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I was t-boned at an intersection. Thought I was ok. EMS arrives and says: "due to your advanced age, we think it would be best to take a ride to the hospital and get checked out." I look around, thinking they are speaking to the obviously old man in the other car and realize...nope. Talking to me. I was 56 at the time.
After age 50 they are concerned about a possible brain bleed. It is a good precaution to get checked out anytime you have been t-boned. Your head gets whipped around. My daughter was T-boned when she was in her thirties. She thought she was fine and delayed going for a check up. Had neck problems later on. Fifteen years later she had to have corrective neck surgery.
I turn 60 mid August and can believe it’s happened so quickly. During the pandemic I saw a bunch of seniors perform Modern English’s ‘I’ll Melt with You’ each from their home. Thought they did a pretty damn good job but soon realized it was the actual musicians from Modern English. Why is everything reminding I’m ‘getting’ old. 🫣
I'm so old I remember the little call caddies. The ones where you moved the little arrow up and down the alphabet and then push the little lever and the whole thing swung open.
If you said little black book I’m sure it would be met with blank stares too. Wild. I’m not quite 40 but I feel very old with stuff sometimes. I made a “do you have any grey poupon” car joke once to younger people and they wee like ma’am are you ok? I died inside
I complained to a coworker that having to write paragraphs on carbonless forms mad me wish for an IBM Selectric. She replied, “I don’t know what that is.” Words failed me.
This iPhone doesn’t “know” what one is either—according to its spellcheck.
Trying to explain credit card imprint machines and triplicate carbon copy hand written receipts to my nephew… he was surprised also that we didn’t have debit cards and ATM machines and had to write a check and give it to the bank teller to get cash!!
And if an EMF, or terrorists, ever shut down or destroyed electric grids, even temporarily so, we’d wish they kept those credit card imprinters, carbon paper, and even the raised numbers on credit and debit cards.
Neither did my 30-something friends! I actually bought one for a friend who constantly complained about her dresses clinging to her tights. Changed her life.
That’s damn funny. I swear we had skips half slips, bustier, and mom had the belt to hold a Kotex in place and the Kotex came in a gigantic box, so big it didn’t fit in the bathroom vanity.
The first one that shook me happened a few months ago. Cake is doing a summer tour and happened to stop in the city I live in. As soon as tickets went on sale I bought two. I was excited as they were one of the first bands I liked way back in middle school. They announced the band and out walks an old man with white hair and a white beard. Fortunately, he sounds the same, and the show was great, but I felt so wildly old the rest of the evening.
I love Cake. I’ve had tickets to two of their concerts, both of which I had to travel to. But I never made it to either. I got food poisoning both times. Next time, I’m not eating anything before the show.
I'm at the age where all of the popular music bands members from my high school years are starting to get really sick and die off. I regularly text my friends about whatever news article has announced the band member's illness or death.
The first time I quoted a movie that I thought everyone in the room would know and was met with blank stares.
No more pop culture references have been made since.
“I picked the wrong week to stop sniffling glue” was met with horrified stares from my co-workers.
Also, my co-workers are cops and I work in a police station.
A couple weeks ago, when the song "Houdini" came out, I asked a guy in my office, around 20 years old, if people his age were still listening to Eminem. He laughed at me like I was crazy and said "of course, he's one of the GOATs." I said, "Okay, just checking, because I asked someone else your age if they ever listened to Ludacris and they said they didn't listen to 'old stuff like that.'"
His response: "Oh, Ludacris used to do music?"
These parents obviously didn’t raise their kids right, both my kids (22 and 17) know who Eminem is and can list several of his songs for you.
Same goes for Ludacris
My daughter went to the school I taught at in about 2010 and in her high school math class, her teacher said one day, with the same reflection as the Meatloaf song “stop right there” and my daughter spouted right back “I gotta know right now”
The teacher looked at her shocked, and rest of class was lost. Such a proud moment.
Definitely. I’ve raised 3 kids and now I’m just tired. I have an apprentice that’s 25 and while his naivety and wide eyed optimism can be endearing, sometimes all I can think is “ oh just wait until life beats you down for about 30 years kid”. Even just going to the grocery store is exhausting anymore. There’s no novelty in much of anything.
NO KIDDING!! I listen to pretty progressive music, but I've been stumped.
It was how I learned who Halsey is, and that's nice... But some of the hosts and music are nearly my grandchildren's age.
Feeling unstable when playing racquetball at age 57. Now at age 70, my Fitbit tells me it takes more energy (heart rate) to do tasks that are regular like mowing lawn, doing laundry, cleaning house. But fortunately I am still in good health with no chronic issues. 🤞
A store just remodeled in my neighborhood, and part of the model was having a live DJ spinning during peak times. I don't have a lot of faith in what they're trying to do, but I kind of respect them trying to do it
I didn’t get married until I was 30. Had my first child at 34, then got pregnant with my second at 38. Had my OB call it a geriatric pregnancy. Gee, thanks, let me get my walker.
I can relate. I had my first at 35 and my second at 37. I felt ancient when I went to my first and only Mommy and Me class and the other mothers were at least 10 years younger
My last was a surprise at 35. Got the high risk label because I told him if he called me geriatric he'd never pee straight again for the rest of his life.
Was asked if the child I was holding was my grandchild. It was my son. And I was 36. Granted I was in an area where a 36 year grandmother would have been rather common
My German Shepard got out one day and started running down the street. She used to love to run around the neighborhood. I walked down there to encourage her to come home, and when she started to run home, I ran with her.
I think she enjoyed seeing me run as fast as I could, and she looked so beautiful in a full run.
That is, with about 50 yards to go, I pulled who knows what in my back and had to have help back into the house. I was laid up for three days.
When I started my period at age 11. I seriously thought, "well, I guess this is the beginning of the end". But I was obviously a weird kid (or had just read too many books), haha.
Well, I was a weird kid too … I cried the night before my 10th birthday because getting in the double-digits meant I was growing up and wouldn’t get to be a kid much longer.
That was close to 40 years ago now.
Ha! I get it. I remember mournfully skulking around my dorm room listening to Mr. Mellencamp (then Cougar) wail "Hold on to 16 as long as you can ... changes come around real soon make us women and men" and feeling depressed and so old (WAAAAY past 16!) and unaccomplished (also weird and read lotsa books, maybe related)
When men stopped speaking to me altogether. I expected they'd stop talking to me to hit on me. That would have been welcome. But I didn't expect to disappear completely. Opened up a whole new, very unwelcome, perspective for me.
There’s an old Doonesbury cartoon where one of the main characters is chatting up a cashier and all she sees is empty air and she mumbles a few “mmm-hmms.” Totally captures the moment!
What’s Doonesbury?
I’m kidding. I have a picture of me in college on my desk at work. In the background is a poster of Bill the cat and Opus. I had to explain “what that was all about”.
I play in an adult kickball league (a decisively immature thing to do). One of the cute girls on the team called me "kickball dad".
Just shoot my balls off
After COVID I stopped coloring my hair which is now completely white. I was leaving a drugstore a few years ago & dropped something just as a young woman & a child were coming in. The woman said to her daughter, “Go pick that up for the nice lady.”
I almost died. I said “Thanks, that’s ok” and picked it up myself. I don’t look decrepit & I walk like a younger person, but with the white hair I guess people automatically think I’m really old & infirm. And waitresses have started calling me “Dear”. Yikes!
I think when some people see white hair, they don’t look any further for signs of aging and just make an assumption.
My aunt’s hair turned white by the time she was in her early 20s, and people would often ask my uncle “who’s that old lady that was with you?”
Mine started turning early too. After fighting it for years I gave up. It's more white than grey or silver so it's kinda unusual. It can pass for a really light, light blonde.
I was trying to tell someone at work that Madonna was our generation's Taylor Swift.
They had to call their mother and ask if Madonna was anywhere near as popular as Taylor Swift. Her mother said no, but Brittany Spears was.
My 10 yr old daughters friend calling me Mr *lastname*. I get that she was just being respectful as she'd probably been taught but that made me realize I'm not young anymore even though I was only late 30s when it happened.
I didn’t truly feel old until a couple of months ago when I looked in the mirror and saw that I’m starting to get a chin wattle. No joke, I’ve been having an existential crisis ever since.
Not exactly old, but I was in my late 30s when I tried rollerblading. It looked like SO MUCH fun! I would have loved it when I was a teenager. I convinced a neighbor. (Who was a few years younger and in far better condition) to take a class with me. She had a blast. I had … fun … but I fell, repeatedly. After the first few times my back started to stiffen up and I couldn’t stand up quite straight anymore, so I kept falling and landing on the same hip.
This was when I faced the fact that I just wasn’t a kid anymore.
Hahaha when I went sledding with my son and niece and broke my back going down a hill. 🤣🤣🤣 imagine my fat 50 year old ass sledding down this huge hill on a pool float (which is way slipperier than a regular sled) flying, then going over a small ramp and flipping heals over head and landing hard on my ass. The beginning of osteoporosis is what did it. Fractured 2 vertebrae. Got lucky it was in my Thorasic spine rather than my C part.
The feeling has come over me in waves through the years. A few memorable times: when I was first called “ma’am” in my 30s, in my 40s when I showed a Father Guido Sarducci film clip to a college class as an ice breaker and got total crickets and strange stares… and most recently (in my 60s) when I asked colleagues (30 years my junior, at least) about how to use hashtags. Ah, so it goes…
Just a month ago I tried to stop my dog from chasing a rabbit down the street, and completely detached the tendon on my bicep. I looked it up, and it's most common in men between the age of 40 to 60. It's kinda hard to argue that I'm not that old. I feel *seen*.
When MCA from the Beastie Boys died, one of my friends said "you know you're starting to get old when rappers are dying of natural causes" and it hit kind of hard.
Inflammation of the sciatic nerve. This could happen to all ages, but for me, this was the first time, that I was limited in my movements and let me feel old. Luckily, I am in very good health and I am fitter in my 50ies than in my 30ies, so I had no experience with limitations. But these weeks of pain showed me, how precious it is to be able to just simply get out of bed and go to the bathroom instead of wiggling around for 5 minutes to find the one position that allows you to stand up. I know, it is a trifle compared to what so many others have to endure, but this was a waking call to me, telling me: Standing up, going from A to B, sitting down is not necessarily a no-brainer and can become a challenge
The first was watching a hockey game about 10 years ago and my husband and I looking at an 18 year old rookie and both saying, "He's a baby!!!" That was pretty fleeting and didn't really stick in my head.
The second is growing out my hair for the first time in 40 years. I colored it from 10 to 50 and just grew it out a few months ago. I knew I had gray but I was SHOCKED at the sheer volume. I'm more salt than pepper. Luckily it's a good gray - not coarse and crystalline white. I think I'll go back to purple this weekend.
If I'm a little dehydrated, my hands can look old now. And there's a weird little patch under my beard line that's a kind of different color from everything else, it bugs the hell out of me. Otherwise, I've made an effort to stay current with pop culture, I try to learn to appreciate new music, so I don't get like a left behind feeling.
Last week at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC when I saw teenage girls running around in booty shorts and flip flops. Clutching my pearls over that one!
It’s one of the best most notable museums in the world! It costs $30 to get in! Jesus Wept!
Started turning grey in my 30’s, apparently a family trait, so it didn’t really affect me much. But the next time at the BMV, “We’re going to change your hair color to grey.” Hit me hard.
Reading a blurb in a magazine about a movie. It took place in a record store and then there were parentheses explaining what a record is, something like- a flat round disc that when a needle is applied emits sounds. Yep, definitely old.
The second was when I was telling someone I work with that I got my first tattoo in 1995 and she piped up with, “I was born in 1995.” Pretty sure I said, “fuck you” as my response, lol.
I was 25 (63m now). Bored, I thought I'd try to ride my skateboard with the opposite foot first (goofy foot). As soon as I put both feet on the board, lost my balanced, skateboard went whisking forward, body up and down, hard to the ground, landing with an "oooof!" I laid there for a minute like I'd been hit by a truck, wondering why I just didn't pop right up like I would have in my teenage days. It's been downhill ever since.
At my much younger brother’s house party we were talking about “old school” tv shows, I mentioned watching how much I loved the Brady Bunch, they all looked at me “blinking” and then one of them said “you saw original episodes?” And then they all laughed :(
When my boss's boss tried to fire me for being too old ( I wasn't the first btw). My immediate boss loved me, gave me great reviews, etc. But her boss was a real POS! Before this, I never really thought of myself as old.
I retire August 30th. I am maintenance for a police dept. 2 weeks will be 33 years there. Out of the 6 people I had lunch with today only one had been born when I started there and she was 16 months old.
My brother & I are from my father's first marriage. We have siblings from a later marriage & they are significantly younger than us. We'd taken them on a day trip to an event where you could get a photo to memorialise your day. The photographer was organising us & said 'mum & dad in the back, kids at the front'. I thought it was funny but my brother was speechless for quite a while & his face was so pale in the photo 😆 I'm not sure if was the slight on his age or the thought of people thinking he was partnered with his sister that upset him most!
Please do not comment directly to this post unless you are Gen X or older (born 1980 or before). See [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskOldPeople/comments/inci5u/reminder_please_do_not_answer_questions_unless/), the rules, and the sidebar for details. Thank you for your submission, HappyNamcoNerd80. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskOldPeople) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I was t-boned at an intersection. Thought I was ok. EMS arrives and says: "due to your advanced age, we think it would be best to take a ride to the hospital and get checked out." I look around, thinking they are speaking to the obviously old man in the other car and realize...nope. Talking to me. I was 56 at the time.
After age 50 they are concerned about a possible brain bleed. It is a good precaution to get checked out anytime you have been t-boned. Your head gets whipped around. My daughter was T-boned when she was in her thirties. She thought she was fine and delayed going for a check up. Had neck problems later on. Fifteen years later she had to have corrective neck surgery.
I get it now, but at the time I didn't think of myself as advanced in age!
Ugh. This really hurt. I turn 60 in n November.
Welcome to advanced age!!
I turn 60 mid August and can believe it’s happened so quickly. During the pandemic I saw a bunch of seniors perform Modern English’s ‘I’ll Melt with You’ each from their home. Thought they did a pretty damn good job but soon realized it was the actual musicians from Modern English. Why is everything reminding I’m ‘getting’ old. 🫣
😁 But isn't it amazing how much younger you look than they do? Everyone else has aged so much and you haven't changed a bit.
I said something about a Rolodex and none of my colleagues knew what I was talking about.
I'm so old I remember the little call caddies. The ones where you moved the little arrow up and down the alphabet and then push the little lever and the whole thing swung open.
As a kid, I found those fascinating.
Yes -loved the ease of these!
My bosses dog is named Rolodex and everyone always tries to correct him and say, "You mean Rolex right?". It stings
If you said little black book I’m sure it would be met with blank stares too. Wild. I’m not quite 40 but I feel very old with stuff sometimes. I made a “do you have any grey poupon” car joke once to younger people and they wee like ma’am are you ok? I died inside
Sigh, I know how you feel. I loved the Grey Poupon commercials.
I complained to a coworker that having to write paragraphs on carbonless forms mad me wish for an IBM Selectric. She replied, “I don’t know what that is.” Words failed me. This iPhone doesn’t “know” what one is either—according to its spellcheck.
Trying to explain credit card imprint machines and triplicate carbon copy hand written receipts to my nephew… he was surprised also that we didn’t have debit cards and ATM machines and had to write a check and give it to the bank teller to get cash!!
And if an EMF, or terrorists, ever shut down or destroyed electric grids, even temporarily so, we’d wish they kept those credit card imprinters, carbon paper, and even the raised numbers on credit and debit cards.
My daughter did not know what a slip is.
Neither did my 30-something friends! I actually bought one for a friend who constantly complained about her dresses clinging to her tights. Changed her life.
That’s damn funny. I swear we had skips half slips, bustier, and mom had the belt to hold a Kotex in place and the Kotex came in a gigantic box, so big it didn’t fit in the bathroom vanity.
The first one that shook me happened a few months ago. Cake is doing a summer tour and happened to stop in the city I live in. As soon as tickets went on sale I bought two. I was excited as they were one of the first bands I liked way back in middle school. They announced the band and out walks an old man with white hair and a white beard. Fortunately, he sounds the same, and the show was great, but I felt so wildly old the rest of the evening.
I love Cake. I’ve had tickets to two of their concerts, both of which I had to travel to. But I never made it to either. I got food poisoning both times. Next time, I’m not eating anything before the show.
I was taught that finishing a good meal always precedes cake.
I'm at the age where all of the popular music bands members from my high school years are starting to get really sick and die off. I regularly text my friends about whatever news article has announced the band member's illness or death.
Well, nearly 50 and never heard of this Band so I'll look them up. Thanks
The first time I quoted a movie that I thought everyone in the room would know and was met with blank stares. No more pop culture references have been made since.
I made a reference to the "stapler guy" from office space about 2 weeks ago to a gen z. Crickets.
To be fair, isn’t Office Space kind of a cult classic ? ( I’m 26 )
It was part of the big "I'm a white guy with a decent job and health insurance, but I'm miserable" trend of the late 90s/early 2000s.
Realistically, that was a trend for most of the 20th century.
“I picked the wrong week to stop sniffling glue” was met with horrified stares from my co-workers. Also, my co-workers are cops and I work in a police station.
Have you ever been in a Turkish prison?
“Have you ever seen a grown man naked Billy?” I passed an entire cheese sandwich through my nose hearing Leslie Neilson say that
Surely you can’t be serious.😉
A couple weeks ago, when the song "Houdini" came out, I asked a guy in my office, around 20 years old, if people his age were still listening to Eminem. He laughed at me like I was crazy and said "of course, he's one of the GOATs." I said, "Okay, just checking, because I asked someone else your age if they ever listened to Ludacris and they said they didn't listen to 'old stuff like that.'" His response: "Oh, Ludacris used to do music?"
🤦🏻♀️
These parents obviously didn’t raise their kids right, both my kids (22 and 17) know who Eminem is and can list several of his songs for you. Same goes for Ludacris
My daughter went to the school I taught at in about 2010 and in her high school math class, her teacher said one day, with the same reflection as the Meatloaf song “stop right there” and my daughter spouted right back “I gotta know right now” The teacher looked at her shocked, and rest of class was lost. Such a proud moment.
This is happening to me right meow. No one got it 😭
I would have laughed and offered to buy you a liter of cola to cheer you up.
Finally! Someone of culture and taste. Just don't say you'll be right back
"Wherever you go, there you are" gen z replies, Do you have dementia?
What was the movie?
*Office Space*. I think it came out in 1999. Ron Livingston, Jennifer Aniston. I would classify it as a must-watch.
Pieces of flair
Ha! Mine was Office Space as well. I think I made a joke about my office being moved down to Storeroom B.
My son asked me was I a house slave or a field slave after I told him I was born in the 70s.
Corporate. Same as everyone else.
When my daughter was about six, she asked my mum if she was scared during the Great Fire of London.
LOL! She's never going to live that one down.
That is just plain *cold*.
Oh my god
Omg I'm dying 🤣😂 My kids asked if we had potato chips when I was born...
I mean, he’d be off even if you were born in the 1870s. How old does this dude think you are? 😅
I knew better than to ever ask him that.
The ambition, enthusiasm and drive of young people. I simply can't compete with them anymore. The tank is empty and there's nothing I can do about it.
I have no idea how I did any of it, and I am still somewhat young. Now, my biggest ambition is getting to hit the nap time early.
Definitely. I’ve raised 3 kids and now I’m just tired. I have an apprentice that’s 25 and while his naivety and wide eyed optimism can be endearing, sometimes all I can think is “ oh just wait until life beats you down for about 30 years kid”. Even just going to the grocery store is exhausting anymore. There’s no novelty in much of anything.
Not knowing who the host AND musical guest were in the SNL promos.
NO KIDDING!! I listen to pretty progressive music, but I've been stumped. It was how I learned who Halsey is, and that's nice... But some of the hosts and music are nearly my grandchildren's age.
When filling out a form online it takes longer and longer to scroll down to find my year of birth. 🤪
Like the Wheel of Fortune! 😄
Feels like I'm digging to China now. Spin...... spin again..... and again.... repeat too often and still have to go a little bit further.
This is the answer.
Feeling unstable when playing racquetball at age 57. Now at age 70, my Fitbit tells me it takes more energy (heart rate) to do tasks that are regular like mowing lawn, doing laundry, cleaning house. But fortunately I am still in good health with no chronic issues. 🤞
“Damn, you’ve got good genes for being that old”. I was 40.
Fuuuuuck
Guns ‘n’ Roses on the “easy listening” radio station.
Springsteen on the grocery store overheard music.
Ha! The Clash was playing one night on my grocery run…so weird
I heard Alanis morisette the other day.
Ironic, don't you think?
Damn you.
It's like rain on your wedding day
A store just remodeled in my neighborhood, and part of the model was having a live DJ spinning during peak times. I don't have a lot of faith in what they're trying to do, but I kind of respect them trying to do it
When someone asked me what it was like "back in the 1900's" It made me laugh but also shocked me with its reality.
When I turned fifty and learned that I was now eligible for the 'senior discount' at our local movie theater.
I had a crazy cheap meal at Denny’s by eating off the senior menu and using my AARP card. I’ll take it!
I didn’t get married until I was 30. Had my first child at 34, then got pregnant with my second at 38. Had my OB call it a geriatric pregnancy. Gee, thanks, let me get my walker.
I can relate. I had my first at 35 and my second at 37. I felt ancient when I went to my first and only Mommy and Me class and the other mothers were at least 10 years younger
My last was a surprise at 35. Got the high risk label because I told him if he called me geriatric he'd never pee straight again for the rest of his life.
When someone asked me if I had grandchildren.
Was asked if the child I was holding was my grandchild. It was my son. And I was 36. Granted I was in an area where a 36 year grandmother would have been rather common
That happened to me too.
The first time I couldn't get up off the floor from a sitting position without grabbing a chair to help me get up.
My German Shepard got out one day and started running down the street. She used to love to run around the neighborhood. I walked down there to encourage her to come home, and when she started to run home, I ran with her. I think she enjoyed seeing me run as fast as I could, and she looked so beautiful in a full run. That is, with about 50 yards to go, I pulled who knows what in my back and had to have help back into the house. I was laid up for three days.
Going to my high school reunion and when I walked in wondering who all the old people were
When my youngest turned 30. I still can’t believe my kids are in their 30s. I was 30 ten minutes ago.
And then they turn 40…
I don’t really have a problem telling people my own age, but it now freaks me out to tell people how old my kid is.
The eye exam where I found out I needed progressive lenses.
When I found out I had severe cataracts... at 48
My face in the mirror
When I started my period at age 11. I seriously thought, "well, I guess this is the beginning of the end". But I was obviously a weird kid (or had just read too many books), haha.
I was depressed my entire 15th birthday because I was halfway to 30.
Well, I was a weird kid too … I cried the night before my 10th birthday because getting in the double-digits meant I was growing up and wouldn’t get to be a kid much longer. That was close to 40 years ago now.
Ha! I get it. I remember mournfully skulking around my dorm room listening to Mr. Mellencamp (then Cougar) wail "Hold on to 16 as long as you can ... changes come around real soon make us women and men" and feeling depressed and so old (WAAAAY past 16!) and unaccomplished (also weird and read lotsa books, maybe related)
The very first time for me was when I suddenly started to be addressed as Ma'am instead of Miss.
Hearing the music from my youth as elevator music and background for commercials.
Grown ass adult tells me she's never heard of Archie Bunker.
Not the first thing, but today an AARP magazine showed up in the mail and it has Jon Bon Jovi on the cover.
Same! I couldn’t get past my stunned surprise at that cover! 😫
When men stopped speaking to me altogether. I expected they'd stop talking to me to hit on me. That would have been welcome. But I didn't expect to disappear completely. Opened up a whole new, very unwelcome, perspective for me.
Being invisible is a r/GenXWomen superpower.
The cute cashier calling me “sir”. Never felt older.
There’s an old Doonesbury cartoon where one of the main characters is chatting up a cashier and all she sees is empty air and she mumbles a few “mmm-hmms.” Totally captures the moment!
What’s Doonesbury? I’m kidding. I have a picture of me in college on my desk at work. In the background is a poster of Bill the cat and Opus. I had to explain “what that was all about”.
I play in an adult kickball league (a decisively immature thing to do). One of the cute girls on the team called me "kickball dad". Just shoot my balls off
Cashier asked if I wanted the senior discount, I asked if she needed to see my ID, and she said no. Bummer.
I remember the first time someone called me "sir" and I didn't like it. Then it happened like 5 more times that week. I liked that even less.
I decided to knock out a few pull ups and couldn’t do one 😕
When my students, 25 years ago, didn't get my Laverne and Shirley reference.
After COVID I stopped coloring my hair which is now completely white. I was leaving a drugstore a few years ago & dropped something just as a young woman & a child were coming in. The woman said to her daughter, “Go pick that up for the nice lady.” I almost died. I said “Thanks, that’s ok” and picked it up myself. I don’t look decrepit & I walk like a younger person, but with the white hair I guess people automatically think I’m really old & infirm. And waitresses have started calling me “Dear”. Yikes!
I think when some people see white hair, they don’t look any further for signs of aging and just make an assumption. My aunt’s hair turned white by the time she was in her early 20s, and people would often ask my uncle “who’s that old lady that was with you?”
Mine started turning early too. After fighting it for years I gave up. It's more white than grey or silver so it's kinda unusual. It can pass for a really light, light blonde.
First time I leaked in my pants.
Someone at work didn’t know who Madonna was (and I’m not even that old!)
I was trying to tell someone at work that Madonna was our generation's Taylor Swift. They had to call their mother and ask if Madonna was anywhere near as popular as Taylor Swift. Her mother said no, but Brittany Spears was.
Yikes, double-whammy there!
My 10 yr old daughters friend calling me Mr *lastname*. I get that she was just being respectful as she'd probably been taught but that made me realize I'm not young anymore even though I was only late 30s when it happened.
In 2009 finding a friend from my teen years on Facebook then slowly realizing that little girl in so many of her photos was her granddaughter.
Nobody knew what the yellow pages were.
I didn’t truly feel old until a couple of months ago when I looked in the mirror and saw that I’m starting to get a chin wattle. No joke, I’ve been having an existential crisis ever since.
My knees started hurting.
The first time I watched the Grammys on TV and didn’t know one g*ddamn song.
I looked around the room at an impromptu family reunion and the nieces I babysat and bottle fed had grandchildren!
Having a boss at work that was younger than I was.
Not exactly old, but I was in my late 30s when I tried rollerblading. It looked like SO MUCH fun! I would have loved it when I was a teenager. I convinced a neighbor. (Who was a few years younger and in far better condition) to take a class with me. She had a blast. I had … fun … but I fell, repeatedly. After the first few times my back started to stiffen up and I couldn’t stand up quite straight anymore, so I kept falling and landing on the same hip. This was when I faced the fact that I just wasn’t a kid anymore.
The mirror. I don't FEEL like I'm turning 65 next month....then I look in the mirror.
When my Dr started asking me if I had fallen. She recently expanded that to include “have you been incontinent”! 🤬
Yes but I also visited the U.K.
Hahaha when I went sledding with my son and niece and broke my back going down a hill. 🤣🤣🤣 imagine my fat 50 year old ass sledding down this huge hill on a pool float (which is way slipperier than a regular sled) flying, then going over a small ramp and flipping heals over head and landing hard on my ass. The beginning of osteoporosis is what did it. Fractured 2 vertebrae. Got lucky it was in my Thorasic spine rather than my C part.
>What was the first thing that made you feel old? My telomeres getting shorter.
Becoming a bit frayed around the telomeres, are you?
The feeling has come over me in waves through the years. A few memorable times: when I was first called “ma’am” in my 30s, in my 40s when I showed a Father Guido Sarducci film clip to a college class as an ice breaker and got total crickets and strange stares… and most recently (in my 60s) when I asked colleagues (30 years my junior, at least) about how to use hashtags. Ah, so it goes…
I love Father Guido Sarducci! Rember The Lazlo Letters?
A summer intern at work telling me he was born the year I graduated from high school.
Just a month ago I tried to stop my dog from chasing a rabbit down the street, and completely detached the tendon on my bicep. I looked it up, and it's most common in men between the age of 40 to 60. It's kinda hard to argue that I'm not that old. I feel *seen*.
Lack of physical ability, but I'm improving that!
When I told a 20 something co worker that I burned a CD with my latest playlist and she thought that was so cute!
When I played a song on the radio, and my daughter said it was a throwback from 2010!
Getting a hangover from 2 beers :(
When MCA from the Beastie Boys died, one of my friends said "you know you're starting to get old when rappers are dying of natural causes" and it hit kind of hard.
Diagnosed with arthritis, followed by total hip replacement surgery. In recovery now.
hope you recover soon
When I showed some painful signs of knee arthritis about 5 years ago.
I’m dealing with that now. It’s debilitating. Any advice for dealing with it?
Inflammation of the sciatic nerve. This could happen to all ages, but for me, this was the first time, that I was limited in my movements and let me feel old. Luckily, I am in very good health and I am fitter in my 50ies than in my 30ies, so I had no experience with limitations. But these weeks of pain showed me, how precious it is to be able to just simply get out of bed and go to the bathroom instead of wiggling around for 5 minutes to find the one position that allows you to stand up. I know, it is a trifle compared to what so many others have to endure, but this was a waking call to me, telling me: Standing up, going from A to B, sitting down is not necessarily a no-brainer and can become a challenge
Meeting someone born after 9/11.
When the doctors suddenly were younger than me. Hit me in my early 40’s, and they were in their early to mid-30’s.
The first was watching a hockey game about 10 years ago and my husband and I looking at an 18 year old rookie and both saying, "He's a baby!!!" That was pretty fleeting and didn't really stick in my head. The second is growing out my hair for the first time in 40 years. I colored it from 10 to 50 and just grew it out a few months ago. I knew I had gray but I was SHOCKED at the sheer volume. I'm more salt than pepper. Luckily it's a good gray - not coarse and crystalline white. I think I'll go back to purple this weekend.
If I'm a little dehydrated, my hands can look old now. And there's a weird little patch under my beard line that's a kind of different color from everything else, it bugs the hell out of me. Otherwise, I've made an effort to stay current with pop culture, I try to learn to appreciate new music, so I don't get like a left behind feeling.
Reading glasses. Buying reading glasses. Broke me.
Age 45 was told I had early cataracts and was in peri-menopause.
Eyesight. When I found myself pulling away I knew that was it.
When they started playing my kind of music at the grocery store.
When I turned 50, someone said to me that half my life was over. I had never thought of that and I felt so old after that.
Last week at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC when I saw teenage girls running around in booty shorts and flip flops. Clutching my pearls over that one! It’s one of the best most notable museums in the world! It costs $30 to get in! Jesus Wept!
When 80’s songs (the mainstream songs of my teen years) showed up on an “oldies” list. WTF.
The first thing? Realizing I’m nearing 90. (88 in November.) Any one else here that old?
Started turning grey in my 30’s, apparently a family trait, so it didn’t really affect me much. But the next time at the BMV, “We’re going to change your hair color to grey.” Hit me hard.
As a woman, becoming invisible.
Getting bifocals at 50.
Being called a lady instead of a girl
When the President-elect was just a few days older than me.
The first time I heard my music described as “old school.” This is music from the late ‘70s and early ‘80s!!!
When I started getting short of breath walking up a hill I’d been walking up for about ten years.
Reading a blurb in a magazine about a movie. It took place in a record store and then there were parentheses explaining what a record is, something like- a flat round disc that when a needle is applied emits sounds. Yep, definitely old. The second was when I was telling someone I work with that I got my first tattoo in 1995 and she piped up with, “I was born in 1995.” Pretty sure I said, “fuck you” as my response, lol.
I got out of bed one morning and my feet cracked.
[удалено]
I was 25 (63m now). Bored, I thought I'd try to ride my skateboard with the opposite foot first (goofy foot). As soon as I put both feet on the board, lost my balanced, skateboard went whisking forward, body up and down, hard to the ground, landing with an "oooof!" I laid there for a minute like I'd been hit by a truck, wondering why I just didn't pop right up like I would have in my teenage days. It's been downhill ever since.
When kids I taught in elementary school started getting married and having babies.
(M64) AARP!
When women stopped returning my gaze.
My optometrist mentioned my cataracts. My what??????
I think all of these answers are right, but I can’t remember anything lately!
At my much younger brother’s house party we were talking about “old school” tv shows, I mentioned watching how much I loved the Brady Bunch, they all looked at me “blinking” and then one of them said “you saw original episodes?” And then they all laughed :(
When music started sucking
When I was twenty eight and they played music from my teens on the oldies station.
When some kid on Letterboxd said “It must have been great to see that movie in the theater way back then!” That was when I finally gave up
I turned 50.
When my knees stopped working
When my close up vision started to go.
When my boss's boss tried to fire me for being too old ( I wasn't the first btw). My immediate boss loved me, gave me great reviews, etc. But her boss was a real POS! Before this, I never really thought of myself as old.
When someone asked what the Cold War was.
Nothing because everyone gets older. Who cares
I saw a Walkman in the museum
(M64) Trying as hard as I could... Explaining to some 25 to 29 year olds, what the TV show 'West Wing' was about.
When I first noticed that doctors and cops were looking like they were barely out of high-school.
When young adults started to look like children instead of my peers.
I retire August 30th. I am maintenance for a police dept. 2 weeks will be 33 years there. Out of the 6 people I had lunch with today only one had been born when I started there and she was 16 months old.
I’m 65 and I said to my son I feel old now he said well you should I’m 44 wtf
Being considered too old for a great job I wanted, at 59
AARP sent me an invitation….i was only 50!
When I was told I was having a “geriatric pregnancy”
My brother & I are from my father's first marriage. We have siblings from a later marriage & they are significantly younger than us. We'd taken them on a day trip to an event where you could get a photo to memorialise your day. The photographer was organising us & said 'mum & dad in the back, kids at the front'. I thought it was funny but my brother was speechless for quite a while & his face was so pale in the photo 😆 I'm not sure if was the slight on his age or the thought of people thinking he was partnered with his sister that upset him most!
Scrolling forever to get to birth year on website.
I get really mad at people who drive in our neighborhood in front of my house “too damn fast”