You know you are getting old when:

[LizzieMaine]

Where's old Joe Howard now that we need him?

 

[Harp]

Interesting; vanity never entered into my thinking when it first became necessary for me to use a cane. My only thought was, "My back and leg hurt, and the cane helps to alleviate that." The thing I dislike about using a cane is that I lose the practical use of whichever hand I use to hold the cane.

Understood. With a brief case the cane will take southpaw. Thinking of a sword cane, which proves legally problematic,
and travel complicated considering airport x-ray requisites. Prolly go a South African stick w/o blade and either a
101st Airborne or Special Forces engraved handle.

 

[Tiki Tom]

Don't need a cane just yet. However, I'm aware that the time will come; and probably sooner than I'd like. With that in mind, I have been eyeing a cane with an Emperor Franz Joseph handle. It will be quite the oddity on O'ahu. Sort of a souvenir of my 18 years in Vienna.

 

[Harp]

Don't need a cane just yet. However, I'm aware that the time will come; and probably sooner than I'd like. With that in mind, I have been eyeing a cane with an Emperor Franz Joseph handle. It will be quite the oddity on O'ahu. Sort of a souvenir of my 18 years in Vienna.

Why not Kamehameha? Franz ain't gonna be mo wahinie Kaneohe beach bait bro. Et mo bettah wahinie Kaneohe.

 

[Zombie_61]

You know you're getting old when you tune in to a local "oldies" FM radio station that you haven't listened to for a couple of decades or so, and discover they're now playing the songs you and your wife danced to only 40 years ago.

 

[GHT]

You are definitely getting old when you can no longer boast that you will die young.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Damn, you Europeans eat some weird sh...uhh, stuff.

You know that?
Red berry pudding, Eastern bloc style... Substitute product.

 

[Harp]

You are definitely getting old when you can no longer boast that you will die young.

Back in grunt life, odd as it may seem now looking back, twenty-three years old marked an ancient.
Most of us were teenagers, some older noncoms of course, but the lieutenants were typically fresh out
of West Point or college, 21-22, and if they were married, became day markers, short-timers; double-digit midgets,
then goin homers. Nervous, petrified of death if you had a woman in your life and a reason to live.
Death tugging a kid's elbow all the while, time became secondary to fate.
And Death himself doesn't care if married or single, short-timer or not.

 

[LizzieMaine]

You know you're getting old when you tune in to a local "oldies" FM radio station that you haven't listened to for a couple of decades or so, and discover they're now playing the songs you and your wife danced to only 40 years ago.

You know you're getting old when you know quite a few people who don't even own a radio. It breaks my heart to hear this from someone -- I mean, what did I live my life for?

 

[Trenchfriend]

You know you're getting old when you know quite a few people who don't even own a radio. It breaks my heart to hear this from someone -- I mean, what did I live my life for?

In old Germany, the generation from 1990 on has no "connection" to classic radio listening, im my opinion.
Listening MC/CD/mp3 player, watching classic TV instead, of course later replaced by Youtube plus, and I think, THAT'S the evil pest today, ADULT GAMING!
I think, back then, our great Playstation 1 was just the warning of what would happen with the next launched generations, when the graphics get better and better!

And the many many shopping centers did their part in the 90s, too. Many teens still hang around their, in their leisure time, because they don't know what to do with themselves.

But www-radio transmission was a good thing to keep radio alive.

 

[Harp]

You know you're getting old when you know quite a few people who don't even own a radio. It breaks my heart to hear this from someone ...

About nine or ten months ago, I met my brother's son for the first time as an adult, he's about twenty-seven or so,
and I'd last seen him as a kid twenty years past---life can prove distant, long time elapse. And he was surprised to
learn that I did not own a television, only a laptop and definitely a radio. I cannot imagine life without radio.
But Danny was incredulous I did not own a television set. We were at lunch before a late afternoon wedding;
which, considering all the shack leases within the Clan, was itself similarly unique....

 

[Turnip]

...when you’re the only one between younger colleagues who knows how to handle the place setting at a formal lunch or dinner.

 

[Zombie_61]

You know you're getting old when you know quite a few people who don't even own a radio. It breaks my heart to hear this from someone -- I mean, what did I live my life for?

I've never conducted a survey to determine who did or didn't own a radio, but over the years I've spoken with two or three people who told me they had no interest whatsoever in any style of music and couldn't understand why most people are so preoccupied with it.

 

[Harp]

In old Germany, the generation from 1990 on has no "connection" to classic radio listening...

But www-radio transmission was a good thing to keep radio alive.

Many moons ago near Yugoslavia in northern Greece I made a point to tune in Radio Free Europe with
my $14,000 M9A1 field radio, which could pick up WCFL 89*AM The Rock of Chicago. When I was suppose-tabee
listening to the Soviets' Red Army Radio. And, of course, Ivan the terrible usta listening ta us toose.

 

[Old Mariner]

There are thousands of jokes on the internet about this, like your back goes out more times than you do, but do you have any anecdotes that have made you walk away thinking: "I must be getting old?"

For most of my purchases, I pay cash. The bank note type of cash. Small traders, no problem, employees working in the large conglomerates, big problem. Twice this week I have been subjected to an inquisition that more or less implied that I was a money launderer. Huh! I should be so lucky.

I read a story in today's paper about trying to purchase a goldfish from a company called: Pets At Home. It regales the stupidity of today's society, so much so, that someone has created a forum see here.



We have come a long way in my life time, but sometimes I can't help but feel that with every pace forward, we take two back.

And none more so than the internet. How many times has your purchase failed, because you mis-read those distorted hieroglyphics that is supposed to prevent some sort of snooping. In exasperation, you pick up the phone, only to go on another merry-go-round?

Is it just me getting old, or am I turning into Jeff Dunham's caustic side-kick: "Walter?"

Anymore, I think in my case it is how I interact with the internet. I am still stuck in the 2000's. It seems like most socializing now is through apps - tiktok, instagram, twitter (of which I have a rather crude nickname for), whatsapp, etc. I am used to forums (like this), Yahoo Groups, and email. So, when I was in my 20s - that is what I used, compared to how those in their 20s now mostly use apps (or so it seems). I cannot relate to really trying to interact with others via something that only allows a "blurb" of their communication (for example twitter or tiktok). It's actually jarring to me, because it lacks introspection and reflection. There is no depth to it. That way of "communicating" is so foreign to me that it may as well be on another planet (which it essentially is since I don't bother with that format/medium).

Conversely however, my internet connection form changed from being "anchored" at home via cable (or in ye olden days - phone line), to my cell phone/smart phone being my connection, since it has a wifi hotspot to which I can connect my kindle, laptop, and tablet.

 

[Edward]

^^^^^
Bullet bras were in fashion when I was a quite young lad. I was left with a stunningly distorted perspective on such matters.

Tell me about it. I turned fifteen when probably the most prominent sexualised female was Madonna, in her Jean Paul Gautier corset. IT wasn't until Body of Evidence I realised just how wrong I had been!

... this was 40 years ago.

I have a string memory of this happening. I'd have been six; I remember it happening very clearly, oddly much moreso than when John Lennon was murdered just a few months prior (though I do recall a lot of talk about "a Beatle" being shot near something called a subway... which I later learned meant a walkway under a road in Belfast, permanently smelling of wee wee...). I think that was probably the first time I heard of the Kennedy assassination, because of the inevitable comparisons and contrasts. In 2011, just over thirty years on, I was in DC and walked past what locals referred to as the "Hinkley Hilton". An odd thing for a hotel to have to deal with being remembered for, though doubtless it has brought more business their way than it lost them - "the only thing worse than being talked about..." and all that.

I remember being deeply jarred the first time I had an adult conversation with an adult who had no memory at all of the twentieth century. And when people talk about "Nineties Nostalgia," I'm even more deeply jarred. You mean the nineties finally ended?

That's my undergraduates now. Next year well be the first year that I will be teaching final year undergraduates who were born in the twenty-first century (i.e. from 2001 onwards). I start my undergrad media law course every year with a lecture on the origins of mass media and how each new development raised new issues for legal regulation. It's amazing how many of them nowadays don't even recognise a VHS cassette.

What makes me feel old is the poster sales on campus, seeing these kids buy their Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs posters the way we did Taxi Driver... Even moreso; for these kids, Reservoir Dogs is a picture released eight or nine years before they were born. Couple of years ago, we were in the local cinema having a tea before our screening; one of the kids working there was playing records by the Beatles, Oasis and Blur all interchangeably as "oldies from before I was born". I'm old enough to remember when Oasis played a tiny club in Belfast to 300 people...

Understood. With a brief case the cane will take southpaw. Thinking of a sword cane, which proves legally problematic,
and travel complicated considering airport x-ray requisites. Prolly go a South African stick w/o blade and either a
101st Airborne or Special Forces engraved handle.

The fibreglass Cold Steel sticks look good to my eye. Sturdy enough they could be used defensively if necessary, without being lifted for carrying a 'weapon'.

You know you're getting old when you tune in to a local "oldies" FM radio station that you haven't listened to for a couple of decades or so, and discover they're now playing the songs you and your wife danced to only 40 years ago.

A while back I tuned into BBC Radio 2 only to find it full of the rubbish that was the reason I stopped listening to Radio 1 in the 90s. I can always spot the point where I tuned out of the mainstream (1990 ish) as there are so many songs I just don't recognise. My wife long worked places where they played commercial radio or had a jukebox with chart hits on it, so I'm forever saying "Oh, that's that advert jingle" and she'll be "No, it was a huge hit before that!"

...when you’re the only one between younger colleagues who knows how to handle the place setting at a formal lunch or dinner.

My folsk made sure I knew that from an early age - served me well later on; it's surprising how many people are thrown by it, or are confused by the glassware. Useful to know, even if I am firmly of the opinion that almost all of these "rules" were invented to keep the lower orders out of the club.

I've never conducted a survey to determine who did or didn't own a radio, but over the years I've spoken with two or three people who told me they had no interest whatsoever in any style of music and couldn't understand why most people are so preoccupied with it.

I can never understand that, but it does seem for younger folks music is not the draw it once was. Or even television often, compared to video games, youtube, and such.

Anymore, I think in my case it is how I interact with the internet. I am still stuck in the 2000's. It seems like most socializing now is through apps - tiktok, instagram, twitter (of which I have a rather crude nickname for), whatsapp, etc. I am used to forums (like this), Yahoo Groups, and email. So, when I was in my 20s - that is what I used, compared to how those in their 20s now mostly use apps (or so it seems). I cannot relate to really trying to interact with others via something that only allows a "blurb" of their communication (for example twitter or tiktok). It's actually jarring to me, because it lacks introspection and reflection. There is no depth to it. That way of "communicating" is so foreign to me that it may as well be on another planet (which it essentially is since I don't bother with that format/medium).

I've noticed a reverse trend here. I did some years ago explore the possibility of using social media as a way of extending discussion with my students, but increasingly few of the undergraduates use Facebook or even Twitter now, most of them citing privacy concerns.

Conversely however, my internet connection form changed from being "anchored" at home via cable (or in ye olden days - phone line), to my cell phone/smart phone being my connection, since it has a wifi hotspot to which I can connect my kindle, laptop, and tablet.

I love my mobile. I never understood the hostility on the part of people who fin them invasive - it's very easy to switch it off if you don't want to be disturbed. I do still have a landline, but I have no interest whatever in keeping it for any reason other than it is currently needed for the web. I lasted the first two years in my flat without one, before I really wanted home internet. Fibreoptic broadband is coming to my area soon, and I can't wait to have much faster web and no landline phone. The one thing I am keeping an eye out for is a cradle / dock made from a 700 series phone where I can stick the mobile inside it to charge, and use the dock like a regular phone, but on my mobile's sim.

 

[tonyb]

You know you're getting old when you know quite a few people who don't even own a radio. It breaks my heart to hear this from someone -- I mean, what did I live my life for?

Perhaps another sign of getting old is accepting that very few of us will leave a lasting mark outside of our own small circles. Even most celebrities will be forgotten not long after they’ve croaked.

The desire to be “important” seems more an affliction of men than women. I have a long-time friend who mentioned not long ago that now that he’s made enough money to last the duration he is turning his attention to his “legacy.”

Just what the hell is that about, pal? Who is it for? Certainly not for that unfortunate kid your ex-girlfriend (he’s never had a lasting relationship) adopted and for whom you have assumed the role of father, in your mind if not quite anyone else’s.

On the other hand, a guy of much more recent acquaintance projected an image of being “less than” others, that there was some fundamentally flawed in his very being. But he was a good guy who came through for me in a couple of significant ways. (When you’re new in town, as I was, you have few people you can call to come over and lend some manpower.)

He killed himself last year. I’ll always kick myself for not recognizing how fragile he was and failing to be more involved in his life. I wish he knew he was no less important than anyone else, that his life counted every bit as much as anyone else’s.

 

[Zombie_61]

...(though I do recall a lot of talk about "a Beatle" being shot near something called a subway... which I later learned meant a walkway under a road in Belfast, permanently smelling of wee wee...)...

Either you might still be unclear on the definition of "subway", or I've missed the joke. Here in the U.S. it means a system of underground passenger trains, usually in (or under) the larger cities like New York and Los Angeles.

 

[Old Mariner]

I've never conducted a survey to determine who did or didn't own a radio, but over the years I've spoken with two or three people who told me they had no interest whatsoever in any style of music and couldn't understand why most people are so preoccupied with it.

I fall into this group (no radio and no real interest in music). I have a few songs saved on my phone (specifically songs I listened to while recovering from my surgery in 2019 - I will be interested in seeing if they still appeal to me after the last surgery...when I get it, but other than that nothing).

 

[Edward]

Either you might still be unclear on the definition of "subway", or I've missed the joke. Here in the U.S. it means a system of underground passenger trains, usually in (or under) the larger cities like New York and Los Angeles.

Yip - over here in the UK, a subway is a pedestrian walkway that runs underneath a main road - usually very busy roads where it is either dangerous to cross on foot, or a road-level pedestrian crossing is otherwise impractical. Somewhat inevitably, they get used for toileting purposes on a regular basis. Rather a different meaning than they have in New York! I'm not sure what we call a subway is called in the US - if they're common at all? Underpass sidewalk?