# How are these people still alive? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 18, 2025, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-these-people-still-alive/1022236 "2025-08-18T19:00:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2025, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-these-people-still-alive/1022236/21 "2025-08-19T01:23:34Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > I have recently learned to text, but not at the speed people seem to be able to. I’ve seen teenagers who could literally text faster than I could read. And I read quickly. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2025, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-these-people-still-alive/1022236/22 "2025-08-19T01:24:04Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > When I first started to drive not only did they fill your tank but also checked your oil and cleaned your windshield and checked your tire pressure. Those were the days. All for $0.55 per gallon. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2025, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-these-people-still-alive/1022236/23 "2025-08-19T01:37:46Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I’ve seen teenagers who could literally text faster than I could read. And drive at the same time! ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2025, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-these-people-still-alive/1022236/24 "2025-08-19T01:39:11Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > When I first started to drive not only did they fill your tank but also checked your oil and cleaned your windshield. Plus free maps. And they wonder why we think things are going to hell. Just the other day when I stopped by a full-serve Oregon gas station, the fellow not only filled my tank but cleaned my windshield, plus the rear window. I can pump my own gas just fine, but I really appreciate having the choice. I do still think things are going to hell. Just not at the filling stations in Oregon. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2025, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-these-people-still-alive/1022236/25 "2025-08-19T02:11:17Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > They don’t Tap to pay at registers either, they move at a different pace Did they pull out their checkbooks? ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2025, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-these-people-still-alive/1022236/26 "2025-08-19T02:14:54Z")
I’ve certainly seen it. Usually a hold up in a check out is some joker with no funds in their account. They can be anyone. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2025, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-these-people-still-alive/1022236/27 "2025-08-19T02:31:24Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > When I first started to drive not only did they fill your tank but also checked your oil and cleaned your windshield. And they wore rings with blades on the underside. “Wow! You won’t get far with these wiper blades/fan belts! We can take care of that right now!” ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2025, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-these-people-still-alive/1022236/28 "2025-08-19T02:38:38Z")
I would always stifle a groan when the elderly person in front of me at the cashier pulled out a change purse. But I haven’t had that happen in quite a few years. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2025, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-these-people-still-alive/1022236/29 "2025-08-19T02:44:07Z")
You’d hate my eldest brother. His wife hides change from him ---
**Author:** ![XOldiesJock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/ec9cab/32.png) [@XOldiesJock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XOldiesJock)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2025, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-these-people-still-alive/1022236/30 "2025-08-19T05:11:14Z")
I feel sorry for that elderly couple. It was kind of you to offer your help. I would have done the same thing. I always buy gas at the same place, or nearly always, because I know how their pumps work, while at a strange place, often they operate differently, and I’d have to figure them out. I’m not mechanical. Things like this can throw me. Recently, I pulled up to a pump at the place I always buy gas, and the pump wasn’t working properly, and you had to follow a completely foreign series of steps to make it work. I looked at it for a moment, then got in my car and moved to another pump. I’m 73. Ain’t got the time to figure shit like that out. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2025, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-these-people-still-alive/1022236/31 "2025-08-19T05:18:55Z")
FWIW, I’m 42 and have been pumping gas all my life and I’ve encountered some less than obvious setups, not to mention buttons and screens that don’t function properly. I also seem terminally incapable of putting the credit card in the correct way the first time. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2025, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-these-people-still-alive/1022236/32 "2025-08-19T05:33:11Z")
These people were pushing random buttons while inserting, taking out then reinserting the credit card while occasionally squeezing the handle to see if gas came out. One would push buttons, the other would play with the credit card while squeezing the gas handle, both of the working independently of the other. It reminded me a bit of that scene on NCIS where Abby and Timmy worked on the same keyboard at the same time. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2025, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-these-people-still-alive/1022236/33 "2025-08-19T08:41:24Z")
You offered to help. What more can you reasonably be expected to do? Altho, I wonder, there’s so many warnings to the aged about scammers, and takers. The world is not always nice to the needy and infirmed and these days it can be downright dangerous to interact with strangers in public. Maybe they were afraid. ---
**Author:** ![iamatractorboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iamatractorboy/32/21261_2.png) [@iamatractorboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamatractorboy)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2025, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-these-people-still-alive/1022236/34 "2025-08-19T09:23:12Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > This reminds me of when old people encounter touch screen soda refill machines and it completely breaks their brains and they can neither use them but also they can’t walk away. Sounds like my mother (in her 70s but been a technophobe forever) with smartphones. She finally got one a year or two ago and still treats it like it’s going to give her an electric shock every time she touches the screen. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2025, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-these-people-still-alive/1022236/35 "2025-08-19T11:19:03Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > When I first started to drive not only did they fill your tank but also checked your oil and cleaned your windshield I was that guy. What pissed me off the most was we had to clean up after the mechanics, and wash the bays out every night. They made the mess, they should clean it up. ---
**Author:** ![f.coli](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eada6e/32.png) [@f.coli](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/f.coli)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2025, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-these-people-still-alive/1022236/36 "2025-08-19T15:25:36Z")
That reminds of an elderly couple that I followed once onto an interstate highway. It was in a rural area with a long two-lane ramp for entering and exiting traffic. The couple promptly entered the left lane, despite the bright yellow double-line in the middle of the ramp. I tried honking and flashing my headlights at them, but they were oblivious. Finally the entrance and exit ramps split, and they stopped before driving the wrong way onto the exit ramp, thankfully seeing the “Wrong Way - Do Not Enter” sign at the split. I looked over as I passed them, seeing them gazing at the sign, dumbfounded, with their mouths open. I hope they didn’t kill anybody later. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2025, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-these-people-still-alive/1022236/37 "2025-08-19T15:34:55Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > They don’t Tap to pay at registers either Not every register has Tap to pay, and I have trouble telling which are which at a casual glance. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2025, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-these-people-still-alive/1022236/38 "2025-08-19T16:00:45Z")
Somehow this reminds me of a stereotypical sight years ago on interstate highways. I’d pass a slow-moving vehicle in the right lane, which turned out to be a wizened old guy who apparently was about 4’10”, barely able to see over the wheel of his enormous Cadillac, cruising contentedly along at 50 mph. But always in the flow of traffic (not wrong way), for which you had to give him credit. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2025, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-these-people-still-alive/1022236/39 "2025-08-19T16:16:35Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Not every register has Tap to pay, and I have trouble telling which are which at a casual glance. And significantly Walmart doesn’t have Tap to Pay–and Walmart is a very big source for groceries and general retail in rural Arkansas. ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2025, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-these-people-still-alive/1022236/40 "2025-08-19T16:29:33Z")
I occasionally encounter the pumps that have the “WELCOME VALUED GAS CLUB MEMBER! ENTER PHONE NUMBER TO PROCEED!” screen with no other options. I just go ahead and tap to get around it, but the first time I got that screen I was befuddled. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-these-people-still-alive/1022236.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-these-people-still-alive/1022236.md?page=3)