You know you are getting old when:

[ChrisB]

I beleive that human nature does not change, and that each era has the same ratio of virtue to vice.

 

[scottyrocks]

If some automaker wants to meet my marketing needs, build a simple four-cylinder five-speed manual transmission car with an AM radio, manual windows, and a simple key you can get replaced at the hardware store, and I'll buy one tomorrow.

I don't know if any of these meet all your criteria, but it's a good jumping-off point:

https://www.google.com/search?q=new...smission+hand+crank+windows&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

 

[Zombie_61]

...Sometimes the things you are taught don't square with things you see.

Quite true, but in my experience a person often has to be made aware of this, then be willing to examine their "knowledge" to determine whether or not it actually does fit their reality and adjust or change that "knowledge" to match their observations.

At the company I worked for in 1979-81 my immediate supervisor was a man named Bill Hill. Bill and I often drove to the company's various job sites together, and to occupy our time during these local trips he and I would share our life stories and observations. Bill made a strong impression on my young self because this was not merely casual conversation to him. While most people simply waited for their turn to talk during such conversations, he listened to people because he was sincerely interested in what they had to say and what he might learn from that. Also, every time he shared his conclusions/opinions based on his personal observations he would finish by saying, "But don't listen to me; I'm just another [expletive] with an opinion. Look for yourself and make up your own mind about whether or not you agree." This was the first time I can remember anyone from a previous generation admitting they were human, fallible, and didn't "know" everything. Fortunately I listened, and I took this simple statement to heart and began to question and examine everything. It was a valuable life lesson, and I wish I could go back to thank Bill for being more of a positive influence in my life than he probably realized.

 

[GHT]

If some automaker wants to meet my marketing needs, build a simple four-cylinder five-speed manual transmission car with an AM radio, manual windows, and a simple key you can get replaced at the hardware store, and I'll buy one tomorrow.

It has four gears and the first one isn't synchromeshed. It doesn't have variable speed wipers, nor windscreen washers, you have to cancel the indicators. To demist it you wind open the windscreen, but it does have a briefcase size running board, it also has easy access to the engine via a gull wing bonnet, (hood) the brakes are drum not disc but it can still stop on a shilling, or in the case of the US, a dime. Yet despite it's inadequacies, the one thing that it does have is.......................fun.

 

[belfastboy]

I must be getting old as my younger wife retired on Friday. Or as my (now deceased) Mom remarked on my turning 60 a number of years back...."Damn, if you are 60 then I must be really old!"

 

[LizzieMaine]

You know you're getting old and don't get enough sleep besides when you heat up a can of soup for supper and when it's ready you take the pan over and dump it down the sink because you completely forgot what you were doing between the stove and the pantry.

 

[BlueTrain]

For people who had lived through the Great Depression and WWII, the 1950s weren't so bad. Those smiles weren't pasted on.

 

[BlueTrain]

Oh, and about those cars. Ramblers, if you remember them (haven't been mentioned lately), were considered to be basic, sensible cars. Maybe they quit making them because people stopped being sensible. The Land-Rover that I had, purchased at an American Motors dealer in Fairmont, West Virginia, did not have synchromesh from 1st to 2nd, was freezing in the winter, wouldn't quite do 60 on level ground, and had poor gas mileage, about 14 mpg no matter where or how it was driven. Otherwise it was nearly perfect.

 

[LizzieMaine]

For people who had lived through the Great Depression and WWII, the 1950s weren't so bad. Those smiles weren't pasted on.

Tell it to Philip Loeb or Don Hollenbeck. Or the Meeropol brothers.

 

[belfastboy]

Oh, and about those cars. Ramblers, if you remember them (haven't been mentioned lately), were considered to be basic, sensible cars. Maybe they quit making them because people stopped being sensible. The Land-Rover that I had, purchased at an American Motors dealer in Fairmont, West Virginia, did not have synchromesh from 1st to 2nd, was freezing in the winter, wouldn't quite do 60 on level ground, and had poor gas mileage, about 14 mpg no matter where or how it was driven. Otherwise it was nearly perfect.

My uncle John, a railway man, was a Nash Rambler guy. Don't recall him ever owning anything else

 

[tonyb]

Ramblers (and their successors, AMCs) had among my people the reputation, rightly or wrongly, as being junk. Tinny. Insubstantial.

But then, there was this eccentric fellow of my acquaintance who, a dozen or more years ago, when I knew him, got around in a late-'60s AMC with something like half a million miles on it. It wasn't that he obsessed over the car. Indeed, the rare extra passenger found himself moving around stacks of newspapers and other crap to clear a space to plant his rump.

 

[Trenchfriend]

You know you're getting old and don't get enough sleep.

Sleep, such an important topic!

That's a thing, I always wondered.
In Germany, many people make (and I don't know why) still the mistake of wrong bedclothes, typically classic sweaty Jersey or even Frottee, often all year long and then, they complain about a bad night and so on. That's, why I prefer Seersucker since a long time!!
Same thing on poloshirts and breathy Piqué ist the real thing, not Jersey.

Same thing on bedsheets. What is the pro on rough or even very rough Frottee-bedsheets, so many people are using??
I can always sleep relaxed on classic slick and soft bedsheets, but rough Frottee would disturb me all the time, so whats the point with inconvenient stuff?

 

[GHT]

The Land-Rover that I had, purchased at an American Motors dealer in Fairmont, West Virginia, did not have synchromesh from 1st to 2nd, was freezing in the winter, wouldn't quite do 60 on level ground, and had poor gas mileage, about 14 mpg no matter where or how it was driven. Otherwise it was nearly perfect.

And probably still is, built to last and so strong, but did you know that the inspiration for the design came from the WW2 Willis Jeep?

 

[Captain O]

I wish that I had a 1968 Checker Marathon (complete with bumpers mounted on shock absorbers and painted flat silver). I want a 250 (4.1 Liter) inline 6 Cylinder fuel injected engine and a 4-speed automatic transmission.

Properly maintained you could achieve 1,000,000 miles on the body. Simply keep up the regular maintenance and you'll be fine for 100,000 miles. Keep replacing parts and engines every 100,000 miles and you can drive the car for 30-40 years.

But what do I know?

 

[BlueTrain]

That Land-Rover is from the first series. The flat sides is the giveaway. The next series (II or III) had slanted sides from halfway up. I don't know when the next series began. Later ones of course had the headlamps on the front of the fenders. In theory the aluminum body work would not rust and really wouldn't but it could be subject to corrosion. Also the part of the frame directly behind the rear wheels was subject to severe rusting if you lived somewhere they used a lot of salt on the roads in the wintertime. I have seen one long wheelbase model with a V-8. The owner told me they were imported for only one or two years but probably only in small numbers. The later Discovery model actually looked like a Land-Rover. I passed up a chance to own one because I could only have afforded one with high mileage and they are expensive to maintain now. The company I work for actually owned one for a while.

 

[Trenchfriend]

When you prefer good old Leonard Cohen for enjoying "wholesome" music in your home.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Ramblers (and their successors, AMCs) had among my people the reputation, rightly or wrongly, as being junk. Tinny. Insubstantial.

But then, there was this eccentric fellow of my acquaintance who, a dozen or more years ago, when I knew him, got around in a late-'60s AMC with something like half a million miles on it. It wasn't that he obsessed over the car. Indeed, the rare extra passenger found himself moving around stacks of newspapers and other crap to clear a space to plant his rump.

The first car I remember was a Nash Rambler, a gommy-looking white four door sedan that brought me home from the hospital and remained in the family until the day my idiot father shot a piston rod thru the engine block trying to start it on a subzero morning. My mother never forgave him for that, especially after he tried to replace it with a Renault.

 

[Captain O]

We had a 1968 Rambler Rebel Station wagon with a 232 inline 6 cylinder engine and a 3-speed auto transmission. That was a grand old car (complete with faux wood side panels).

Memories of a 13-year old boy.

 

[GHT]

I have seen one long wheelbase model with a V-8. The owner told me they were imported for only one or two years but probably only in small numbers. The later Discovery model actually looked like a Land-Rover.

Like the original design being of American origin, that V8 is also from the US. There's so many conflicting stories about it that it's hard to separate myth from reality. The story goes that an engineer from Rover, whilst on a tour of Buick, found the remains of a rejected engine in one of Buick's dumpsters, (that's what the Americans call a skip, UK members,) said engineer asked Buick's big wigs if he could have the drawings. "Help yourself," he was told. So he did. And so was born one of the most iconic V8 engines ever. It's like Dolly Pardon's song: I Will Always Love You. Colonel Parker wanted fifty percent of everything, including intellectual rights, if Elvis recorded it. Dolly told him where to go. Whitney Houston did for that song what Rover did for Buick's V8.

 

[Fading Fast]

Quite true, but in my experience a person often has to be made aware of this, then be willing to examine their "knowledge" to determine whether or not it actually does fit their reality and adjust or change that "knowledge" to match their observations.

At the company I worked for in 1979-81 my immediate supervisor was a man named Bill Hill. Bill and I often drove to the company's various job sites together, and to occupy our time during these local trips he and I would share our life stories and observations. Bill made a strong impression on my young self because this was not merely casual conversation to him. While most people simply waited for their turn to talk during such conversations, he listened to people because he was sincerely interested in what they had to say and what he might learn from that. Also, every time he shared his conclusions/opinions based on his personal observations he would finish by saying, "But don't listen to me; I'm just another [expletive] with an opinion. Look for yourself and make up your own mind about whether or not you agree." This was the first time I can remember anyone from a previous generation admitting they were human, fallible, and didn't "know" everything. Fortunately I listened, and I took this simple statement to heart and began to question and examine everything. It was a valuable life lesson, and I wish I could go back to thank Bill for being more of a positive influence in my life than he probably realized.

Great story - sounds like a great guy. Part of what in your story resonated with me is how cultural norms seemed to have changed.

I grew up in the late '60s / '70s, for "older" adults then, I think, there was an expectation that their life experience gave them "the answers" to life's issues as experience, age and wisdom were all kind of wrapped together back then - again, IMHO. "Listen to / respect your elders" was a phrase one heard often and not with cynicism. This created a kind of feedback loop that, probably, made older people feel pressure to appear knowledgable, in control - a font of wisdom.

Two things changed this, I think, one, the late '60s social upheaval including the chant "don't trust anyone over 30" and general dismissal of "older" ideas undermined the cultural meme of respect for elders. Then, two, as the pace of technology change ramped up, experience did count for less (but far from zero) as a lot of that experience became superannuated and the "new way" of doing things - which many young people took to via early exposure - became the dominant way.

It seems to me, overall, many (many) individual exceptions exist, that older people / adults are less "I have all the answers" people then when I was a kid. And our culture doesn't expect them to.