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Seven years ago, Susan DiCola became a widow.
When the time eventually came to rejoin the social scene, she had an abrupt awakening.
DiCola, now 55, couldn't find anybody to date.
She tried eHarmony and Match.com. She also tried speed-dating and a matchmaking service.
Twenty-five hundred dollars later, she was still alone and lonely.
So in keeping with the personality that has made her a formidable force for more than 50 years, she took matters into her own hands -- and launched BoomerAgeClub.com.
"When we were kids, we were all single and we met maybe 200 people a year, and they were all single, too," she says. "Now you meet maybe five people a year you're attracted to -- so it would take more than a century to meet 200 people."
The label "baby boomer" falls to those born between 1946 and 1964 -- about 83 million people, according to the 2000 census.
Surely some of them are single and looking for mates, DiCola rationalizes. It's just a matter of finding them.
The Internet's not lacking for sites catering to or giving information about this biggest-ever age-based demographic group.
A Google search yields 1.87 million hits for "baby boomer."
But when DiCola tells people about her idea -- putting together group dates for single boomers -- people exclaim they've never heard of such a thing, but they can't wait to try it.
It's not a matchmaking service, she cautions. It's just a way for unattached, like-minded boomers to find each other. Her Web site at www.boomerage club.com is evolving and explains the operation:
"You no longer have to give up doing the things you love because you don't want to do them alone; there are other single adults of a similar age who are looking for someone else who enjoys them too. Now you can do the things you love again, with others who love them too. Isn't that the best way to meet and find that someone special in your life? You will have the chance to meet a number of people in multiple settings, enjoying the same things as you. You will know that you have something in common, and be able to get to know them in a no-pressure (one-on-one dating) situation; and best of all, you'll be having fun while you do it! Who wouldn't want to be a part of that?"
She plans to arrange activities such as bowling, biking, skating, dancing and going out to dinner and movies. And she'll fine-tune dates to accommodate specific passions, such as antique cars, racing, antiques, politics and art.
The goal, simply, is to put boomer birds of a feather together -- for a one-time fee of $39.95.
Baby boomer Dana Keiser of Binghamton points out that the unattached baby boomers she knows are lonely and looking for love, but their lives are so busy they don't have time for extraneous activities. They'd want the process streamlined so they meet people of similar interests right off the bat -- which is precisely DiCola's goal.
"Blind dating is awful," Keiser says. "But if you diffuse that by putting more people in the group, that would work a lot better. I know there are an awful lot of lonely people out there, dying to meet the right person."
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