What makes you feel old?

[JakeBrake]

Last week DW and I toured the University of Texas McDonald Observatory At Fort Davis, Texas. It was a great tour, but it did make us feel old. When I bought our tickets, the cashier asked if either one of us qualified for senior tickets. You have to be 65, which we both are. So I purchased the senior tickets and the cashier handed me the tickets (actually, stickers) and two shuttle bus passes. When we started the tour the tour leader asked for a show of shuttle bus passes. DW and I had the only two for the group. Since there would be plenty of seats on the shuttle bus the tour leader asked if anyone else wanted to ride the shuttle bus. There were 3 volunteers in addition to DW and I. This worked out well for us because we rode the shuttle bus with our very knowledgeable tour leader and the shuttle bus parked much closer to the telescope than the other people in the tour who drove their personal cars up the mountain. Once at the telescope you had to choose between the elevator and the stairs (70+ steps). The elevator was small and would have taken 5 or 6 trips for everyone on the tour, so the tour leader encouraged the group to take the stairs. Everyone except the tour leader and the 5 of us who rode the shuttle bus raced up the stairs like a herd of antelope. They were waiting for us when the elevator door opened at the top.

As I said it was a great tour, but it did make us feel old. If you go, plan to spend the day, since it is a long way from anywhere. By the way, we did see plenty of real antelope on that trip. We probably enjoyed the last of the cool weather until next winter.

 

[Orchidflower]

I feel great and don't feel old.....until it's either going to rain or it's cold where I am and my arthritis starts to hurt and act up. Then I walk like a 110 year old woman and am in pain. Warm weather = you'd never know anything was wrong with my joints at all.
See why I moved to Phoenix? And we had a really cold winter here (for this area, anyway), so I just cannot get away from it totally it seems.

 

[Avalon]

Last week DW and I toured the University of Texas McDonald Observatory At Fort Davis, Texas. It was a great tour, but it did make us feel old.

That is a great tour. I hope you got to stay at Indian lodge in the state park. That entire area is pretty.

 

[ksr]

The only thing I can think of that makes me feel old is when I throw my back out. Boy, do I feel like an old woman when that happens! Fortunately, it doesn't happen too often. One of the many great things about leaving full-time w*rk is having more time to work out now. That seems to have helped quite a bit.

 

[freebird5825]

And a one and a two...follow the bouncing ball...testing testing...

Old is 99

Bronx cheer (google it).

 

[martyp]

When people ask if I have videos of my wedding (June 1980). Someone had a super 8 movie camera but only got a few minutes of shaky footage.

I had some data archived in boxes. One year they decided not to store magnetic media anymore. They sent me my 8" floppy disks. I showed them to the IT group who had never seen actual floppy disks much less 8" disks. They wanted one to show their friends.

 

[pb4uski]

talking to someone that has never seen much less used a rotary dial phone......

Reminds be of a few years ago with my Dad asked on of my nephews to use the phone in the garage and call his mother and he came back and asked him how to use it (it was a rotary phone). He and the other kids were facinated by it.

 

[pb4uski]

I feel old each time I go downhill skiing. I was a pretty good skiier in my youth and I still remember what to do however the mind says "go" and the legs say "NO!" (at least after a 100 yds or so in the bumps anyway).

Not sure whether it is age or out of shape, perhaps a combination of both. Until I get in shape I am resigned to cruisers.

 

[sailor]

Playing LARP

 

[vicente solano]

Whenever I don´t feel well I fear the worst and and, even so, I delay going to the doctor. i don´t think I was that way when I was young. Was I ever young?

 

[TromboneAl]

Ten years ago, I felt old and tired. Then I had a revelation: the main times I felt this way occurred when I had just climbed up the 50 stairs to our house, or when I had just had wine with dinner.

The point is although I only felt tired occasionally, and in understandable situations, it gave me the impression that I was getting old. As with pain, fatigue can be quite a subjective experience.

 

[Nords]

The point is although I only felt tired occasionally, and in understandable situations, it gave me the impression that I was getting old. As with pain, fatigue can be quite a subjective experience.

My subjective impression is that those occasions were very seldom when I was younger, and I wasn't so understanding of the situations...

My recovery time is at least twice what it used to be from "end of the workout" to "end of the pain". I can completely understand why men (and some women) start dosing themselves with testosterone.

 

[Tigger]

Source: http://comics.com/pearls_before_swine/2011-03-22/

 

[Khan]

What's wrong with being old?

From the comments people seem to equate "old" with "out of shape/unhealthy/in pain". But that's not what old means. Old just means something/someone has been around for a while.

You could be 90, in good health, happy, with lots of friends and an active mind, but you're still old. So what? I just don't understand the attitude that old=bad. Isn't this just a product of a society and consumer culture that is absolutely obsessed with young bodies, youthful lifestyles and novelty?

I look forward to experiencing a healthy old age myself. It seems like it would be a wonderful phase of life with the right attitude. Rather than desperately trying to pretend you will never get "old" because you go to the gym, have low blood pressure, and use face creams.

How about pain and disability and the laws that won't let you die when you want to?

 

[glippy]

How about pain and disability

Those aren't problems exclusive to old people. And certainly not all old people have those problems.

 

[Grizz]

Despite excellent health, the annual over 40 male physical exam is the thing that reminds me most that youth is fading.

 

[TromboneAl]

Despite excellent health, the annual over 40 male physical exam is the thing that reminds me most that youth is fading.

There's a solution for that:

Do You Actually Need a Physical Exam? - US News and World Report

 

[Isadora]

about 10 years ago my date made me feel old (but I still prefer younger men) when getting ready to go to the DC mall to hear Judy Collins I was very excited and he innocently stopped and asked "so, who's Judy Collins"

In general PAIN makes me feel old. I liked it much better when I had no concept of what Mother was talking about when something hurt her all the time. Arthritis hurts...all over...and for someone who claimed "to live is to dance, to dance is to live" - well, no nicer way to put it - it SUCKS.

 

[Andre1969]

one thing that makes me feel old is when I think back on something that happened in the past that doesn't seem that long ago, but then I realize it was. For instance, I remember about 20 years ago, "Nick at Night" ran a short-lived tv show called "Hi Honey, I'm Home", about a 1950's era tv sitcom family that got canceled, and suddenly end up having to live in real life and adapt to modern times.

Well, I hadn't thought about that show in years, but for some reason, it popped into my mind. I did a search on Youtube, and found the opening theme to it. And it's amazing just how quickly the intervening 20 years just seemed to disappear. Suddenly it seemed like it was 1991 again, I was in college, watching it with one of my friends who I thought was cool because he was living in his own apartment, and didn't have a care in the world.

Unfortunately, it didn't take long for those 20 years to come back with a vengeance!

 

[rescueme]

about 10 years ago my date made me feel old (but I still prefer younger men) when getting ready to go to the DC mall to hear Judy Collins I was very excited and he innocently stopped and asked "so, who's Judy Collins"

DW had the same situation a few weeks ago.

We're going to see Paul Anka in a show at the local casino. She stopped at the library to see if they had any video's on his life story that she could see, even though we're a few years younger than him.

The young guy at the desk had never head of him ...

(BTW, any current demonstrations at the Chain Bridge?)...