"The Old Folks"

Title"The Old Folks"
Year for Search1972
AuthorsGunn, James E[dwin](1923-2020)
Secondary AuthorsHarrison, Harry [Max](1925-2012)
Secondary TitleNova 2
Pagination122-40
Date Published1972
PublisherWalker and Co.
Place PublishedNew York
KeywordsMale author, US author
Annotation

Dystopia in which senior citizens live in retirement communities and treat their children and grandchildren as enemies. The story is told through the eyes of a couple visiting her parents at Sunset Acres in Arizona, which is built as a eutopian version of a Kansas small town, complete with ice cream parlor. They learn that the inhabitants are united in paying their children back for all the trouble they caused them as children and ensuring that there is no money left to inherit.

Additional Publishers

U.K. ed. (London: Sphere, 1975), 133-51. Rpt. in Best SF: 1972, Ed. Harry Harrison and Brian W[ilson] Aldiss (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1973), 29-47.

Holding Institutions

Merril, PSt

Author Note

(1923-2020)

Full Text

1972 Gunn, James E[dwin] (1923-2020). “The Old Folks.” Nova 2. Ed. Harry Harrison (New York: Walker and Co., 1972), 122-40. U.K. ed. (London: Sphere, 1975), 133-51. Rpt. in Best SF: 1972, Ed. Harry Harrison and Brian W[ilson] Aldiss (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1973), 29-47. Merril, PSt

Dystopia in which senior citizens live in retirement communities and treat their children and grandchildren as enemies. The story is told through the eyes of a couple visiting her parents at Sunset Acres in Arizona, which is built as a eutopian version of a Kansas small town, complete with ice cream parlor. They learn that the inhabitants are united in paying their children back for all the trouble they caused them as children and ensuring that there is no money left to inherit.