You know you are getting old when:

[belfastboy]

My grandparents home (built in 1936) had a small alcove between kitchen and livingroom for the telephone. The device itself hung in a little arched area recessed into the wall. If that little cathedral looking nook still exists I doubt any of the younger among us would know what its purpose was.

My birth home built in the late 1940's had one of these little nooks. Also had a door enclosing a built in ironing board in the kitchen. Weird thing was you had to move the kitchen table to access it.

 

[belfastboy]

My mom became a bank secretary after high school and I can recall Gregg's Shorthand lying around the house.
Never gave it a shot myself. Looking back, the scratch might have proved useful.

My young wife born in '53 knew shorthand and was master at it. Early in her working life as a legal secretary she used it as it was seen as a very valuable skill along with using a Dictaphone. She could also type 120 words a minute.

 

[belfastboy]

Looking at a FB post of someone's grandmother's personal diary which was written in shorthand. The Original Poster wanted to know if anyone could translate it. Reading the comments, there are people alive today who have never HEARD of shorthand and were calling it "an alien language." I went to HS between 1989 and 1993 and shorthand was still a class you could take. I understand shorthand isn't a thing anymore for the most part, but geez! I just find it odd people are unaware of things that happened before they were born.

I mentored a 9 year old for a few years, in school. When passing the time I would do my...."In my day....". The kid would roll his eyes with a 'here we go again attitude...". I truly could not convince him I had a black and white TV only, when his age and we only got two channels, one for sure and another if my dad could get the roof anttenae situated properly. I also told him that when I was his age instead of today's 'timeouts' we would just get the razor strop. His reply to that was in the affirmative as he said...."Oh yeh, on our last field trip to the Museum they had one of those straps on display.

 

[navetsea]

I know probably I'm too young to contribute being only 42
but I feel getting old is not a matter of physical but more with attitude when someone stop learning new things, and keep updated with latest news and hype, we don't have to love or adopt the new trend but at least google it up to know what's trending

like I have no idea about what the rave about tiktok is, I doubt it was hiphop song by kesha with the same title a decade ago, so I google up and found out it is a short video apps. So next time I hear it I can say things about it and sound updated even when I don't install it on my phone and have no use of it.

 

[LolitaHaze]

I knew I was getting old when I started enjoying dark chocolate.

 

[GHT]

I know probably I'm too young to contribute being only 42
but I feel getting old is not a matter of physical but more with attitude when someone stop learning new things, and keep updated with latest news and hype, we don't have to love or adopt the new trend but at least google it up to know what's trending.

"You know that you are getting old," is a euphemism, it has the connection to age because times change, people change, attitudes change. When things change for no good cause, as in, if it ain't broke, don't fix it, people will often say, "it wasn't like that in my day."

One of the contracts that my brother and I had when we were in the distribution business together, was adult incontinent pads, we nicknamed them the crap pads. One of our drivers had a minor crisis at home, I went out with my brother and took over the driver's van and delivery, whilst my brother ran our driver home.

At one of the old folks home I joked about a room to the supervisor, she joked back and said that they had a very nice room, vacant, on the second floor. Out of curiosity I asked the age of her youngest guest. A fellow of 52 had lost his wife and couldn't cope with life as a widower, he was more than happy living in an old folks home. I was 58 at the time, it really shocked me that someone cannot do the simple things in life. It could be that he didn't have any children and felt alone, he was, after all, more than happy where he was. But I was still very surprised.

 

[Trenchfriend]

When Sex is for coziness, not more for fun.

 

[ChrisB]

I know probably I'm too young to contribute being only 42

You start getting old the day you are born.

 

[Harp]

I know probably I'm too young to contribute being only 42
but I feel getting old is not a matter of physical but more with attitude when someone stop learning new things, and keep updated with latest news and hype...

I feel quite the opposite actually. The Socratic quip, "know thyself," is good if not excellent advice and my linear
life yardstick. Today's culture is fine; other people-younger-may enjoy and take some satisfaction from it-but personally
I have no interest in the present trend. It rather bores. Music and such ancillary entertainment.
The past holds treasure enough and all the more fulfilling. Thought, reflected in literature, history, and philosophy;
greatness for the mere asking. As Dubois said, I gather what soul I may and they all come willingly. Aristotle,
Plato, Aquinas, Machiavelli and others as well. Happiness does not come easily in life but it is neither elusive,
nor mythical like a lost Atlantis, and can be found. And the greatest journey for the human being is achieved within.

 

[Tiki Tom]

I knew I was getting old when I started enjoying dark chocolate.

Sing it, sister! Except when I started liking dark chocolate, I thought I was becoming more “sophisticated “.

When Sex is for coziness, not more for fun.

Semi-true. The two are not mutually exclusive. Thank goodness. (Could sex = coziness perhaps = love? Or something like it? Just askin’.)

 

[Trenchfriend]

Semi-true. The two are not mutually exclusive. Thank goodness. (Could sex = coziness perhaps = love? Or something like it? Just askin’.)

Let's say "cuddle sex" instead of "sporty sex".

 

[Tiki Tom]

Let's say "cuddle sex" instead of "sporty sex".

I don’t think you are “old” yet.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I knew I was getting old when I started enjoying dark chocolate.

Wait a few years, and milk chocolate will lose all meaning. Eventually, even straight baking chocolate starts to look good.

 

[redlinerobert]

I consider myself an old soul. I relate much more to the generation older than me than to those my age or younger.

 

[belfastboy]

"You know that you are getting old," is a euphemism, it has the connection to age because times change, people change, attitudes change. When things change for no good cause, as in, if it ain't broke, don't fix it, people will often say, "it wasn't like that in my day."

One of the contracts that my brother and I had when we were in the distribution business together, was adult incontinent pads, we nicknamed them the crap pads. One of our drivers had a minor crisis at home, I went out with my brother and took over the driver's van and delivery, whilst my brother ran our driver home.

At one of the old folks home I joked about a room to the supervisor, she joked back and said that they had a very nice room, vacant, on the second floor. Out of curiosity I asked the age of her youngest guest. A fellow of 52 had lost his wife and couldn't cope with life as a widower, he was more than happy living in an old folks home. I was 58 at the time, it really shocked me that someone cannot do the simple things in life. It could be that he didn't have any children and felt alone, he was, after all, more than happy where he was. But I was still very surprised.

A number of years ago my wife and I went looking for assisted living/retirement homes for my mother. A new one opened up just down the street and we arranged an appointment. We did the tour, saw all they had on offer. At the end the Manager asked us if we thought my Mother would be interested ….we replied that we're not sure about my Mother but we certainly were!
Turns out my Mother was dead set against it so I did all I could to keep her in her own home until a month before she died. However, my wife and I are stilled interested when the time comes.

 

[navetsea]

I feel quite the opposite actually. The Socratic quip, "know thyself," is good if not excellent advice and my linear
life yardstick. Today's culture is fine; other people-younger-may enjoy and take some satisfaction from it-but personally
I have no interest in the present trend. It rather bores. Music and such ancillary entertainment.
The past holds treasure enough and all the more fulfilling. Thought, reflected in literature, history, and philosophy;
greatness for the mere asking. As Dubois said, I gather what soul I may and they all come willingly. Aristotle,
Plato, Aquinas, Machiavelli and others as well. Happiness does not come easily in life but it is neither elusive,
nor mythical like a lost Atlantis, and can be found. And the greatest journey for the human being is achieved within.

I dont have to love it, but i better know about it, so i dont stare blankly when someone talk about new thing. Same with current superhero movies and video games, i google up read imdb and watch clips or gameplay in youtube even when i stop being a video gamer a long time ago, and have zero interest in current marvel superheroes movies or the latest starwars. I just google them up.

 

[belfastboy]

I consider myself an old soul. I relate much more to the generation older than me than to those my age or younger.

I do too but the problem is the generation older than me is all dead. Even most of my contemporaries have passed on.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I think the "old" comes when you move from just not partaking in some aspect of the current culture that doesn't float your boat to assuming there's something wrong with those who do enjoy it, or that your culture is innately superior to theirs simply because it's yours.

I can count the number of friends I have of my own age on the fingers of one hand. On the other hand, I've grown very close over the years with many people young enough to be my kids, some of whom now have kids of their own who figure to be pretty interesting people themselves one day. There's nothing lamer than an older person who tries in a half-baked way to be "down with the kids" by using phrases like "down with the kids" and otherwise condescendingly trying to participate in a culture that they isn't their own, and I don't try to do that. But neither do I shut the door on it entirely. One of the most enjoyable Christmas Eves of recent memory was when a bunch of the kids came over and taught me how to play "Cards Against Humanity." And I won.

And at the same time, I find that the millenials, Y'ers and Z'ers in my circle are far more open to *my* culture than you might think. I've taught various ones of them how to do radio comedy, how to use a wringer washer and a dial phone, how to iron sheets on a mangle, how to hang up and use a clothesline, how to sew a prom dress on a hundred-year-old Singer, how to fix a coaster brake on a bicycle, and how to appreciate Fats Waller, Benny Goodman, Elizabeth Hawes, Marjorie Hillis and Genevieve Taggard. I find that kids are far more open to such growth than most of my ossified contemporaries.

 

[belfastboy]

I think the "old" comes when you move from just not partaking in some aspect of the current culture that doesn't float your boat to assuming there's something wrong with those who do enjoy it, or that your culture is innately superior to theirs simply because it's yours.

I can count the number of friends I have of my own age on the fingers of one hand. On the other hand, I've grown very close over the years with many people young enough to be my kids, some of whom now have kids of their own who figure to be pretty interesting people themselves one day. There's nothing lamer than an older person who tries in a half-baked way to be "down with the kids" by using phrases like "down with the kids" and otherwise condescendingly trying to participate in a culture that they isn't their own, and I don't try to do that. But neither do I shut the door on it entirely. One of the most enjoyable Christmas Eves of recent memory was when a bunch of the kids came over and taught me how to play "Cards Against Humanity." And I won.

Do you apply your maxim to those that depart from cruise ships into your town?

 

[LizzieMaine]

They don't stay in my town long enough to apply anything to them, except perhaps a skim coating of spent sunscreen they pick up from the seat on the bus carrying them elsewhere.