# I just realised I am old **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 2, 2024, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-realised-i-am-old/1009575 "2024-11-02T12:50:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 15
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2026, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-realised-i-am-old/1009575/281 "2026-08-03T16:26:12Z")
I can remember my grandparents being old in their 50s. Harder childhoods in the Depression, for sure, but some of it was medical, some was attitude, some was culture, some was substance abuse, 20th-century style. I am now in my 50s, a few months short of the age my grandfather was when he died of (alcohol-exacerbated) natural causes. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2026, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-realised-i-am-old/1009575/282 "2026-08-03T16:28:10Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > For me, it was in 2017, the 40th anniversary of the release of _Star Wars._ > > The movie _Star Wars_ was as old, that year, as _Metropolis_ was when I was born. I like to take the time from today to some past event I remember and project it backwards. If I do that with my age (75) I wind up in the Grant Administration. At some point, quite a while ago, I figured out that the time from then back to when I learned about transistors in grad school was longer than the time between the transistor being invented and me learning about it. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2026, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-realised-i-am-old/1009575/283 "2026-08-03T16:35:40Z")
I’m ‘old’ . Retired. But, I walked the dogs today and road my bike today, and played Pickle ball yesterday. And now I’m about to ride my bike again to our mailbox. I currently consider my bike recreation. But It may become transportation. We see the writing on the wall. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2026, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-realised-i-am-old/1009575/284 "2026-08-03T20:26:40Z")
I hate digital cameras. In every picture taken of me with a digital camera, my hair is white and I’m much fatter. ---
**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 3, 2026, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-realised-i-am-old/1009575/285 "2026-08-03T20:50:08Z")
Whereas pictures of you taken with an accordian-fold camera with glass plates all show a man in his prime, right? ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2026, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-realised-i-am-old/1009575/286 "2026-08-03T21:25:00Z")
Exactly! ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2026, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-realised-i-am-old/1009575/287 "2026-08-03T22:46:26Z")
Daguerrotypes FTW!! ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2026, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-realised-i-am-old/1009575/288 "2026-08-04T03:11:17Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > I have 4 ages. From youngest to oldest: > > - The age I am in my head > - The age I think other people see looking at me > - The age of the face I see in the mirror > - The age I see in pictures of me The age I am in my dreams is all four of these simultaneously. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2026, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-realised-i-am-old/1009575/289 "2026-08-04T17:50:37Z")
> [@TokyoBayer](#): > > We have some friends visiting from Tokyo and they look old. > > But they are 10 years younger than me. > > I only look young in my memory. I’ve noticed that when I meet strangers my age, they look like old geezers. But when I see old schoolmates, they have a few gray hairs, and a few wrinkles, but to me they look almost as good as they did back then. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2026, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-realised-i-am-old/1009575/290 "2026-08-04T19:29:43Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > I gotta say, Mom in that case is starting to look kinda young and Grandma, if she’s in good shape, is the one who catches my unconscious eye first. For me it’s a conscious eye.😉 ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2026, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-realised-i-am-old/1009575/291 "2026-08-04T22:04:27Z")
I’m 19 years older than Wilford Brimley was when he did Coccoon. ---
**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 5, 2026, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-realised-i-am-old/1009575/292 "2026-08-05T17:21:49Z")
To be fair, Wilford Brimley was born an old man. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2026, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-realised-i-am-old/1009575/293 "2026-08-05T17:50:14Z")
Just like Ernest Borgnine was born a gruffy middle-aged man, a type he played throughout his whole career. ---
**Author:** ![dirtball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dirtball/32/18772_2.png) [@dirtball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dirtball)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2026, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-realised-i-am-old/1009575/294 "2026-08-05T18:07:23Z")
This line of discussion has me curious to see an Abe Vigoda baby picture. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2026, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-realised-i-am-old/1009575/295 "2026-08-05T18:14:28Z")
In 1972, Tom T. Hall recorded a song called “Old Dogs, Children, and Watermelon Wine,” in which an “old man” is telling him his philosophy on life. The “old man” was a month shy of 66. At the time, Tom T. was 36, so that probably was old to him. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2026, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-realised-i-am-old/1009575/296 "2026-08-05T18:30:58Z")
> [@dirtball](#): > > This line of discussion has me curious to see an Abe Vigoda baby picture. I’m finding danged few pictures of him even as a young man. This photo is said to have been him in the Army during WWII, when he would have been in his early 20s. [![](https://eisenhowerfoundation.net/sites/default/files/2024-11/Abe%2520B.JPG) ](https://eisenhowerfoundation.net/sites/default/files/2024-11/Abe%2520B.JPG) It probably doesn’t help that he had very few TV or movie acting credits (and none of them particularly significant) prior to 1972, when he was in _The Godfather_, and was already 51 years old; he had started working as an actor in the late '40s, but was apparently mostly a stage actor (and maybe some radio) until _The Godfather_. ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2026, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-realised-i-am-old/1009575/297 "2026-08-05T23:07:19Z")
I just calculated that my birth is closer to the outbreak of World War I than to the present day. ---
**Author:** ![dirtball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dirtball/32/18772_2.png) [@dirtball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dirtball)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2026, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-realised-i-am-old/1009575/298 "2026-08-05T23:09:45Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > I’m finding danged few pictures of him even as a young man. This photo is said to have been him in the Army during WWII, when he would have been in his early 20s. In that photo, he’s nowhere near looking like an old codger, but if someone told me it was him in his early thirties and sounded like they knew what they were talking about, I’d accept it. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2026, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-realised-i-am-old/1009575/299 "2026-08-06T00:17:56Z")
> [@Thing.Fish](#): > > calculated that my birth is closer to the outbreak of World War I Mine is closer to the Whitechapel Murders of Jack the Ripper than to the present. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2026, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-realised-i-am-old/1009575/300 "2026-08-06T00:23:17Z")
Indeed. I’ll be 57 in October. 57 years before I was born was the Titanic iceberg shenanigans. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-realised-i-am-old/1009575.md?page=14) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-realised-i-am-old/1009575.md?page=16)