It finally happened. The check for my regular order at a restaurant I frequent was less than I expected so I looked at how the waitress rang it up for the receipt. And there I saw it – senior citizen discount.
Sure I’ve got a bit of gray in my beard and I need a walker to get around, but it’s not like I asked for a discount. I haven’t even gotten my first AARP solicitation!
I am only 46 years old.
So, Dopers, when did you get the old person treatment for the first time?
Aw, man. That’s way too young for a senior discount. Oh, well cheaper food’s a plus in my book.
My daughter’s first job was at the local IHOP*. I went to eat as her “customer” and as she was checking me out I kidded her about giving me a discount. She did and handed me the receipt with “Senior Discount” on it.
*International House of Pancakes for non-USians. Large chain here in the US, at least in the south.
I had my ‘I feel old’ moment a few weeks ago when I visited my regular doctor for the knee pain I was experiencing. She advised a cortisone shot and said that she would have another Dr actually give me the shot. A few minutes late, this … kid … steps in and proceeds to inject my knee.
It’s a little disconcerting when your doctor is noticeably younger than you.
LOL - I remember like 15 years ago I was bringing my kids to the pediatrician and when the doctor walked in I almost blurted out “What are you? 12?!”
My husband is about 3 years younger than I am. He’s also lost much of his hair and his beard is almost white. He’s been getting automatic senior discounts for years, and I’ve never been offered one - no gray, yanno. (no, I don’t color my hair.)
Heck, I need to remember to ask - I’m at the ass-end of being 64 so I’m eligible for a bunch of discounts. I just never think about them. Dammit.
I feel old. I just recently found a small little bald spot on my head and noticed that my hair was receding a bit on both sides of the top of my head. It’s just a bit but man, I’ve always had the thickest hair, I never thought I’d start losing it. I’m 38.
I would kill to be 46. That’s all I’m going to say.
I received my first “Senior Discount” at a restaurant when I was 42. I made specific note of it. I grayed a bit early (my first gray hair was pointed out to me when I was 20) and had a beard at the time, but I was fully ambulatory. I asked the server why the bill was so low and she said “Senior Discount”. I told her I didn’t deserve it, but she just smiled.
No kidding. I could have a kid that age, with a few years to spare.
I never get discounts because I rarely frequent chain restaurants. Otherwise, nobody ever asks. I am not an AARP member.
High school girls started calling me “sir” when I was in my 30s.
Now MDs are starting to do it.
My hair is brown and as full as it was when I was 18. My beard however has gone from brown to “Salt and Pepper” to “SALT… with a pinch of pepper.”
My kid is a year away from having MD added to the end of her signature.
When I interviewed for my current job a year and a half ago I was asked where I saw myself in 5 and 10 years. I answered that in five years I would be happy in my same position with a firm corporate respect as the guy who brought the system we use to its new state, and at ten years to the guy who people wish wasn’t retired. Not the response expected from a “young applicant.”
I think for me it was when important people, like clergy, doctors, the POTUS and so on, were younger than me. At least no my vet is still older than me, and the owner of the cafe I work in. And Pres Chump is older than me, it was Obama who was the younger one.
I remember a nurse asking me if I was “still working.” WTF? Do I look old enough (certainly not rich enough) to be retired? I would have whacked the whippersnapper with my cane if I’d had one.
This will happen to you more and more often as you get older😁
Teenagers offer me their seats on the bus. I take them too; standing just kills me in a way that walking does not. It’s been a long time since I was not offered a senior discount.
I remember first being addressed as “Sir” when I was 16 years old. (I was buying a train ticket, at St Pancras Station in London.)
“Some parts of me, I’m starting to wonder.”
Probably the first time was when I realized the baby from the Nirvana album was old enough to buy beer. 
Seriously, though, I was at the grocery store with my cousin, and a stockboy asked me, “Do you still need your cart, ma’am?” My very first ma’am.
I was undergoing a routine gynecological exam and the doc asked me, “Having any issues with incontinence yet?”
I was appalled and replied, “No. What do you mean, ‘yet?’ Is this what I have to look forward to??”
She gave a non-committal, apologetic little shrug and laugh.
It was more than 10 years ago. I still have no issues and I’m tremendously glad about that. But there’s nothing like being asked about incontinence to make you feel old.