I’m 52 and I got carded for beer last month 
I teach English to a wide range of students, including high school students. I feel so old when I talk about like before cell phones or the Internet.
My definition of recent events needs to be revised as it includes things which occurred before they were born.
One day it hit me, there was less time between the end of WWII and when I was born, than between 9/11 and these kids being born.
Ooops. Not from when those kids were born but from 9/11 to now.
The first time I remember feeling old was seeing a bunch of my toys in a museum. I have a saying, “You know you are getting old when stuff that happened in junior high is on the History Channel”, and i absolutely share the sentiment of dealing with professional people who seem to be children.
As for being treated as an old person, except for my bone headed step daughter I do not routinely feel like this happens to me.
As for being 46 again? That would make me younger than my daughter and spouse, so could be a problem 
The first time I went into a Burger King, asked for coffee, and got the senior discount. Of course, I was 60 years old at the time.
The first time I realized “damn, I’m old” was when I found myself wondering how young people today will be able to hold down a job when they can’t get off their damn devices for two minutes. A definite “damn, I’m old” thought.
Just wait til you blow past 60. THEN you’ll feel old.
I was getting a tattoo, (in Vietnam, a year ago), a bracelet like thing on my forearm. There was a good deal of fussing over the positioning so it will look level and true from every angle. Finally the two young men were satisfied they’d got it just right. Saying, ‘Yes, this is good, but over time, because the skin is…’, and a pause. Which I filled in with, ‘old?’, both matter of factly nodding their heads in unabashed agreement!
I could only be amused. I’m aware I’m over 60. I found their forthrightness somewhat comforting to be honest.
‘Ma’am’ never upset me, I recognize it as denoting respect, which often accompanies age somewhat naturally. I have used it in this fashion, so I don’t find it a trigger in the slightest.
What makes me feel old is when I hear that shows like The Simpsons or Big Brother have been on the air over twenty years! Yikes! That doesn’t compute, as I’ve never seen an episode of either. (Unimpressed with first glance, I then discounted it as something that would surely soon pass, I suppose.)
I’m 57 and haven’t been offered any senior discounts yet. I never remember to ask for them either. My husband and I have been getting AARP junk in the mail for years tho. I felt old this past week when I purchased a pair of yellow lens glasses for night driving. I get so much glare when the road is wet at night. I think that’s kind of an old person thing.
Waitaminute.
I’m 60. To the best of my knowledge (I do not study my check) I’ve never gotten a senior citizen discount. 
At around age 50, I started receiving mail from AARP and Retirement Planning seminars and Nursing homes. Now, at age 60, I’m starting to get mail from the freakin’ Cremation Society! Hey, I’m not ready for that yet!
I remember when Kennedy was elected my father grumbling about feeling old because he (Kennedy) was younger than he was. When Obama was elected, I knew how he felt.
A year or two ago, a young woman stood up and offered me her seat on the downtown area shuttle. I’m not decrepit in any way, but I’m graying and have a few wrinkles. I think I aged twenty years in that one moment.
I’m the youngest in my family and was the youngest one in my class. I don’t know how to be old, dammit!
The last time I watched Animal House, I had more sympathy for Dean Wormer than for the frat boys.
It’s all relative. I saw a waitress probably about 22 years old get called maam by an 18 year-old.
I watched AH this past weekend and lusted for Mrs. Wormer with the heat of a thousand suns. Even with the 1950’s Tactical Battle Underwear.
I’m a year older and they still do that to me on occasion. It happens when I’m going to a bar for the first time and/or the guy doing the carding is new (in which case, he cards everybody just to be safe). If the guy’s seen me at the bar the day or week before, he doesn’t bother.
I started taking horseback riding lessons last year and was deliriously happy about it. I was talking with a co-worker about it and she told me she thought I was incredibly brave.
Wait…what? Brave?
Well yes, she said. She doesn’t know any other nearly 60 year old women climbing up on a big, scary horse.
Nearly 60?? I’m not…
:eek:
Holy crap, I AM nearly 60! And that is when I started feeling old.
“Anyone who says they want to live forever doesn’t know what it’s like to get old.”
Has not happened to me yet (early 50s), but a lot of the people I do things with are older than me and I can hear their complaints about this-or-that failing body part. Hell, I have a friend that just retired!
It has become impossible for me to open a door at almost any commercial institution without some young whipper-snapper suddenly appearing and opening it for me. Damn handy, actually. Particularly since about 3/4ths of the door openers are cute young chicks. This may have something with me being in my 89th year.
Ken’s House of Pancakes in Hilo on the Big Island gives a discount to anyone 55 or above, every day after 2pm. That was my first experience, at age 59. One movie-theater chain here gives it at age 60.
When I was on the Business desk at the Bangkok Post, one young writer kept referring to anyone aged 35 as senior citizens. We kept correcting her copy, but she just wouldn’t stop.