You know you are getting old when:

[LizzieMaine]

I strongly recommend all his books, from the 1930s down to the 1980s. His final work, "Witness To A Century" is a wonderful first-hand account of most of the pivotal figures of the 20th Century, all of whom he knew face to face. And he also gives his picks for the three worst SOBs of the century, which are worth the price of the book alone.

Seldes had the good fortune to outlive all of the SOBs who crossed him, and died at the ripe old age of 105. The best revenge is a life well lived.

 

[sheeplady]

I was an RN in the UK for the past 25 years and I can tell you there isn't a 4 year waiting list for ovarian cancer surgery!

Some less serious conditions warrant a longer waiting time, plus there is added demand due to an aging population but for cancer like symptoms it is about 2 weeks from seeing your MD to seeing a specialist and then about a month from seeing a specialist to treatment. Survival times for cancer patients have drastically improved since I moved to this country.

Having had cancer (the deadly advanced stage IIIC kind) in my early 30s, and a team of surgeons and oncologists who twisted themselves inside out, it was 4 weeks from my surgeon appt. to surgery. I think it was less than a week from my biopsy to seeing my surgeon... but I was presumed at my mammogram to have cancer and got a surgeon assigned then, so that was likely 2 weeks.

When I say twisted themselves, my oncologist delayed his vacation by two days to drive to my surgeon's office and meet me, because he didn't want a mom with a newborn worried she didn't have an oncologist for 2 weeks.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^
Which is why I don’t squawk (much) about waiting a couple months to see a specialist when there is little to indicate my condition is imminently deadly.

With one notable exception, my providers have been real peaches. As I’ve noted already, these people have a job I wouldn’t want, and I appreciate their willingness to do it.

 

[sheeplady]

Also, I will add, that some amount of wait time for cancer treatment is probably advisable because you have a lot to get done before starting treatment.

During my wait time I underwent fertility preservation, genetic testing, staging (bone scan, MRI, CT), and testing to ensure my heart and liver could withstand treatment. I had to make life altering and irreversible decisions regarding treatment-- would I have a mastectomy or lumpectomy; would I start with chemo or surgery? And I had a type of cancer with only a few choices to be made, not like some cancers with 4 or more treatment paths and differing risks and survival rates.

You don't sit around and wait those weeks. You are constantly going to appointments and testing and waiting for results. And you need some time to make decisions, and do your research, get second opinions, etc.

 

[ChiTownScion]

Next time you hear the "We've Got the Best Health Care System in the World" party line, consider how the United States compares with other industrialized nations- including Canada and the UK- in the area of neonatal mortality:

Source: https://www.healthsystemtracker.org...tal-mortality-u-s-higher-comparable-countries

The stats for other areas of infant mortality are equally grim in comparison to other nations.

 

[MisterCairo]

Anecdote. To paraphrase Inigo Montoya, I am not sure this word means what you think it means.

I assure you that these were not "anecdotes" or stories, they are from real life people I happen to know. And they are NOT satisfied with the so-called availability and affordability of health care in Canada and Britain.

 

[GHT]

Last Sunday we were at an annual gig in the Sussex area of East Grinstead. It's a fabulous vintage event but being open air, it's very much dependent on good weather, which, mercifully, we got. There was something that really struck me whilst there and this thread was the reason why. Would any of your parents, if they were in their teens and twenties during the 1940's, or maybe your grandparents, ever consider going out for anything but a family gathering? Mine certainly wouldn't, back in their day, you had your youth, you met and married your life long partner, you raised your family, you retired and you popped off. That was it!

My wife and I have the most wonderful circle of many a good friend, all of whom are grandparents, or, of an age to be grandparents. But they all live by the mantra that growing old is inevitable, growing up is not. Here's a case in point, these four ladies probably all have a little help from the hair colouring bottle, but that's all, no liposuction, no surgery and definitely no botox, yet they all enjoy life and live it. How privileged we are to have such wonderful friends:

 

[Zombie_61]

Last Sunday we were at an annual gig in the Sussex area of East Grinstead. It's a fabulous vintage event but being open air, it's very much dependent on good weather, which, mercifully, we got. There was something that really struck me whilst there and this thread was the reason why. Would any of your parents, if they were in their teens and twenties during the 1940's, or maybe your grandparents, ever consider going out for anything but a family gathering? Mine certainly wouldn't, back in their day, you had your youth, you met and married your life long partner, you raised your family, you retired and you popped off. That was it!...

This is pure conjecture on my part, but I think it depended on where in the world people lived during the 1940s and how their lives were affected by the war. Here in the U.S. movie theaters, dance halls, and "local watering holes", were popular distractions from the horrors of war seen in newspapers and heard of on the radio, and those who could afford to do so took advantage of them.

In the early 1980s I worked for a company that sold tools. According to my older brother (who was a sales representative for one of their suppliers) the building that company occupied was at one time a dance hall, and our Mom and Dad danced there occasionally while they were dating. I don't have an exact timeline but, based on what I know of my family's history, this would have been in the very-late-1930s and/or early-1940s when Mom and Dad were in their mid- to late-20s. I also recall Mom telling me about movies they had seen together and, knowing Dad's drinking habits, I'm sure the local watering holes were frequented as well. So, yes, I'd say my parents went out for more than just family gatherings during the 1940s.

...My wife and I have the most wonderful circle of many a good friend, all of whom are grandparents, or, of an age to be grandparents. But they all live by the mantra that growing old is inevitable, growing up is not. Here's a case in point, these four ladies probably all have a little help from the hair colouring bottle, but that's all, no liposuction, no surgery and definitely no botox, yet they all enjoy life and live it. How privileged we are to have such wonderful friends...

Growing old gracefully--these ladies are doing it right!

 

[LizzieMaine]

Dance halls were very popular in northern New England and the Maritimes -- my grandfather's band played hundreds of them during the 1930s, ranging from cheap little lodge or Grange hall affairs to elaborate outdoor pavilions.

I suspect if you lived in a part of the country where conservative religion held sway, the sort that frowned on dancing and card playing, there would be a lot less of this sort of thing -- but even then there were Epworth League picnics and outings such as that. But up here, fundamentalism held little influence and people did all the dancing they wanted.

The popularity of dance halls and their cousins, the roadhouses, took a severe hit from the war. Once gas rationing went into effect in the East in the spring of 1942, and then nationally at year's end, there was a crackdown by the OPA on "recreational" use of gasoline. OPA agents patrolled the parking lots of dance halls, roadhouses, racetracks, ballparks, fairgrounds, and other such facilities, and if you had an "advanced" ration such as a B or a C card, and your car was spotted using your extra fuel for a nonessential purpose, you'd get a registered letter the next day revoking that ration. That cut heavily into the traffic these places received.

 

[Edward]

Dances and such were popular in Northern Ireland, but one thing that maybe those from the outside maybe are less aware of was just how distinct the impact was of the modern Troubles on popular culture. Many dancehalls and all sorts were lost by the sixties. The modern phase of the trouble there, which spilled over into the violence that nobody could ignore around 1968, really reinforced an already extant divide, and two very different parallel social cultures developed. For decades the centre of Belfast closed down completely at night, and most nightlife, including dancing and live music, happened in outlying areas. The live music you could experience - or at least the acts playing certain styles - would differ depending on where you were from and What You Were. Crossing that divide could be risky. Punk rock made a valiant attempt to break down those divides, but it was a real struggle. Also there was the problem that few people wanted to hear original music, just stuff with which they were already familiar (this problem still persists today, with the added disadvantage that most venues prefer to hire a DJ over a band). NI people are really quick to claim big names for their own when they can, but they sure aren't good at supporting them until they've made it elsewhere (prophet in your own land and all that). Maybe that was the inevitable result of so many years when so many big names refused to play in NI; at the height of the troubles, even Van Morrison, who largely made a living off the back of selling his hokey version of being a Celt who sang something approximating the blues or jazz, refused to play in Belfast - where he had been born and grew up. Not much written about this, but the community tensions, the de facto segregation in society, and an ever-present enhanced awareness of security did affect how a lot of people of my age and my parents socialised, right up into the 90s and beyond.

Another factor over there was limited public transport; this has improved in recent years, but there are still large chunks of the place not well covered, if at all. Equally, back in the day it was often hard to get a bus or train home much after eleven, and some folks would be wary of taking a cab with a driver they didn't know. It will be fascinating to see research done on this over the next couple of decades as things change (hopefully things keep going forward, even at their current glacial pace rather than backwards as could easily happen), and whether and how the sectarian divide's decreased impact affects popular culture and socialising patterns.

 

[tonyb]

My parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles and all went out fairly frequently when I was a little kid living in Wisconsin.

Part of that had something to do with there being so many extended family members to foist the kids off on for a few hours on a Saturday night. Cousins were almost siblings. We saw one another frequently and stayed overnight at one another’s houses.

All those eyes and ears had a lot to do with my stepfather moving us a couple thousand miles away when I was 12. Too many checks on his behavior to suit him. He proved how valuable those checks had been when they were no longer there.

 

[Tiki Tom]

Next time you hear the "We've Got the Best Health Care System in the World" party line, consider how the United States compares with other industrialized nations- including Canada and the UK- in the area of neonatal mortality:
View attachment 129888


Source: https://www.healthsystemtracker.org...tal-mortality-u-s-higher-comparable-countries

The stats for other areas of infant mortality are equally grim in comparison to other nations.

Very true. Perhaps things are slowly changing...

https://khn.org/news/once-its-greatest-foes-doctors-are-embracing-single-payer/

 

[Tiki Tom]

Last Sunday we were at an annual gig in the Sussex area of East Grinstead. It's a fabulous vintage event but being open air, it's very much dependent on good weather, which, mercifully, we got. There was something that really struck me whilst there and this thread was the reason why. Would any of your parents, if they were in their teens and twenties during the 1940's, or maybe your grandparents, ever consider going out for anything but a family gathering? Mine certainly wouldn't, back in their day, you had your youth, you met and married your life long partner, you raised your family, you retired and you popped off. That was it!

My wife and I have the most wonderful circle of many a good friend, all of whom are grandparents, or, of an age to be grandparents. But they all live by the mantra that growing old is inevitable, growing up is not. Here's a case in point, these four ladies probably all have a little help from the hair colouring bottle, but that's all, no liposuction, no surgery and definitely no botox, yet they all enjoy life and live it. How privileged we are to have such wonderful friends:

View attachment 130049

I must confess: GHT and his lovely Mrs are an inspiration to me. May Mrs Tiki and I do it half as well.

 

[EngProf]

Dance halls were very popular in northern New England and the Maritimes -- my grandfather's band played hundreds of them during the 1930s, ranging from cheap little lodge or Grange hall affairs to elaborate outdoor pavilions.

I suspect if you lived in a part of the country where conservative religion held sway, the sort that frowned on dancing and card playing, there would be a lot less of this sort of thing -- but even then there were Epworth League picnics and outings such as that. But up here, fundamentalism held little influence and people did all the dancing they wanted.

The popularity of dance halls and their cousins, the roadhouses, took a severe hit from the war. Once gas rationing went into effect in the East in the spring of 1942, and then nationally at year's end, there was a crackdown by the OPA on "recreational" use of gasoline. OPA agents patrolled the parking lots of dance halls, roadhouses, racetracks, ballparks, fairgrounds, and other such facilities, and if you had an "advanced" ration such as a B or a C card, and your car was spotted using your extra fuel for a nonessential purpose, you'd get a registered letter the next day revoking that ration. That cut heavily into the traffic these places received.

"I suspect if you lived in a part of the country where conservative religion held sway, the sort that frowned on dancing and card playing, there would be a lot less of this sort of thing..."
Southern joke: "Q: Why do Baptist girls refuse to have sex standing up? - A: Because someone may see them and think she's dancing."

 

[LizzieMaine]

You know you're getting old when ten minutes just disappear from your consciousness. I don't mean becoming distracted and having time fly. I mean walking out of one room and sitting down at your desk and realizing that over those few short steps ten minutes have passed without you experiencing them in any way. Never had anything like that happen to me before, and it's quite unsettling.

 

[Fading Fast]

You know you're getting old when ten minutes just disappear from your consciousness. I don't mean becoming distracted and having time fly. I mean walking out of one room and sitting down at your desk and realizing that over those few short steps ten minutes have passed without you experiencing them in any way. Never had anything like that happen to me before, and it's quite unsettling.

Have you eaten today? I get lightheaded moments when I forget to eat.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I did have a pretty heavy breakfast: a cup of tea, two matzos, and a Dayquil.

 

[Fading Fast]

I did have a pretty heavy breakfast: a cup of tea, two matzos, and a Dayquil.

DayQuil could also be the culprit especially with that very light breakfast and since it implies you have a head cold.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Pretty bad bronchitis, actually. My "Sylvia Sidney" voice is in full bloom today, to the horror of the moviegoing public.

 

[Touchofevil]

Aches and pains appear throughout the day/night sometimes for prolonged periods of time and at times sharply and briefly. They occur often enough to make you wonder/worry as well as often enough to chalk it up to age.

And then you make the mental note that if it happens again, you'll talk to your doctor about it.