You know you are getting old when:

[Zombie_61]

When you had to walk the ground to board the aircraft...

That's still how they do it at Long Beach Airport here in southern California. You don't get to watch from behind a chain link fence any more, a concession to the illusion of enhanced airline security after 9/11, but if you happen to be flying to or from one of their destination cities it's a whole lot easier to get in and out of than Los Angeles International Airport.

 

[2jakes]

That's still how they do it at Long Beach Airport here in southern California. You don't get to watch from behind a chain link fence any more, a concession to the illusion of enhanced airline security after 9/11, but if you happen to be flying to or from one of their destination cities it's a whole lot easier to get in and out of than Los Angeles International Airport.

Took the train to Temecula, but the train dropped us off in Los Angeles
Union station. That terminal is huge!
Finally made it to Temecula.
Had a grand time visiting kin!

 

[2jakes]

Before texting on smartphones there was...

 

[Zombie_61]

Took the train to Temecula, but the train dropped us off in Los Angeles Union station. That terminal is huge!

Despite the concessions made over the years to modern transportation methods and technologies, I think Union Station is really a throwback to the Golden Era. Opened in 1939, the facility was designated Los Angeles Historic-Cultural landmark #101 in 1972, added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980, and received a major renovation in 1992. As such, those responsible have made serious efforts to preserve the station's history as much as is possible. I haven't traveled by train in decades, but a good friend does occasionally and he says Union Station gives him the feeling of what it might have been like way back when.

 

[MisterCairo]

...every member of the Sex Pistols is over sixty.

And you remember when that was the average age of a second world war vet...

 

[2jakes]

Despite the concessions made over the years to modern transportation methods and technologies, I think Union Station is really a throwback to the Golden Era. Opened in 1939, the facility was designated Los Angeles Historic-Cultural landmark #101 in 1972, added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980, and received a major renovation in 1992. As such, those responsible have made serious efforts to preserve the station's history as much as is possible. I haven't traveled by train in decades, but a good friend does occasionally and he says Union Station gives him the feeling of what it might have been like way back when.

The station where I grew up was similar on a small scale to Union Station.
I was fortunate to have visited the place in the 60s. Later it was converted
to a restaurant and convention building.

Today:

The interior of the station back then:
Wooden benches in the middle, also wood telephone booths, offices on the sides with brass rails.
Lockers, shoeshine and newspaper stands.
Vending soda machines, penny weight scales and bubble gum machines.
Railroad staff and conductors dressed in black uniform.
The circular stain window in the middle of the picture is the same as the exterior
shot on the first photo. To your right of the photo you proceeded to board the
train. The compartments were bigger than today.

Last year:
Made the mistake of looking out the window to enjoy the sun & take photos,
within minutes, got carsick!

But I’m always looking on the bright side of life & try to make the most
of it!

 

[Zombie_61]

...every member of the Sex Pistols is over sixty...

Except, of course, for John "Sid Vicious" Ritchie, who died when he was 21.

 

[Fading Fast]

Despite the concessions made over the years to modern transportation methods and technologies, I think Union Station is really a throwback to the Golden Era. Opened in 1939, the facility was designated Los Angeles Historic-Cultural landmark #101 in 1972, added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980, and received a major renovation in 1992. As such, those responsible have made serious efforts to preserve the station's history as much as is possible. I haven't traveled by train in decades, but a good friend does occasionally and he says Union Station gives him the feeling of what it might have been like way back when.

A little less recently, but I used to travel the "East Coast Corridor" (the Washington to Boston line) by Amtrak regularly. There is no greater Golden Era experience than walking through / spending time in the stations at Philadelphia and Washington and (less so as it's been a bit too mall-i-fied) at Boston's South Street Station.

They are all early train stations from railroad's heyday with the scale and detailed architecture to match. Ironically and sadly (in a well-known tale), the best of them - New York's Penn Station - was torn down in '64 to be replaced with the ugliest station ever built in history (for a great New York train station, one has to go to Grand Central, some of the best time travel in New York).

The scale of these stations is incredible and the marble, woodwork and overall detail incredible. Having watched way too many old movies on TCM, you notice that train travel is in a large number of them because that is how people got around. Hence, train travel and train stations have become synonymous in my mind with the Era - that we can still visit many of those original stations is wonderful. Just yesterday, I watched the end of Hitchcock's "Strangers on a Train" and "spent" about five minutes in New York's aforementioned Penn Station - what a wonderful feeling.

But to emphasize, as you said, walking through them gets you very close to "feeling" the Golden Era. I got chills the first time I ascended the stairs from the train platform below into 30th Street Station Philadelphia as I felt like I had walked into the 1930s.

30th Street Station Philadelphia:

 

[MisterCairo]

Except, of course, for John "Sid Vicious" Ritchie, who died when he was 21.

THAT waste of rations?! He was no Pistol in my humble opinion! Name the bass player on Never Mind the Bollocks:

Steve Jones!

 

[2jakes]

Rough nite?

 

[MisterCairo]

Huh?

 

[tonyb]

You know you are getting old when airlines are retiring their fleets of 747s and you remember when they were the latest, hottest technology. I remember flying a 747 when I was quite young and being excited because it was new and cool and had “jet set” associations. Now they are a bit tired (DC-3s are aging more gracefully.)

...

I moved to Seattle about when the initial 747 was rolled out. Big news it was, what with Boeing being the big economic driver in the region back then (two-edged sword, as the unceremonious demise of the SST project and its impact around there made clear).

That first '47 is now on exhibit at the Museum of Flight at Boeing Field. Later versions of that basic model differ markedly. It's had a damn good run, really -- half a century in production, more or less. And orders for freighter versions are keeping the line going, for now, anyway.

 

[MisterCairo]

Speaking of grand train stations, Toronto is fortunate to have retained its Union Station, opened in the 20s for the Canadian Pacific Railway and Grand Trunk Railway (which shortly after became Canadian National Railway).

It is undergoing a massive renovation, mainly underneath the main concourse and in, around and over the tracks:

 

[Zombie_61]

THAT waste of rations?! He was no Pistol in my humble opinion! Name the bass player on Never Mind the Bollocks:

Steve Jones!

If Sid (and Nancy Spungen) hadn't died, I seriously doubt he'd have soldiered on the way ol' Jonesy, John Lydon, and Paul Cook have in the music industry. I honestly don't know much about any of them, but I always got the impression that Sid treated his time with the Pistols as a lark; something to occupy his time, have some fun, and make some money without having to work at a "real" job. He'd probably be not much more than he is now--a footnote in music history.

 

[ChrisB]

When you get a “Senior Discount” without asking for it.

 

[Zombie_61]

When you get a “Senior Discount” without asking for it.

I posted this in this thread back in April of 2014, but since you mentioned it...

"A couple of years ago I went to a matinee at a local movie theater with the friend I mentioned in post #48. We approached the two ticket windows at the same time, each asked for one ticket for whatever movie we wanted to see (I can't recall which movie it was), and were each told the price for the tickets at the same time, except his ticket was $1 less than mine. He glanced at me, then looked back at the ticket vendor (who happened to be the manager) and asked why there was a difference in price. Without hesitation, the manager replied, 'Oh, I gave you the senior citizen discount.'

Now, my friend is five months younger than I am (we're both currently 52 years old), but he's a bit heavier and started losing his hair just after graduating from high school; imagine Rob Reiner with red hair. When he heard the words 'senior citizen discount' he got visibly upset and, admittedly, I didn't help matters by laughing at the humor of the situation. Thinking quickly, the manager explained he'd seen my friend at the theater often and wanted to give him a discount, but had to enter it into the computer somehow and that the senior citizen discount was the simplest way to do so. After this he 'gave the nod' instructing the young lady at my window to give me the same discount, but the damage had already been done and my friend continued to fume as we entered the theater, walked through the lobby, and entered the line to get beverages and what not, with me attempting to calm him down the entire time. I finally told him, 'I don't care what they call it as long as I get a discount. Look at it this way--now you have an extra buck to spend on popcorn.' He thought about it for a moment and realized he had overreacted, but in his defense this was the first time this had happened to him; it wasn't my first time at that particular rodeo, so I just shrugged it off. We laugh about it now, but at the time I thought he was going to have a stroke."

 

[draws]

You know that you are getting old when you sink your teeth into a nice, juicy steak -- And they stay there.

 

[draws]

There are three things that happen when you get old:
1. You know that you are starting to forget things
2. Then..???????
3. Uh..............

 

[Zombie_61]

There are three things that happen when you get old:
1. You know that you are starting to forget things
2. Then..???????
3. Uh..............

Most of the "experts" agree that memory is the second thing we lose as we grow older. I can't remember what the first one is.

 

[59Lark]

YOU know you are getting old when it seems everything you like , should be in a museum including you. I was born in the family home, a 25 room farm house built in 1860, and I had my fathers bedroom which was my grandfathers bedroom but they were all dead before I got this room, looking back on this , it waslike living in a vault of your families history. We cut the trees down and were on the land for nearly two hundred years , even now I wince when I go by ,so I know I am getting old as the memories of this home fade. you know you are getting old when teenagers ask you if you bought your Studebaker new, no that would make me really friggin old , I am 54 not 75 years old. Now at 54 I am about to embark on a single life , should be a lot of emberassing questions about that. 59lark