Sorry for the ageism but I’ve never seen a non-elderly person do this.
Pharmacist:When did you start taking this med?
Elderly guy:Hmm I think oh yes five years now, I remember because my granddaughter took me to a new doctor what was his name oh yes doctor Ramish a nice Indian gentleman oh he told me all about his trip to Iceland…yes my granddaughter took me you know she is studying to be a veterinarian, yes she is a smart one. So the doctor tells me your blood pressure is high and I didn’t believe him but I started taking the pills anyway but then my neighbor named Sarah she told me I could just eat garlic and it works just as well or wait was that Felicia? Anyway so I started eating garlic bread because I hate the taste of garlic but I love garlic bread especially from this Italian restaurant that had just open…
With a line of increasingly angry people behind him. I don’t know why more people won’t dare to shut up the rambling stream of consciousness once the answer has been received.
Did I ever tell you about the time I needed a heel for my shoe? I caught the ferry to Morganville, which was what they called Shelbyville back then. So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. Now, to ride the ferry to Shelbyville cost a nickel…
What’s so bad about that answer – the essential info was given in the first 6 words. The rest was just conversation; elderly people generally have plenty of time for conversation.
It’s much more infuriating to get answes that don’t give the information you asked for.
What about the people waiting behind the elderly person who don’t have time for conversation and just need to get their meds for 10 minutes because the pharmacist doesn’t have the guts to cut off the monologue?
They do when they’re young, but in my experience, they don’t when they’re old.
It used to annoy me, too, and still does, but as I’ve gotten older I’ve been answering a question and a part of my brain realizes I’m doing it! And I’m amazed, because until that part kicked in, I really didn’t realize it, and I’m very afraid that the part that tells me to shut up will get weaker and weaker until I’m one of those people who will give you a ten minute answer when you ask for the time. Sort of like my answer to this question.
I think my mother already did it when she was 3yo, but that’s secondhand information, I wasn’t there. I’ve got that tendency myself but try to curb it (try; sometimes I fail mightily, and sometimes a yes/no question isn’t quite yes/no).
For some reason, Mom thinks that I’ll be able to place somebody I’ve never met, whose children I’ve never met, whose wardrobe I’m not familiar with, if she describes in detail all their family relationships plus the clothes they were wearing. OTOH, sometimes she’ll say “I was with your mate the other day” and I’m supposed to figure out what former class-mate, work-mate or going-out-mate she’s talking about. Guess I should be grateful she doesn’t know any of my former room-mates!
Part of it is just a need to have someone who’ll LISTEN, even if their eyes are kind of glazed.
I have noticed that the older folks in my life tend to not always know what info is actually cromulent to the situation at-hand, and will say a lot of stuff that is just unnecessary and kinda makes you go wtf. And these are folks who, at one time, were pretty okay conversationalists.
But as I get older, I also find myself getting more sympathetic to the consequences of getting older. And I realize it is what it is. These are good people. I’ll listen, or at least be polite when I interrupt.
It’s not just old people. All the techs at the ER pick up incoming phone calls after the 3rd ring, indicating the CSR’s are busy and can’t pick up. So many people can’t manage to make a point in one sentence. They want to find out if they should bring in their dog that’s been vomiting for three days and can’t stand up any more, but have to tell me all about being away on vacation starting two weeks ago first. I very often have to interrupt people with, “OK, but what made you pick up the phone and call me right now?” A woman just the other night had to tell me about her 9 year old cat’s kittenhood - seriously lady, I don’t care, why are you yammering at me right now!
This is one of those differences about growing up in the South. Everybody gives long rambling explanations about everything. If you don’t, you’re either 1) rude, 2) hiding something or 3) (gasp) from up North (see #1.)
I always thought it was just the old people verbalizing how they’re putting the pieces in their head together. Most of us do it unconsciously (“Ummm, how long? Let’s see, that nice Indian doctor gave me the drug, and that year granddaughter #1 pierced her nose, and the Sox won the series*, so that was…five years ago.”)
This, +1.
(*I know that the Sox didn’t win the series five years ago. Or if they did, it’s random that I “knew” that, because I’m just now inhaling coffee.)
My mother will talk about someone from her church, and say, “YOU remember the Campbells! They were that couple from church, her son was in insurance…” And I have to remind my mom that other than my stepfather’s memorial service, I haven’t been inside that (or any other) church in thirty years.
Mom has been known to actually start the description with “Carmen, you don’t know her, she’s not your brother’s Carmen or the parish Carmen, she’s from the book club and wasn’t there that time you came because she and her sisters rotate to take care of their mother and it was her turn, but she’s the mother of one of you brother Jay’s coworkers from when he was in that place in Ribaforada…”
Thankfully I do have permission to switch my brain off. My spine is perfectly capable to handle my side of the monologue 99% of the time.
At work I have no patience for long, rambling answers. I hold up my hand like a traffic cop and stop things abruptly. “Please, just a yes or no answer.” Rude as hell, but I have better things to do.