LEWISTON — They’re reaching an age they used to think of as ancient and are smiling about not looking — or acting — that age.

For this group of friends, 70 may be the new 40.

Sharing lessons on aging well, the group are members of Lewiston High School’s Class of 1962, who will celebrate turning 70 this year with a high school birthday reunion on Aug. 8.

“We don’t feel 70,” classmate Terry Clavet said.

“We do things, exercise. We still work,” Claire Amero said.

Among the things that have helped them age well: staying busy, working or volunteering after retirement, exercising regularly, getting out there socially and having a positive attitude.

They illustrated by sharing a bit about themselves.

Jeanne (Fournier) Boucher turned 70 in March. She works as an estimator for Floor Systems. She also has an antiques business and an interior design business. “I love doing all of that,” she said.

Terry (Rossignol) Clavet turned 70 in February. She’s retired from TD Bank and works part time at the Franco Center, where she also volunteers. Also, “I do weddings and banquets at DaVinci’s.”

She gardens and baby-sits some of her 13 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. Her husband is 47 years old. “She’s a cougar,” her friends teased. Before they married, they had known each other for years, Clavet said.

Bobby Michaud turns 70 this month. He spent 25 years in the U.S. Army and retired as a colonel. After owning a real estate company in Sun Valley, Idaho, he moved home to be close to family.

Today, he tutors math at Lake Region High School in Bridgton. He hikes, bikes, canoes, kayaks and skis, and is an accomplished carpenter. His friends gushed about how he’s turned his cabin into a stylish home.

Barbara Aliberti turned 70 in July. A grandmother of three, she retired as a nurse manager from Central Maine Medical Center. She worked for Horizon 55. She plays poker with friends, line dances, exercise every day, travels and tries “to keep up with my 98-year-young mom.”

Claire (Begin) Amero, who turned 70 in April, retired from General Electric. She volunteers for Central Maine Medical Center fitness classes. She exercises often, 90 minutes at a time. A painter, she has exhibited her art and even sold a few paintings. She gardens, plays the piano and hikes, recently climbing Tumbledown Mountain.

What’s allowing this not-quite-baby-boomer-bunch (born in ’44) to stay active is good genes, the group said. But staying healthy takes work, attention to what they eat and how they move.

“At 40, somebody can seem like 80; at 80, someone can seem like 45,” Aliberti said.

Unlike their parents’ generation, they have more access to information and opportunities to stay healthy. They have more outlets to socialize.

“Our moms stayed home and did the housework,” Aliberti said. Housework doesn’t allow socializing that comes with volunteering, going to the gym or holding a part-time job.

“That’s part of the difference,” Aliberti said.

Thanks to her grandchildren, Amero says she’s embraced technology. “They’re on the cellphone. They want to text me,” she said. “I bought a smartphone and learned how to use it.”

When it comes to health issues — and they say everyone has them — they don’t talk about them. Conversations about ailments are depressing, “and so boring,” Amero said.

When they get out of bed and their joints hurt, they move anyway. “I say, ‘I have things to do today!’” Aliberti said.

Michaud said his father used to preach “use it or lose it.” That saying applies to more than muscles, he said. It’s about maintaining a vibrant life.

“If you stay mentally active, physically active, spiritually active, emotionally active, laugh — if you use all those things given to you, you stay healthy,” Michaud said. “It’s not that difficult. It’s not a secret. It works.”

And when they get together with classmates, it’s easy to laugh, to feel the innocence of a different era.

In the year they graduated, John F. Kennedy was president, First Lady Jackie Kennedy took television viewers on a tour of the White House, Johnny Carson took over “The Tonight Show,” Chubby Checker and Elvis Presley had top hits and the Beach Boys signed with Capital Records.

“Some people say you lose your youth, but you don’t,” Michaud said. “It’s inside you, but it gets suppressed by all the clutter of daily life. When we get together, that youth comes to the forefront. We’re silly.”

Youthfulness isn’t wasted on the young, he said. “Youth is wasted if the old don’t use it.”

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