Yes. IMO only strengthening my argument that the concept of legal age [and do not think everyone instantly abandoned centuries-old customs just because The Man said so], as well as concepts such as the age of accountability and age of majority, are quite fuzzy and culturally relativistic. If you think about it further, there is no obvious reason to attach any importance to the date of one’s birth or to a particular Christian calendar— those are customs, too. (However, a physician may be interested in a patient’s chronological age, for instance.)
And in American culture, it’s often more relevant what year you are in school than your actual age.
I don’t know about that - which grade I was in was only really relevant to school issues such as which year I was expected to graduate or which homeroom I was in. My birthdate and/or actual age was relevant to a lot more - when I could start school, which sports team I would be placed on, when I could get working papers, what kind of job I could get, when I could get a learner’s permit. And that’s just the issues before I was an adult.
“Only for school issues” undersells it, though, since “school issues” are the vast majority of what minors deal with.
A birthday cake celebrates the fact that we are now older. This change made everyone younger.
I once spent a few weeks travelling with one of triplets who was trying to argue that spending her birthday in NZ rather than her native UK would make her the oldest instead of the youngest of the three for that year.
The change made everyone have a different age than they did before. The cakes would be tongue-in-cheek celebrations of their new age, be it older or younger.
Alan was 1349 weeks, two days old on his wedding day.
Barbara was 1239 weeks, one day old on her wedding day.
(I am 3685 weeks, four days old today.)
I didn’t read many of the replies.
When we had to say goodbye to our beloved Labrador Retriever, Sam, the angel of mercy who came to the house asked his age. When I said he was ‘just shy of 14,’ she immediately replied … “So … 13.”
She then went on to rant a wee bit about – in effect – people who answer the question the way I did.
She was inarguably correct, but seemed a bit tone deaf in a setting where people are grieving the loss of both what they had and the loss of what might otherwise have been.
Yeah. 13. 13 and long yardage 