Ernest Clinton was 27 the last time he walked into a drugstore and bought a box of condoms.
Now, 40 years later, they come in neon colors, fruit flavors and even studded.
“I have a wife and I love her,” said Clinton, 67. “But if she passes before me, I?ll do what I need to do for her ? and I?ll be looking around!”
Clinton was one of many area seniors who attended a dating seminar organized by Baltimore County?s Department of Aging along with Planned Parenthood. The series Thursday stopped at the Fleming Senior Center in Dundalk, where seniors received a crash refresher course on the birds and the bees.
The seminars also aim to teach seniors how to address sexual history with new partners, preventing sexually transmitted diseases, dating etiquette and the values of romance as a senior, said Planned Parenthood trainer Deborah Chilcoat.
Too often, society assumes seniors are celibate, she said, but there?s life beyond bingo and pinochle.
“You?re not dead yet,” Chilcoat said. “Give yourself permission to feel tingly again!”
The seniors, giggling at first with each mention of the word “sex,” soon launched into lively conversation on where they can meet other golden-year singles, and when it?s appropriate to date again after the loss of a spouse.
And as the prevalence of STDs ? including HIV ? among seniors increases, many seminar participants said they need to know more about ways to practice safe sex. Francis Davis, 64, said many of her peers know they need to be cautious, they?re just not sure how.
But many other seniors said they?re looking more for companionship and affection than sex, like Vonzella Randolph, 79, who went on a date this past weekend.
“We danced by candlelight, had a romantic dinner,” she said. “You gotta get what you can while you can!”
