What Makes You FEEL Old, Whether You Are Or Not?

[Persephone]

My husband pulled out some of his old Ten Years After records this morning (yes, real records, that you play on an actual turntable) to show to his son (see the Unique Bonding Experiences thread). He asked his son if he knew what they were. His son said "Well, it's too big to be a CD...no, I don't know. What is it?" Sigh.

Not too terribly long ago, I was riding in a car with my 14 year old cousin. I was lamenting about the fact that there are no decent rock & roll stations in this city, except for the oldies station. My cousin said "Rock & roll? I've heard of it, but don't know what it is." I actually felt my hair turn gray.

And one more thing...about 6 years ago, I was in a car with my boyfriend at the time and his niece. He popped in a Bob Seger tape. He & I were sort of singing along, and she just looked at us and said "You guys know the actual words to this stuff?" I was only 26 years old at the time, but all of a sudden felt about 100. Argh.

[Satan]

I knew I was getting old when I was married to a person who had a child from a previous marriage.

I would see a really cute young girl, and instead of thinking, "Wow, I'd love to get her," I'd think, "Wow, I'd love to get her to babysit for us sometime!"

That and when I go to shows featuring bands such as Presidents Of The United States Of America, and there were parents my age who took their kids there because they were forced, and I went willingly.

------------------
Brian O'Neill
CMC International Records
rockuniverse.com/cmc/cmc.html

ICQ 35294890
AIM Scrabble1
Yahoo Messenger Brian_ONeill

[funneefarmer]

Keep in mind I'm 30.
Sore knees, grey chest hairs at 28, finding grey hair on my head at 29, receding hairline, that 10 yr old music is classic rock, that alternative bands are doing remakes of songs from 10 yrs ago (and young kids thinking "oooo that's so original"), all my young cousins have real jobs, my friends have kids who have boyfriends/girlfriends, old people (including my parents) are comfortable telling me dirty jokes...etc,etc,etc.

[kanashimi]

It happened here! I was reading from SD Classics, someone had written in to ask if President Carter had really been attacked by a rabbit. I remember the incident clearly, even remember the newspaper pics. Seemed like maybe 15 years ago. Then I realized the person writing was an adult, and that ADULTS have not lived through things that I have. The age thing really hit home then.

------------------
"With enough courage, you can do without a reputation." - Rhett Butler

[Omniscient]

The fact that many of the athletes and new pop stars are born in the '80s, christ I'm only 23 and that makes me feel old, but then i just go out and get drunk and try and pick up ladies and I feel better. Getting carded still is a nice touch.

[TubaDiva]

Oh man, let me count the ways!

Remember the book Future Shock? The premise being that changes came more and more swiftly through time. It's proven to be true, stuff gets old really fast.

A lot of my references are musical, for obvious reasons.

I was at Berklee and one of my classmates turned to me and said "I've got this incredible tape by this great band . . . The Beatles?"

He DID ask later on if the Paul McCartney in that band was the same one in Wings.

Working a sports car race and having to explain to people there how to use a manual wind-up clock dial stopwatch. I got quite a crowd around me as I timed several cars with one watch. "How do you DO that?" I remember when that was the only way you COULD time cars.

Sitting in a rehearsal and the topic of Woodstock came up . . . exchanging Woodstock memories. Little trumpet player on the end says, "I wasn't even BORN when Woodstock went down."

And, just this past weekend . . . looking at a magazine with new fall fashion layouts . . . and recognizing a lot of it as stuff out of the 1980's . . . and wondering if I still have some of that stuff in the back of the closet.

There's lots more, I feel old most all the time.

your humble TubaDiva
"Age and treachery will defeat youth and skill."

[Kat]

Last year a girl I worked with overheard part of a conversation and asked what Weebles were. Funny thing is, she's only 2 or 3 years younger than me.

[Sylence]

I'm 20.

I was at a gas station and I wound up having to pay by check since I was out of cash. When I handed the clerk my driver's license for ID, she looked at the birthdate (July 30, 1979) and said "Wow, I would never have believed you were that young."

Ouch.


-- Sylence

------------------
"The problem with reality is the lack of background music." -- Anon

[Catrandom]

I work for a radio trade paper, and I'm the oldest in the editorial department by approximately a hundred years. I am working with at least one person who was born the year I started college.

When I started this job I hadn't heard of the songs or the bands --I had to keep asking questions like "Is 'Everlast' a person or a group?"

Catrandom -- 37 in three weeks (sigh.)

[funneefarmer]

Weebles wobble but they don't fall down.
As for the fall fashion thing, let's just hope they don't start wearing polos with the collars turned up and sweaters around their shoulders. (shuddering from terror induced flashback)

[Bluepony]

I'm 40, 13 yrs older than my wife. We were going to see the new movie Wild Wild West and I casually mentioned that I hoped it would be as good as the TV series. She asked me "What TV series, is it on Fox?" Yikes.

------------------
"...send lawyers, guns, and money..."

Warren Zevon

[Gilligan]

When I go to an antique flea market and I see toys and games that I had as a child. Bad enough that they go for $100+, but...antiques!

[timmar68]

Tuba...I hear you about the Beatles thing. I was in a record store and some kids were holding up a Beatles CD and one said, "Wow! Paul McCartney was in a group before Wings!".
One of our radio station has "80s cafe". From noon to one they play all 80s tunes. I'm at work then, so here I am, humming along, and COLLEGE STUDENTS tell me they have never heard the songs, or the names of the groups for that matter. And someone I used to babysit is in his 20s now. :P


------------------
MaryAnn
Sometimes life is so great you just gotta muss up your hair and quack like a duck!

[Sue Duhnym]

I'm 28.

A kid I used to babysit got married last year. Ugh.

Orgy covered 'Blue Monday"...how sick is that!?!

I'm getting my tattoo lasered off.

Oh god...and I turn 29 soon...what next?

[ruadh]

Realizing that most of my co-workers (who are in their early-mid 20s, so not THAT much younger than me - I'm 29) completely missed all the cultural influences that defined my childhood, e.g. Schoolhouse Rock, Free To Be You And Me, Burger Chef, etc.

The worst is when you mention Schoolhouse Rock and they only know it 'cause of that tribute album from a few years back.

------------------
Never regret what seemed like a good idea at the time.

Mike: I get that alot too. I don't look like a teenager, but I've been told I don't look my age (32).

I apparently have one of those faces that doesn't reveal my age. I remember a few years back when a fellow employee was talking about his Vietnam experiences and he was surprised when I told him I had been in junior high at the time. A few days later, I was talking about Star Trek with a fellow student in a college class I was taking and she was surprised when I mentioned having seen the show as a network series. The two of them were both ten years apart from me in age but both of them had assumed I was their own age.

I was at work yesterday. A couple of co-workers were having a conversation and started talking about how old they were. One of them asking me how old I was. When I told them, another co-worker who hadn't been involved in the conversation until this point, said in a shocked voice "You're thirty seven?" He refused to say anything more so now I don't know if he was just yanking my chain or if he was genuinely surprised (and why).

[J String]

Radio stations calling the stuff I listened to in high school "classic rock" (I'm only 29), that bugs me a little. A girl I work with just graduated from high school, and one day she was trying to remember the name of a band that "my parents listened to when they were my age." She described it as a "really old band that most people have never heard of." Turns out it was Jethro Tull.

[Stoid]

The fact that any more than 10 minutes spent in any position at all will cause my joints to feel stiff when I stand up and move again.

I thought it was just me, but my friends tell me they are experiencing the same thing...

[Persephone]

Mike: I get that alot too. I don't look like a teenager, but I've been told I don't look my age (32).

J: "Some really old band" is Jethro Tull? Sigh. Just felt another hundred hairs go gray.

Stoidela: My joints do that sometimes too...oh boy.

[handy]

When I see kids wearing 60's stuff, trying to look ah, so kewl, & I, having actually been around [pretty young though] at that time, I feel neither young nor old. Mostly just have to chuckle at their vain attempts to think they know it all.

[Persephone]

Free to be You & Me, Schoolhouse Rock, and Burger Chef...I remember ALL of those! Schoolhouse Rock is back on TV, BTW. The originals.

I remember sitting in my American History class in high school, and the teacher asked if anyone could recite the preamble to the Constitution. EVERY SINGLE hand went up...we'd all learned it from Schoolhouse Rock. For kicks, he asked us all to recite it in unison. We sang it, just like it went on Schoolhouse Rock. That was fun.

[Rich Barr]

One evening I'm listening to the radio and the Song "One Night In Bangok" comes on. Afterwards the DJ comes on and says they played it "for all the old crusties out there." Jeez....

Then there's the fact that when I go on Instant Messenger I get a lot of females IMing me...but they're all half my age, if that old. Typical exchange:

THEM: Hi. How old are you?
ME: I'm 35.
THEM: Oh...I have to go now...bye.

This always gives me the feeling I should go drink some Ensure, or maybe preplan my funeral, or something.

************
"You've old enough to be my father!"

"Yeah...are you a daddy's girl?"

------------------
Rich Barr
massivemaple@hotmail.com
AOL Instant Messenger: Hrttannl

[Rich Barr]

I need an editor.

"Song" should be lower-case S, "Bangok" should be "Bangkok," and "You've" should be "You're."

Never mind me....

[gary horaczek]

I'm 39 and holding(like Jack Benny) and when I watch some of the old shows (from the 50's to the 70's) and so many of the people are now gone (I Love Lucy cast) or I watch shows that bring back old tv stars who have not aged well(Jerry Mathers of Leave It To Beaver) then I feel old.

[DougC]

- - - I noticed a few years back that all the penny gumball machines disappeared. - MC

When Michael Jackson was absolutely it, my nephew shattered my illusions of youth by asking if we (hubby & I) knew that MJ used to sing with a group called the Jackson Five...

I think I was 23 at the time.

------------------
Sue from El Paso
members.aol.com/majormd/index.html

[JillGat]

Huh. I don't feel old at all, and it appears that I am ten to fifteen years older than many of you. Oh well. You're only young once, but you can be immature all your life.

[dawnbird]

I feel old whenever I talk to people my own age. (I'm 22) I don't behave like do, think like they do, or dress like they do.

When I dress nice and put up my hair, people just assume I'm in my thirties. If I don't I just feel like a slob.

------------------
possibly the world's only naive cynic

[Ringo]

I rarely think in terms of feeling old; my conception is more like one of watching various stages in a process. Yeah, I was 39, yeah, I'll be 56 (I hope). Not to say that I'm unaware of the one-way nature of the process.

But I do think about the changes. I used to think about the amazing change my grandfather saw in his life (he was born in 1889 and lived until 1977). And now I get these flashes of the same in my own life. A lot of things seem very similar to what they were when I was a kid, but the changes, when I get this perspective on them, are huge.

In 1958 we got a tv set primarily because all the kids in the neighborhood were congregating at one of the two homes that had purchased tvs. Within a few months a good number of houses had tv and Saturday morning cartoons had become a part of life.

The first pop concert I remember going to was the Beach Boys' Sloop John B. tour; they had less equipment on stage than my own garage band had just a few years later.

The whole digital world segued into my life and I'm quite comfy w/it, but every once in a while I have to think how different college would have been with a computer to use.

Regards

[Doobieous]

I'm 20, so I am in no way old but...


Everytime i think of when i graduated from high school (97') i start feeling old. For me i can't believe that almost three years have gone by since i left HS. Most of the music I listen to is from the mid 80's to early 90's and i find it funny that many of the teens today dont even know who these artists are (for instance, Shannon. All of my friends who are in their mid 20's know immediately who she is, but the teens who hear it don't even know). I also listen to a lot of 80's R&B, and a lot of R&B oldies (Stylistics, Rose Royce, Temptations, Supremes, etc.) and these teens dont know who these singers are. All they know are the current breed of singers (Who not one of my friends likes). I find it hilarious when people call stuff from ten years ago oldies. It don't count unless it's at least from before 1980 for me.

[Persephone]

Beatle: You reminded me of something, when you mentioned your grandfather. I have a 96-year-old great-grandmother, still quite alive. Not in the greatest physical shape, but in full possession of her mental faculties. Talking to her is amazing. She's seen Halley's Comet twice. She remembers Titanic, when it actually happened. She remembers when women couldn't vote. Thnking about her makes me think "Hell, Im still in diapers!"

And Doobieous...the music of 1980 is NOT OLD. NOT NOT NOT!!!

[timmar68]

How about this? A friend of mine still has a (workable) rotary phone. One day her daughter had some friends over and they saw the phone for the first time (it was kept in another room that they usually weren't allowed in). They didn't even know what it was! She told them and they didn't believe her. So she showed them how to use it by calling me. They about flipped!


------------------
MaryAnn
Sometimes life is so great you just gotta muss up your hair and quack like a duck!

[Doobieous]

Cristi: Homeskillet , i said that stuff from before 1980 starts to be counted as old (pardon me for giving a general date for things ). Perhaps i should clarify: If it was created before 10:03:05 am March 20th 1975 then it starts getting old . I know that stuff from the 80's isnt old. Even stuff from the 70's starts pushing it. Hell, the 80's stuff i listen to is recent enough to mix well into dance mixes at clubs. Something OLDIES are not able to do . So, do you see what I am saying

[Diane]

When cops and doctors remind me of my son.

I saw Arlo Guthrie on the television the other day, GOODGODALMIGHTY! I was wondering "Who is that old guy with the really long hair?" Damn! He may have been a LITTLE before my time (I am 37), but if he looks THAT old, I'm not far behind.

My kids love those really old shows like "Married With Children" and "Get a Life" and my daughter asked me the other day if I was born when The Brady Bunch was on TV (she didn't think I was young. She thought the show was old!)

Every once in a while something happens to make me feel a little better. I got carded the other day, they call me "Kiddo" at work, and yesterday someone told me they couldn't believe I have teenagers because they thought I looked 20-something. I had to kiss that guy! Unfortunately, those things are starting to be few and far between.


------------------
>^,,^<
KITTEN

Coarse and violent nudity. Occasional language.

I'm not old by ANY means (I'm 21), but I feel old when I talk to my 13 yr. old brother, and 15 yr. old sister. They have no idea:
* what an 8-track is.
* that the president before Bush was named Reagan, and that he was actually shot.
* how to play a record.
* that Michael Jackson used to have dark skin.
* what the Exxon Valdez is.
* what life before TV remote controls is like "Hey folks, don't tough that dial!"
* that a space shuttle named "Challenger" exploded in mid-air.

There are a million others, but it's truly amazing what has changed in the past ten years, or so. They don't really know about life before PC's, cordless phones, CD's...etc.

Adam

------------------
"Life is hard...but God is good"

[bernard]

This is an easy one for me. Seeing those younger students of mine doing the splits with such great ease.

[manhattan]

I don’t really mind when the kids don’t know music from my youth, or when I can’t identify most of the groups at the top of the Billboard charts, but I really feel old when someone remakes a song that I seem to remember as having been from only a few years ago. Sue, Blue Monday is a great example, but I felt old when some Australian one-hit wonder remade Funkytown back in ’87.

I also felt old when my doctor told me to lose weight and quit smoking or I’d have a second heart attack. I’m 33, for Chrissake!

And whenever the Dow drops 500 points and the kids refer to it as a crash. Makes me feel like Nicholson. "A crash? You can't handle a crash!"

And this is gonna sound kind of weird, but no one considers me a law-enforcement risk anymore. Used to be I’d get pulled over and the cop would want to search me, my car, my passengers and the entire strip of highway from where he put his lights on to where I stopped. Now I can even go through customs without a second look. What’s the matter, officer, don’t you think I might be sneaking a little hash back to the dorm?

But then I’ll have an older houseguest who wants to use a calling card because it’s a long distance call (gasp) and they don’t want to saddle me with the expense. That makes me feel young again.

[Greg Charles]

I own a turntable and still play records fairly often.

[UncleBeer]

Shaving. I look in the mirror and turn around in suprise expecting to see my father behind me. "Dad, how the the hell did you get in here?"

Hangovers. I used to never get hangovers; now it only takes a few scotches. Maybe even the fact that I like scotch now.

Reunions. I've got the 20 year high school reunion coming up; just had a family reunion and I have a nephew who drove himself there from Tennessee.

Sunday morning talk shows. I gotta see 'em all while eating my oatmeal (Oatmeal? When the hell did that happen?) and drinking coffee. Used to be I didn't give a damn about politics, now I actually shout at the TV while all these pontificating clowns are spewing their vile brand of government activism.

------------------
Abstainer: a weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure.
- Ambrose Bierce

Freddie Prinze, JR.

Oh, yeah, and I mentioned Gilda Radner to one of my co-workers, who first drew a blank and then said, brightly, "Oh, wasn't she the cancer lady?"

[Shadowfox]

What makes me feel old is the fact that I remember changing my baby brother's diapers back when he was a newborn, and next month he will be 21.

Another thing that made me feel old was about a year ago when my mother started telling me about her sexual dysfunction problems. Geez mom, the last thing I want to hear from you is the quality of your sex life. Give me a cookie and tell me to go outside and play with my friends or something.

Shadowfox

[eden]

it's easier not to feel old if you don't teach. it can be really amazing how little students know. and awfully hard to swallow that you used to be JUST LIKE THAT. i wish i still knew everything...life's decisions would be so much easier!

[wireless]

Getting "ma'am"-ed.

[dougie_monty]

In 1982 (I was 33 then) I went to the wax museum on Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco. I commented to another visitor about Walt Disney, who died in 1966, and whose wax figure was among the storybook characters he made movies of. When I told her about him dying, she said, "I didn't know he was a real person!"
She may not have been old enough to understand what "Walt Disney died yesterday" meant, at the time it happened. The puzzling part is that her parents never told her he was real.
Other than that, it made me feel old...

[dougie_monty]

In 1982 (I was 33 then) I went to the wax museum on Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco. I commented to another visitor about Walt Disney, who died in 1966, and whose wax figure was among the storybook characters he made movies of. When I told her about him dying, she said, "I didn't know he was a real person!"
She may not have been old enough to understand what "Walt Disney died yesterday" meant, at the time it happened. The puzzling part is that her parents never told her he was real.
Other than that, it made me feel old...

[dougie_monty]

Sorry--that should have been posted once.

[Neil]

And the slot? It was where men placed their old nasty disposable (not bics like we know them today, but straight edge) when they were dull.}} Shirley

Sorry to say this, but I've not heard about those before. (Probably 'cause I never saw one.) But, out of curiosity, where did the old blades go? Just some hollow space? Could it be opened and cleaned out? And why wouldn't they just throw away old blades instead of sticking them in some little slot?

------------------
Neil

". . .they could as easily have been carrying euphoniums and wearing war paint for all the notice their quarry would have taken of them."
-Douglas Adams, "Life, the Universe, and Everything"

The razor blades just go behind the wall, and stay there. Many old hotels have the same slot, and the blades just collect forever. This is according to David Feldman, Cecil's competitor. (Gasp!)

Adam

------------------
"Life is hard...but God is good"

[Persephone]

Doobieous. Homerolled. Just kidding. I was at a bar where my husband was playing not too long ago, and there was a DJ on the breaks. He put on "Come on Eileen," and referred to it as an oldie. Thought I'd choke him. I own that album. On vinyl. And I have a turntable, too.