What Does STAC Mean?

In a comment yesterday, Stepheny Houghtlin asked what does STAC mean? Well, Stepheny, it’s an acronym for the Sanford Third Age Club, but Third is usually written 3rd.

When I think about the membership, it’s not strictly accurate. The definition of a third ager, as near as I can ascertain, is one who has moved into retirement. Most of the STAC members are still working, or of working age.

When I first came up with the idea I wanted a group of people who were essentially old enough and wise enough to become amateur sleuths and have the necessary funds to take them all over the country and/or continent. I settled on folks who were over the age of fifty and members of a social club. It seemed natural to combine the two, and the Sanford 3rd Age Club was born.

The town of Sanford doesn’t exist and by extension neither does the Sanford 3rd Age Club, but I wish it did. I’d join tomorrow, and I’ve had emails and comments from other third agers who say they would too.

The STAC Mysteries don’t pretend to be anything but light-hearted whodunits. They’re certainly not slice of life material, but I do use them to demonstrate that us old gits are more like teenagers than teenagers. We still get drunk, we still argue amongst ourselves, we still sulk when things don’t go our way, and if any younger person is going to insist we’re no longer capable of bedhopping, well I’m sorry, but you’re wrong. By age group, older people have one of the highest incidences of STDs.

We tend to be wiser, but that’s because whatever is going on, we’ve probably seen it before. Age doesn’t make us any smarter. We’re just as capable of stupidity as younger people. It’s one of the reasons I remain unimpressed by celebrities and their antics. Whatever they’re doing, I did thirty, forty, even fifty years ago.

Why don’t we spell the Sanford 3rd Age Club out in full in the books? Well, we do. Every cover has a black logo running across the top right of the front, declaring it to be A Sanford 3rd Age Club Mystery. You can see it in the picture above (even if you can’t read it).

Most of the time it’s referred as STAC, however, and that was my doing. Joe’s grumpiness is a factor of his age, not his deductive abilities, and on that basis, the tales can be enjoyed by anyone of any age, provided they enjoy whodunits.