Things They Do Look Awful C-C-Cold

Talkin' 'bout my generation. This is too good not to pass along. A British - er - rock group - with a combined age totaling over 3,000 years has just had their first single break into the British top 30. The song? A cover of the Who classic My Generation. The lead singer is one Alf Carretta, who is a sprightly 90 years young.

Their charity cover of The Who's rock anthem "My Generation", with lead vocals by 90-year-old Alf Carretta, hit number 26 in the chart.

The oldest band member is 100-year-old Buster Martin, who is the oldest employee in Britain.

Named after Zimmer frames, the 40-strong group was formed as part of a BBC television documentary about the isolation felt among Britain's elderly folk.

Their video has been viewed more than 2.3 million times on the Internet video-sharing site YouTube.

The Zimmers also include Peter Oakley, better known as geriatric1927, whose video musings on life once made him the YouTube poster with the most subscribers.

His video "first try" was watched nearly 2.6 million times and he is still the 10th most subscribed user ever.

The single is available from the iTunes store with all proceeds going to charity. And the video is a hoot - do not miss the part where they re-enact the classic Beatles' Abbey Road album cover. With a real twist. They also have a - what else - MySpace page.

Just seeing this made me think about my grandmother. When she retired from the Sunmount state hospital where she had helped people with Downs Syndrome, she began her next careers - advocate for the aged, writer and a whole lot of other things. She was instrumental in getting a community center for the elderly in Saranac Lake, New York, one of the prime movers in getting housing built for older residents and she started (and wrote regularly for) the community center's newsletter. And at age 95 she took up learning conversational German (she was born in Norway). She passed away at age 103. I still miss her.