You know you are getting old when:

[LizzieMaine]

You know you're getting old when you stop thinking about death as something that happens to other people, and you acknowledge it as something that will happen to you.

 

[Fading Fast]

Nothing much is happening to us that didn't happen to previous generations somewhere along the line. Everyone loses their parents and their friends. Everyone, if they're lucky, gets old and finds out what it feels like. The world has always seemed like it was spinning out of control. There's hardly an issue today that previous generations haven't had to deal with in one way or another. Everything happens to everyone, if there's enough time. There usually isn't. We aren't that special.

Everything you say is supported by period literature. The challenge is controlling our emotions and our inability to see the present situation as being "normal" and putting it in historical perspective.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Whatever is coming to you:

2.000 IU Vitamine D3, daily! For your bones, muscles and your brain, too.
Equally, what your doctor say. Daily 1.000 IU aren't enough to reach the healthy level and all experts worldwide now that, since years.

And be tensed, what news the US "VITAL-study" (20.000 subscribers) will bring, when the final report comes out, this year.

 

[BlueTrain]

I hadn't thought of the present day as "normal" but I guess it is at that.

We bought a cemetery plot last year. It's the same cemetery where several of my wife's relatives are or will be buried. Werner Von Braun is buried in the same cemetery, which is just a coincidence. But it's a weird experience doing that. The manager of the cemetery drove us over to the section where there were still plots available. It's separated from the older part by a stream and some trees. He even pointed that out but said "of course you won't be able to see them." A chilling thought. I won't go so far as to say that I wish the plot were in my old hometown (supposedly the poorest town in West Virginia) where so many people I knew are buried. Of course I wouldn't be able to see them, either.

Death is not yet a friend.

I think we can put the present day in historical perspective better than people will be in fifty years. In that period of time, the context is lost, or at least eventually will be. Reasons, good reasons, too, for doing things or not doing things will be lost and forgotten. That's when we'll start saying "everybody knew" when nobody knew. The results become even more confused than they are at the moment. Fifty years probably isn't long enough to rewrite history more than once or twice. But rewriting it doesn't change it.

 

[2jakes]

You know you are getting old if you remember
taking 3-D photos.

 

[Zombie_61]

You know you're getting old when you stop thinking about death as something that happens to other people, and you acknowledge it as something that will happen to you.

I'm not so sure that age is a requirement for that epiphany. Children, admittedly, rarely do unless they're diagnosed with a terminal illness, but I've encountered people of all ages who have come to terms with that realization. And most of them, in my experience, tend to lead happier lives simply because they know that all of the little things that most people worry about, fight about, get stressed out about, get angry about, and so on, are ultimately meaningless in the grand scheme of things.

 

[BlueTrain]

I'm not sure I agree with that, although I try not to become angry or stressed out by the way other drivers behave on the road in the evening when I'm going home. There are some very aggressive drivers around here and Type A personalities. Fortunately, most of them are fairly good drivers. But there are certainly things worth worrying about and some even worth fighting about.

There is something else you eventually come to realize and that is, there are not an infinite and unending number of things in your life that you cherish and enjoy. It never hit me until after my father-in-law's funeral several years ago. There was a big family gathering later at their house with just about everyone there from the family. It eventually dawned on me that there would never be another gathering like that, ever. Since then, some have died and for some, there would be no reason to return. There's only one Christmas every year, one Thanksgiving and so on. Eventually the events stop happening. That is, you no longer take part in any. At some point you are no longer able to do certain things and as the years pass, the list gets longer. But you enjoy what you can while you can and even find new things to do. And for a while, life goes on.

 

[scottyrocks]

You know you're getting old when aches and pains go from non-existent to occasional to more than occasional to regular to constant.

 

[Doctor Strange]

You know you are getting old if you remember
taking 3-D photos.

Talk about the 35mm format that time forgot!

My dad shot stereo slides until late 1963, and I had some of my first photography lessons on his stereo camera. A project I will get to one of these days is going through the thousands of slides he shot from the mid-fifties, and scan the most interesting ones. Check out the following test - Dad in front of our studio circa 1958:



It's a bit blue-shifted because it's Ektachrome, but many of these were shot on Kodachrome, and the color's still perfect.

 

[BlueTrain]

I worked for photofinishing companies for about 25 years but I left before photofinishing became an obsolete industry. One of the buildings became a leading Washington, D.C., area music venue (The Birchmere). I happened to see a column in the Washington Post this week about a columnist who worked for another lab where I also worked, though not at the same time. He was even there for four years. One of my brothers-in-law even worked there for a while before I ever met him. It's such a small world.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

You know you're getting old when aches and pains go from non-existent to occasional to more than occasional to regular to constant.

Or when colds that used to be more of an annoyance are now completely debilitating. They hit me like a sledgehammer nowadays.

 

[2jakes]

I don't know if it's the conditions today
or me at this time of my life.

I never suffered from allergies when
I was young like I do today at certain times of the year.

The watery eyes, stuffy nose feels
similar to a cold.
Only difference is with a cold, there's
the dry sore throat and hacking cough.

 

[Fading Fast]

You know you're getting old when aches and pains go from non-existent to occasional to more than occasional to regular to constant.

I am sincerely not complaining as so many have it so much worse, but one thing you don't / can't appreciate when you are young is how well your body works and how it doesn't have aches, pains, itches, twitches, what-have-you regularly as it does as you age.

 

[tonyb]

I don't know if it's the conditions today
or me at this time of my life.

I never suffered from allergies when
I was young like I do today at certain times of the year.

The watery eyes, stuffy nose feels
similar to a cold.
Only difference is with a cold, there's
the dry sore throat and hacking cough.

That'll happen, or so an allergist told me many years ago. What I once thought might be a mild viral condition are actually allergies. Certain pollens trigger sneezes and sniffles, etc. So far, it's just a mild annoyance, not even enough to warrant OTC meds.

 

[Zombie_61]

Or when colds that used to be more of an annoyance are now completely debilitating. They hit me like a sledgehammer nowadays.

I think this is a combination of advancing age and the fact that the viruses that cause colds are constantly evolving and mutating (according to the Centers for Disease Control anyway). The "common cold" these days isn't quite what it was in our parents' and grandparents' days.

 

[Fading Fast]

That'll happen, or so an allergist told me many years ago. What I once thought might be a mild viral condition are actually allergies. Certain pollens trigger sneezes and sniffles, etc. So far, it's just a mild annoyance, not even enough to warrant OTC meds.

My girlfriend gets seasonal allergies and it's like her head is a pinball machine on tilt - she's going along fine and then all of a sudden she's sneezing uncontrollably and has all the symptoms of a cold - congestions, sore throat, runny eyes / nose, etc. It is amazing how fast it comes on her. Over the counter meds control it and we manage.

I never had allergies until several years ago and now I get itchy eyes which perfectly coincides with my girlfriend's full-force explosions. In the Fading Fast household, there is no room for sympathy for my itchy eyes as she's dealing with a force five hurricane in her head .

 

[2jakes]

When you wear your favorite shoes, socks, pants because :
#1. Comfortable.
#2. Like old best friends.
#3. At this stage in your life....you don’t really give a “rat’s arse”
what others think, regardless of how ridiculous you look.

Taking a break from working on my ’46 carb about an hour ago!

 

[tonyb]

Any person who would object to that presentation is a person whose opinion is best disregarded.

 

[tonyb]

...

I never had allergies until several years ago and now I get itchy eyes which perfectly coincides with my girlfriend's full-force explosions. In the Fading Fast household, there is no room for sympathy for my itchy eyes as she's dealing with a force five hurricane in her head .

I feel for those cat lovers who develop allergies to their furry friends. I suspect that most just live with it (and continue living with their cats) and hope that it doesn't get worse.

 

[2jakes]

You know you are getting old when:

You’re working on your truck.
You spot a Rhino beetle.
And the first thought that comes to mind...

"Oh if I could shed my skin for a new one like you little buddy!
Just so that I can finish working on the truck today without
too much backaches."