You know you are getting old when:

[DJH]

German law changed, but my german (EU)-driving license, from the time before the change, is valid until 2033. Then, the picture will be 30 years old.

I still have a UK drivers license I got in the late 80's. It expires in 2025.

It is the license Hertz has on file for when I travel on business - on the few occasions I've been stopped for speeding in the US, the police guy has no idea what to do with it.


Cheers!
David - 21st Century Man

 

[jlw]

When you're teaching a college class and one of the students is the daughter of one of your kindergarten classmates...

When the fist baseman on your little league team posts pictures of his grandchild...

 

[tonyb]

@2jakes
Move to Germany, here's no senior-salutation like "Sir" used.

I grew up addressing grownups as "sir" and "ma'am," and I'm still in the habit. Some younger adults think I'm being sarcastic or something when I say something like, "well, I do thank you, ma'am," when in actuality that's just how I learned to grease the social wheels.

 

[Zombie_61]

I grew up addressing grownups as "sir" and "ma'am," and I'm still in the habit. Some younger adults think I'm being sarcastic or something when I say something like, "well, I do thank you, ma'am," when in actuality that's just how I learned to grease the social wheels.

Same here, except now that I'm older I address women younger than I am (or women who I think are younger) as "Miss" rather than "Ma'am".

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

I find that they all fall for "principessa."

 

[Stearmen]

When you see a cute dog on a street corner and then notice the pretty young woman at the other end of the leash!

 

[GHT]

I grew up addressing grownups as "sir" and "ma'am," and I'm still in the habit. Some younger adults think I'm being sarcastic or something when I say something like, "well, I do thank you, ma'am," when in actuality that's just how I learned to grease the social wheels.

And long may you continue to do so. Manners seem to be lost on today's society. I saw a lady, laden with shopping, struggling to open the door of an indoor mall. Stepping up to help her, I was hit by a Krakatoa force 10. "I'm not incapable," she snapped.
"As a small boy," I replied, "my mother told me that many people would enter my life, I had but a split second to make an impression." She locked eye contact with me for what felt like forever, although it was no more than a second or two, before saying: "Wise woman, your mother." And then walked off without so much as a thank you.

I find that they all fall for "principessa."

The way the French pronounce Madame, elongating the second letter 'a,' makes it sound so feminine. Anglocising it to Madam, by dropping the final letter 'e' and shortening the second letter 'a,' makes it sound like someone who runs a bawdy house.

 

[Fading Fast]

...Although I would say “yes ma’am" to Lizzie even though I’m older.
She knows so much...it’s scary! ...

I'm just outright scared of her - she knows everything and could take me a fight. I call her "ma'am" or whatever she wants me to call her.

 

[Fading Fast]

And long may you continue to do so. Manners seem to be lost on today's society. I saw a lady, laden with shopping, struggling to open the door of an indoor mall. Stepping up to help her, I was hit by a Krakatoa force 10. "I'm not incapable," she snapped.
"As a small boy," I replied, "my mother told me that many people would enter my life, I had but a split second to make an impression." She locked eye contact with me for what felt like forever, although it was no more than a second or two, before saying: "Wise woman, your mother." And then walked off without so much as a thank you.....

We live in a muddled time. In general, I get pleasant responses of "thank you" when I do what you did, but every once in awhile, today's hypersensitive gender thinking comes out and my courtesy is viewed in a context of gender politics. The fact that I'd help a man ladened with packages / a kid / what have you struggling to open a door - because it's common courtesy - is lost on those who see everything through a hyper-modern political-sensitivity prism. I just smile and walk away when the response to my simple courtesy prompts a political speech.

 

[HudsonHawk]

We live in a muddled time. In general, I get pleasant responses of "thank you" when I do what you did, but every once in awhile, today's hypersensitive gender thinking comes out and my courtesy is viewed in a context of gender politics. The fact that I'd help a man ladened with packages / a kid / what have you struggling to open a door - because it's common courtesy - is lost on those who see everything through a hyper-modern political-sensitivity prism. I just smile and walk away when the response to my simple courtesy prompts a political speech.

While I understand you point, and agree with you to an extent, it's important to remember that such a prism didn't form in a vacuum. It's stems from very specific gender roles and expectations, which not everyone found so respectful. It's easy for us men to write off a woman's response to a compliment about her appearance or suspicion at wanting to help as just her being a sourpuss because we don't have to put up with the ogling and the catcalls and crude sexual remarks directed at us. At least I don't. Anymore.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I have no problem if somebody wants to hold a door for me, and if it's one of those double-doorway things I make a point of holding the inside door for them. But when some man tries to "mansplain" gender issues to me, that's when I get my Scotch-Irish up.

We were never taught the "sir/ma'am" thing growing up -- all the adults in the neighborhood were known by their first name, or by their first and last name together if we weren't on good terms with them. No honorifics were ever used, with the exceptions of the eccentric doctor who lived next door to my grandparents, who was always known as "Dr. Blair," and the teachers in school. We especially never called a minister "reverend" -- they were always known as "first name/last name."

My mother always called her father by his first name, but her mother got "Mama." I never understood the dynamic there, but it was similar in my own case. My father was never referred to by any of us except by his first name, often preceded by "That SOB," but my mother remains "Ma."

 

[Trenchfriend]

If we Germans here the Sir/Ma'am-thing, we usually thing first about "Full Metal Jacket", "Private Benjamin", "Stripes" and so on...

 

[tonyb]

I'm every bit as likely to make favorable comment about a man's appearance as a woman's. Likelier, even. But then, I've made something of a study of men's attire (vintage, mostly, but not exclusively) and I take those who display a similar interest as kindred spirits.

I can't recall a person of any gender responding unfavorably to my observations on his or her or its appearance. Maybe I'm just lucky this way, or maybe my manner of expressing those observations isn't objectionable.

 

[LizzieMaine]

And when she saw what she had done,
She gave her father forty-one.

 

[green papaya]

they give you a senior discount , then you know your not so young and good looking as you use to be, they see you as a father figure, they call you the old man behind your back or they call you "Gramps"

 

[HudsonHawk]

We especially never called a minister "reverend" -- they were always known as "first name/last name."

Growing up Southern Baptist in the South, the minister was always referred to as "Brother first name", as in "Brother Earl" or "Brother Bill". No one ever used "reverend". Ever. Sometimes in casual conversation and if you knew him well, you might call him "Preacher", but that was about it. He lived in the "parsonage", but no one ever used the term "Parson", at least not where I grew up.

 

[ChiTownScion]

And when she saw what she had done,
She gave her father forty-one.

Well, it wasn't done for pleasure and it wasn't done for spite,
And it wasn't done because the lady wasn't very bright.
She had always done the slightest thing that Mom and Pop had bid,
They said, "Lizzie, cut it out!"... so that's exactly what she did.

But you can't chop your Papa up in Massachusetts,
And then pretend to go out for a walk.
No, you can't chop your papa up in Massachusetts:
Massachusetts is a far cry from New York.

 

[ChiTownScion]

We were never taught the "sir/ma'am" thing growing up -- all the adults in the neighborhood were known by their first name, or by their first and last name together if we weren't on good terms with them.

If I'd ever addressed my Dad's co-workers as Bob, Mel, or Pat, as opposed to Mr. ____, Mr. _____, or Captain ______, or their respective wives as anything but Mrs. _____, I think that I'd have gotten my mouth soaped. They were like uncles to me, but "Mr." was expected. Same as any adult, really. I remember a 6 year old friend addressing my mom by her first name and was horrified that he was allowed to get away with that: my mother dismissed it with, "Well, they're from Ohio."

The "sir" and ma'am" bit was enforced at home and reinforced at school: heck, prior to 5th grade, the nuns expected us boys to salute them before addressing them! (Girls were expected to curtsey.) The latter started changing about 1964 as the spirit of Vatican II started taking hold in the schools.

 

[LizzieMaine]

We were militantly egalitarian in our family -- I never, ever heard my grandfather say "mister" in his life to anyone, and he refused to allow anyone to "mister" him. He always referred to everyone by the first-name/last-name convention, whether they were close friends, customers, or The Town Fathers, and you could tell by his tone of voice what he thought of each person so mentioned. I never heard him call anyone but immediate family by first name alone -- it was always both names, although often slurred together as one word. It wasn't just a pecularity with him, either -- all his brothers shared this habit, and my mother never called any of them "Uncle" -- they were always called by "first name/last name."

I once got into a discussion with a kid at school about why most everybody in the Peanuts comic strip called Charlie Brown "Charlie Brown," instead of "Charlie." The thought had never occured to me that there was something peculiar about that, because I'd heard people referred to that way all my life. Whenever my mother is talking to me about my sister, she always calls her by first name/last name, and I assume she does the same thing when she talks to her about me.

 

[2jakes]

We were militantly egalitarian in our family -- I never, ever heard my grandfather say "mister" in his life to anyone, and he refused to allow anyone to "mister" him. He always referred to everyone by the first-name/last-name convention, whether they were close friends, customers, or The Town Fathers, and you could tell by his tone of voice what he thought of each person so mentioned. I never heard him call anyone but immediate family by first name alone -- it was always both names, although often slurred together as one word. It wasn't just a pecularity with him, either -- all his brothers shared this habit, and my mother never called any of them "Uncle" -- they were always called by "first name/last name."

I once got into a discussion with a kid at school about why most everybody in the Peanuts comic strip called Charlie Brown "Charlie Brown," instead of "Charlie." The thought had never occured to me that there was something peculiar about that, because I'd heard people referred to that way all my life. Whenever my mother is talking to me about my sister, she always calls her by first name/last name, and I assume she does the same thing when she talks to her about me.

Would that be Lizzie
or Elizabeth that your ma calls you?

I know that the only time my full name was used was when I was in deep trouble with my folks or teachers.