 48 years, he has two children and three
grandchildren.
Years retired: 7
It`s been seven years since I retired, so I think my feelings at the time have dimmed a little in my memory. But I know I looked forward to my retirement because I`m interested in so many things. I had been building up to it in my own mind, and it was a time that I chose for myself. In fact, I think I`ve probably been looking forward to retirement all my life.
The first thing that I did-I don`t think I`d been retired a week-was to get in the car and drive with my wife to the east coast of Canada. One of my great loves is travel. To me, the word ”vacation” is synonymous with the word ”travel.” A lot of people think of vacation as a time to fix up the house. I lived in a house for 30 years, and I painted and made repairs, but I did that on weekends. When I had vacations, I traveled. So, naturally, when I retired, I traveled.
We drove for about three weeks. So I started my retirement with a three-week vacation. By the time I got back it was the spring season-and I love to golf-and I kind of just fit right into the idea of retirement.
What I like about retirement is that I have the time to do things that I couldn`t before. I`m able to be involved with Oakton Community College, where I take classes and lead tours of the city, as much as I want. And I can play golf any day that I choose.
More Top Picks Audio
I didn`t have any particular expectations for retirement, but I think, on the whole, it`s been pretty much what I thought it would be. But one thing did happen that was completely unexpected. About a year and a half ago I had a heart attack. I also had triple bypass surgery. But it really didn`t change anything. Now that I`ve recovered, it hasn`t slowed me down. I still do all the things I used to do. I forget that I had it. Maybe sometimes I shouldn`t forget, but I do.
I love education as much as travel. I`ve been taking classes, in a sense, most of my life. So I always knew I would continue this after I retired. I`ve taken a couple of hands-on computer courses. I have a tin ear for music, so I took two courses in music-one called ”Opera Without Tears” and one called
”Introduction to Music.” I took a course in how to fix my car and one called ”Modern Culture and the Arts.” I also encourage my wife to take classes, and she does.
For most people, the problem of retirement is that they don`t have enough to do. I preach education as a solution to this problem. I`ve gone out to senior-citizen centers and tried to get people to sign up for college courses. I`ve been very disappointed in what I see there. People listen to me and tell me they`re interested, but nobody signs up. It`s so much easier to just play cards.
I believe that keeping your body in good shape has its good points, but I`m not sure that keeping your mind agile isn`t more important. I think that keeps you young. Young-thinking. I feel that going to school and taking a course competitively, not just auditing it, is what counts. It`s not that you need the grade, but if you`re competitive, you don`t go to sleep in class and you do the required reading and you do the work. People say, ”I can stay home and watch Channel 11.” Well, you can. But you can also fall asleep watching television. You don`t have any competitive feeling, and that does not exercise the mind.
There`s nothing that has happened since I`ve been retired that has made me feel that I`d like to be working again. Helene Curtis did call me once and ask me to come in to do a consulting job on an inventory problem. And I enjoyed going back for that because it was fun. But, of course, I did that on my own time, two or three days a week, and I worked on that for about three months. Then one of the companies that we had done business with asked me to do some work for them. I got paid for both these jobs. It was fun getting the money, and it was fun doing it because the fact that they would ask me to do it meant that I had some value in this world.
I believe in volunteering, but I also believe that if you can have a job that pays you some money, you feel that you`re worth something. So even though I do charitable work, the tours I lead, for which I get paid, make me feel that I`m still worth something.
I do all the planning for my tours myself. Last year I did six tours during the summer, and this past spring I did four. I just made them up out of my head. I did a walking tour of Dearborn Street, our most famous architectural street, and one of Michigan Avenue. I`ve done a tour of the sculpture in Lincoln Park and downtown, and one of the financial district that included four markets.
I do most of the research for the tours myself. Ever since I was 8 years old I`ve been studying Chicago. People ask me how I know so much about the city. I have about a dozen books on Chicago, and I go to the library. They have wonderful books about sculpture and walks in the city. But a lot of it I just can`t tell you where I know it from. It`s just because of my love for Chicago.
There is no typical day for me. I get up around 7:15 or 7:30. Sometimes I`ll lie in bed and read the paper for a half hour, but I`m out of bed by 8 at the latest, and I have breakfast. After that, it all depends what my plans are for that day. It may be a school day, it may be a tour, it may be a golf day. Every Tuesday I have breakfast with some of the people I used to work with at Helene Curtis, and occasionally I have lunch with friends. Every day is a different challenge, and each one is planned differently.
We leave Chicago in the winter, so we spend a good part of the month prior to that getting ready to go. Then when we come back, between the mail and income tax, we spend more than a month catching up. So the time passes.
There are some days when I don`t have anything to do. I may read a book, or I may watch a baseball game on TV. My grandson may come over and spend a week with us, and I`ll have a great time taking care of him every day. Those are things which I can do because the time is there.
I don`t know of any of my close friends who are as active as I am. On a recent tour, one of the women said to me, ”You know, you move very fast.”
And I do. I play golf with my son and son-in-law, and I`m always the first one when we`re walking, the first one off the tee.
My advice for people who are two or three years away from retirement is to not only start thinking about continuing education or starting education, but actually do it in their last couple years of employment. Take a night class. Don`t wait till you retire.
Hobbies are fine. I love bridge. But you must have as many interests as you can. Because if you`re confined to one interest and that interest disappears for some reason-it becomes unavailable, it becomes too expensive, whatever-you have nothing left. But if you have dozens of interests, you are safe. I walk down the street, and I look at everything. If I don`t go downtown once a week, I`m disappointed. There are people who won`t go downtown at all. Visit the museums. Go to the Grant Park Symphony in the summer. Read all the historical plaques. How many people know that the idea for the four time zones was developed in Chicago? It happened on the spot where the Continental Illinois Bank is now. There`s a nice big plaque that explains it. In front of the Merchandise Mart there are busts of eight of the great marketing people in the United States. People don`t see these things. Use your eyes for what they were intended. Look at everything.
Just before my retirement I met a person who had recently been retired. He said to me: ”I get up and shave every morning. It`s very important to do that.” Well, I`m not sure I entirely agree with that. Just maintaining your old regime is not what counts. You can`t be doing what you used to do. It`s what you do after you shave that counts. Of course you don`t let yourself go, but it`s what you do with the rest of your day that`s important.
There`s nothing I fear, except the loss of loved ones. I don`t fear my own death. I don`t want it to happen, but I don`t fear it because you can`t fear it.