A not-entirely-scientific look at what truly keeps Knoxville’s seniors up at night.
By Robert Pryor, Sr. | Illustration by R. Daniel Proctor
Appeared in Cityview Magazine, Vol. 42, Issue 2 (March/April 2026)
Last November Pew Research published a report on how older adults in the U. S. are reacting to social and demographic changes. “Our population is aging,” according to Pew, and its research investigated the attitudes and fears of older Americans regarding their perceptions of the aging process, income and financial concerns, and their control or lack of control over aging. I must say, the results of the study were shocking and stupefying.
The Pew team surveyed just over 8,000 U.S. adults and discovered:
Old rich people worry less about money in retirement than older poor people.
Old people think they have more control over their physical and mental health than they do their looks.
More than half of old people have done or would consider doing something to look younger than they are, including coloring their hair.
The biggest worries of seniors are health (42%), finances and the future of Social Security (30%), and loneliness (16%).
Old rich people are more positive about their future than old poor people.
Now, I don’t know about you, but I do not feel I need a Pew survey to tell me these things. I know a few old people – in fact, I am thinking seriously about becoming one – and I think Pew could have saved considerable time and effort by simply spending an hour on a bench in West Town Mall and would have reached the same results. After all, these findings are obvious and common knowledge. Consequently, I decided to do my own research to find out what might be some less obvious concerns and fears of my seven or eight aging friends. So, with considerable financial backing from CityView magazine and as a service to my readers, here is my survey report about what really is on the minds of our more mature neighbors: The #1 fear facing the elderly in Knoxville is the recent construction of “roundabouts.” They are popping up everywhere, and it is hard to avoid them. They are nothing more than a four-way stop intersection with no signage, no speed limit, and no time to think about what is happening. I saw a lady the other day approach a “roundabout” on Northshore Drive as she would the escalator at Dillard’s – with much hesitation and trepidation. Interestingly, a fairly large number of our seniors (67%) view “roundabouts” as the county’s solution to our housing shortage. They think the plan is to kill us all off at “roundabouts” and then take our houses for the young.
The #2 fear is backing up. Both rich and poor Knoxville seniors feel they have lost control over their physical and mental health care as embodied in the “Wellness Test.” Most (72%) live with the apprehension of being unable to remember three words (tree, house, and car) after five minutes or forgetting how to draw a clock representing 10 minutes after 11 o’clock, perhaps resulting in immediately being transported to an assisted living facility.
Another somewhat surprising finding of my survey was how many of us across all ages (57%) regularly are unable to find our cars when we leave Costco. I think there might be money to be made by starting a new search service to match drivers to their automobiles by taking a photo of everyone next to their license plate before they go into the store.
Smartphones scored quite high in the “I know nothing” category. My research also revealed considerable anxiety (47%) about pickleball. It seems that most feared that societal pressures would eventually force them to play the game causing them to end up either liking it or becoming seriously injured or even permanently disabled by falling while chasing after the pickle.
Most responders to my survey (58%) were concerned about new aches and pains every day with no idea what caused them. Many made unsolicited comments on what gives them pleasure life, mentioning specifically oldies reunions on PBS (37%), supportive shoes (21%), weather forecasts (19%), and checking the clock at night to see if it’s late enough to go to bed (47%).
My survey did concur with the Pew Research finding that more than half of the elderly population has done or would do things to improve their appearance to make themselves look younger. In fact, I recently discovered a few gray hairs and seriously considered dying my hair black only to suddenly recall Rudy Giuliani on TV when he was sweating under stress and his black hair dripped down his face and off of his nose like Niagara Falls. That image alone caused me to throw away the bottle of shoe polish I was holding while looking in the mirror.
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