The“60 List”

To read more about Mary’s 60 list here are the two Doug Moe columns in the Wisconsin State Journal that tell her story.

Woman’s 60th List
Inspires and Intimidates

By Doug Moe | Wisconsin State Journal | November 28, 2010

Good Doug read Mary Gooze’s list the other day and immediately recognized himself in the presence of a hero.

He was so excited, he called her to talk about it.

Bad Doug read Mary Gooze’s list at about the same time and immediately had to lie down.

He was so exhausted, it was all he could do to call for a pizza.

Gooze, who lives with her husband, Robert, in Oregon, turns 60 next year.

To celebrate that milestone, Gooze has compiled a list of 60 things — all related to the number 60 — to accomplish in the calendar year 2011 (her actual birthday is June 4).

The list is still a work in progress, but Gooze’s tentative goals include the following:

Climb 60,000 feet. Swim 60 miles. Visit six different countries. Identify 60 birds in Costa Rica. Practice the piano for 60 minutes for 60 days. Take 60 hikes. Make a quilt with 60 squares. Travel 6,000 miles. Lose 10 pounds in six months. Plant 60 bulbs.

Those are just 10 of the 60 things Gooze intends to do next year.

“You are an inspiration,” Good Doug said.

“You have to be kidding,” Bad Doug said.

“I am going to make my own list,” Good Doug said.

“Isn’t there more to life than a self-improvement course?” Bad Doug said.

Gooze, who is retired and has lived in the Madison area for 30 years, said she came up with the idea for a “60 for 60” list while driving with her husband to their winter place in Tucson.

There’s not much to see in Kansas, Gooze said, so after listening to some books on tape she started thinking out loud about turning 60 and what she might do to mark that birthday.

Gooze always has been an achiever — a triathlon athlete, habitual volunteer and frequent traveler who in recent years has been learning Spanish — though she insists she’s “an average 59-year-old who wants to do something both meaningful and challenging” in her 60th year.

Among her other goals for 2011: Do 60 push-ups at one time. Raise $600 for charity. Write 60 letters. Read 6,000 pages. Lift weights for 60 days.

“Sixty is the new 50,” Good Doug said.

The mention of 50 led Bad Doug to recall reading a State Journal article a couple of years ago on the 50 things everyone should have learned to do by age 50.

It dawned on Bad Doug at the time that he had mastered almost nothing on the list, which included having learned to dance, how to remember names and how to dress for any occasion.

The only thing on the list Bad Doug had learned was how to call a repairman. Bad Doug calls a repairman to replace a light bulb.

Gooze said she has shared her “60” plan with numerous friends and has received a variety of reactions.

“A lot of people have told me it’s not doable,” she said. Others have been more encouraging. Some have begun compiling their own lists.

Gooze said she intends to “hit the ground running” on Jan. 1. As mentioned, her list includes traveling 6,000 miles, and on her itinerary this year is a trip to Colorado with friends — where she will accomplish the 60,000 feet of climbing, in 10,000 foot increments — as well as one to Costa Rica and Peru with her husband. Earlier this year, they went to Africa.

Bad Doug has always compared foreign travel to camping out.

But Gooze is such an optimist, she even tried to recruit Bad Doug. The day after Thanksgiving, she sent him an e-mail.

“I really feel anyone can do a challenge of their own making if they set their mind to it,” she wrote. “Even you!”

Bad Doug took another look at her list, and found an item he thought he could embrace: Sample 60 different wines.

He had just one concern. “You’re buying?”

60 goals for 60 years —
And Now, Another Challenge

By Doug Moe | Wisconsin State Journal | January 16, 2012

When Mary Gooze was preparing to turn 60 last year, she made a list of 60 goals, all related to the number 60, that to some observers seemed preposterous.

All right, they seemed preposterous to me.

Gooze, who lives with her husband Rob in Oregon, sent me a note — I then phoned her — explaining how at 59 she decided she wanted to do "something both meaningful and challenging" in her 60th year.

The list of 60 things Gooze proposed to accomplish in 2011 included climbing 60,000 feet; practicing the piano for 60 minutes for 60 days; reading 6,000 pages; identifying 60 birds in Costa Rica; making a quilt with 60 squares; and doing 60 push-ups at one time. There were 54 more, but you get the idea.

Just reading the list made me want to lie down. There were a couple I thought I might be able to handle. I figured I could bet $60 at the horse track in Arlington, Ill., and I knew I could sample 60 bottles of wine, at least if someone else was buying. But that was about it. 

Gooze, though, was undaunted. Retired, the resident of the Madison area for three decades has always been an achiever: a triathlete, a volunteer for good causes, a world traveler. Recently, her kids joked she was slowing down. She was going to prove them wrong.

I wished her well and said I hoped she would keep me posted.

Last week, Gooze got back in touch. She shared the story of her 2011 — it was extraordinary — and she shared some recent news that has her reflecting again on the past 12 months and what she learned from them.

Not surprisingly, the list was never far out of her thoughts, starting a year ago this month.

"I got a little obsessed with the whole thing," Gooze said. She added that the list became like a member of the family — maybe a great-uncle, she said, who's a little weird but lovable for his quirks.

Easy and hard, fun or not, the items got checked off. Gooze pledged to bake 60 dozen cookies, and did, while being reminded why she never cared much for baking.

She made a quilt with a goal of 60 squares. Had she ever done one before?

"Oh, heavens no," she said.

But she has a sister who walked her through it. One of the best parts of the year were the friends and acquaintances who surfaced, always willing to help, when word got around about her quest. 

Gooze donated the quilt to the YWCA in Madison. When she made 60 mittens, she donated those, too. When she had to invite 60 friends to a party, she turned it into a charitable fundraiser that generated $1,500 for polio inoculations.

She still is searching for a positive spin on doing 60 regulation push-ups all at one time. Full disclosure: Gooze did 40, took a brief break — 60 seconds, of course — and then did the final 20.

Reading 6,000 pages proved easy. Gooze read best-sellers such as "Unbroken" and "In the Garden of Beasts" and went back to books published in 1951 — 60 years ago — such as "The Caine Mutiny."

She contacted six famous people born in 1951 to tell them about her adventure and author Bill Bryson sent a personal note in reply. The Ben & Jerry's guys sent coupons for ice cream.

Presumably, Gooze could have used them after a July trip to Colorado with 12 friends in which she spent nine days climbing in what she calls the "glorious" Colorado mountains. The trip put her over her goal of 60,000 feet climbed.

Gooze wrote 60 letters and found the recipients grateful to receive personally written notes in the electronic age.

"That's something I'll keep doing," she said.

She completed the list in December feeling better than she had in years.

And then, just days ago, in early January, Mary Gooze was diagnosed with breast cancer.

"It seems like all of last year was in preparation for this," she said last week, as she was readying for surgery and treatment.

"I know how to set goals," she continued, "and now I have a new set of goals. I know it will be hard, but I also know I can come out ahead."

She has a great support system — Rob, in particular, who was there almost every step of the way in 2011 — and a lot of people pulling for her.

"I don't think I'll be climbing a mountain this year," she said.

Maybe not, but I wouldn't bet against 2013.