# 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:** 6
**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:** [November 15, 2024, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-realised-i-am-old/1009575/101 "2024-11-15T06:37:29Z")
> [@Dogginit](#): > > Me 😆 That’s why I stick around this place. People with good taste. 😄 ---
**Author:** ![Dogginit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dogginit/32/16920_2.png) [@Dogginit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogginit)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2024, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-realised-i-am-old/1009575/102 "2024-11-15T11:17:17Z")
It’s much the same with Genesis - most of the world thought Abacab was their start 🤣 ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2024, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-realised-i-am-old/1009575/103 "2024-11-20T22:21:20Z")
> [@X.L.Lent](#): > > Lately, what I have found disturbing are the jokes about the > Generation Xers getting old. So what does that make me > given that I’m from the end of the boomer era? Years ago, my not-far-out-of-high-school son asked: “Ma. When did you stop listening to new music?” I remembered that. Remembered it and saved it. A decade or so later, I asked him the same question back. He was amused. He remembered asking the question and copped to resembling it then. > [@TRC4941](#): > > I was born in 1961 and never felt like I should be classified as a Baby Boomer, but also not quite an Xer. I just saw somewhere that they have made a new category - The Jones Generation, as in keeping up with the Joneses. This is made up of those born in 1955-1964. So I am no longer a Boomer! It won’t take. Youngsters say Boomer when what they mean is Old Person. ---
**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:** [November 21, 2024, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-realised-i-am-old/1009575/104 "2024-11-21T00:56:36Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > Youngsters say Boomer when what they mean is Old Person. So soon GenX and eventually Millennials will be Boomers too? When does it end? Boomers forever? ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2024, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-realised-i-am-old/1009575/105 "2024-11-21T01:15:38Z")
How long until the word Baby is no longer associated with Boomer? I can picture high school kids drinking in the woods and guessing that old people are called Boomers because they get loud when their hearing goes. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2024, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-realised-i-am-old/1009575/106 "2024-11-21T01:25:04Z")
> [@Saffer](#): > > It’s so weird to think that the matrix is a classic move now. What’s _weird_ is that someone who was in middle school when the Berlin Wall fell thinks they’re _old_. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2024, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-realised-i-am-old/1009575/107 "2024-11-21T01:48:42Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > This year an immense number of people are paying a lot of money to **hear** Taylor Swift lip sync. Watch. ---
**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:** [November 21, 2024, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-realised-i-am-old/1009575/108 "2024-11-21T03:35:09Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > What’s _weird_ is that someone who was in middle school when the Berlin Wall fell thinks they’re _old_. Or someone who started with an IBM PC thinking they are a computer pioneer. Get off my card reader! ---
**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:** [November 21, 2024, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-realised-i-am-old/1009575/109 "2024-11-21T12:28:31Z")
Today while flipping through a cheesy e-commerce site I noticed a T-shirt emblazoned with the writing > IT’S WEIRD BEING > THE SAME AGE AS > OLD PEOPLE I think they have a point. ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2024, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-realised-i-am-old/1009575/110 "2024-11-21T13:28:44Z")
I’m 73 - the first time I felt old was when a 21 year old college student said to me, “Wow! I just realized you were alive when Kennedy was killed!” That was in 1985. Tomorrow, I won’t be a bit surprised if the entire day passes without me hearing a word about the significance of November 22. It’s like Mr. Bernstein says in “Citizen Kane:” “Old age - it’s the only disease where you don’t look forward to the cure!” ---
**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:** [November 21, 2024, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-realised-i-am-old/1009575/111 "2024-11-21T13:43:56Z")
Today is the 60th anniversary of the Verazzano-Narrows bridge connecting Staten Island and Brooklyn being opened to traffic. At the time it was the longest suspension bridge in the world. I remember my grandfather taking me as a child to a promontory on Staten Island overlooking bridge construction (they were starting to suspend cables from the towers). I do not however recall touring the caissons of the Brooklyn Bridge as it was being built. ---
**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:** [November 21, 2024, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-realised-i-am-old/1009575/112 "2024-11-21T13:51:56Z")
Last night the cute young thing serving my dinner mentioned her birthday was right around now. Guessing her to be college-aged or a bit more I said “It’ll be fun turning 21 … again.” She said “Gee I wish; I just turned 19.” Wishing to be 2 years older. Wow how different things look from the other end of that tunnel. I _think_ she was flattered rather than insulted that I thought her more mature than her true age. Not a mistake to make with a person in their late 20s or up. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2024, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-realised-i-am-old/1009575/113 "2024-11-21T15:33:31Z")
Most here know that I live sort of remote. At altitude. 11,200 feet. 32 years now. Thinking about things, it’s just getting too difficult. The snow we get is quite ridiculous (25-30 feet a season). Having EMS come to our house in winter is a crap shoot. Then my doctor told me I need to be on oxygen. OK. The universe is telling me something - We need to move. This is the first and only house I’ve ever bought. I love it. But the altitude makes many sick. I don’t get sick, but many do. Acute mountain sickness (AMS). People that visit might say, “I think I’ve come down with the flu. Nope you’ve come ‘up’ to AMS” It ain’t pretty. Most folks are fine, but a few get absolutely miserable. So. We are gonna move in a few years. Down to about 5000 feet or so. Denser air, and less snow. Financial advisor said we are good to do that. It’s gonna be freaking different though. We back up to National Forest here. Makes me very sad, but it is the wise thing to do. Yeah. Getting Old. ---
**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:** [November 21, 2024, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-realised-i-am-old/1009575/114 "2024-11-21T15:56:02Z")
A long time ago I read Wambaugh’s _The Blue Knight_, about an L.A. beat cop nearing retirement. One of the book’s characters was an old fart who rhapsodized about the infrequent (for him) beauty of taking “a nice, easy crap”. At the time that struck me as incongruous. Not quite as much, now. 😀 ---
**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:** [November 21, 2024, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-realised-i-am-old/1009575/115 "2024-11-21T18:28:47Z")
You’ve talked wistfully and often over the last couple years about moving downslope, old friend. Looking at this highly selective snipping of your comments above do you spot the part that doesn’t go with the others? > [@enipla](#): > > Thinking about things, it’s just getting too difficult. > > Having EMS come to our house in winter is a crap shoot. Then my doctor told me I need to be on oxygen. > > OK. The universe is telling me something - We need to move. > > So. We are gonna move in a few years. IMO, and intending you and your wife only the best, it sounds like your head knows the time to move is this upcoming spring. And maybe last spring would’ve been even better. But your heart is really struggling with that, so “a few years” (read “never”) is what it’s saying. And so far heart is winning the argument with head. As they usually do. A decade+ ago I had an upcoming need to move for a job. The exact date was nebulous and unknowable due to the vagaries of corporate decision-making. But it was coming as sure as the next asteroid is coming for Earth. I had just begun the process of putting the house on the market when the bottom fell out and it took not 5 weeks, but 5 _years_ to sell that house. Oops. Sux to be me. That was the second time in my life I had to carry the cost of two residences for over a year. By now my count is up to three times. Gets expensive and is much better avoided than tolerated. Especially if the old house you no longer live in is maintenance heavy. I know nothing of the supply / demand situation for 30yo far boonies alpine houses. But if houses like yours are a hard sell, bear that factor in mind when you think about getting ready to plan to proceed to begin to get serious about prepping for moving. 😉 It might well take awhile. You’re somewhere on an exponential curve of difficulty and there’s always the risk of a big adverse personal health or national financial surprise. The only way not to have waited too long is to do it too early. I wish that were not so; but IME it sure is so. Best of luck friend. Whatever you do whenever you do it. ---
**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:** [November 21, 2024, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-realised-i-am-old/1009575/116 "2024-11-21T18:37:45Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > We are gonna move in a few years. Down to about 5000 feet or so. Denser air, and less snow. What will you change your handle to? Eiriarp? Dnalwol? Revned? ---
**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:** [November 21, 2024, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-realised-i-am-old/1009575/117 "2024-11-21T18:38:46Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Today is the 60th anniversary of the Verazzano-Narrows bridge connecting Staten Island and Brooklyn being opened to traffic. At the time it was the longest suspension bridge in the world. I remember that. And was unhappy with it. My Boy Scout troop used to go to a camp on Staten Island, and before the bridge opened we rode the ferry from Brooklyn, a ferry which had awesome soft serve ice cream. No ice cream when we could drive. I wonder how many people these days remember the Brooklyn Ferry. ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2024, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-realised-i-am-old/1009575/118 "2024-11-21T18:58:14Z")
> [@Labdad](#): > > when a 21 year old college student said to me, “Wow! I just realized you were alive when Kennedy was killed!” That was in 1985. So, if the student had been just a year+ older, they would’ve also been alive when Kennedy was killed? ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2024, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-realised-i-am-old/1009575/119 "2024-11-21T19:05:24Z")
Yeah. The kid wouldn’t have REMEMBERED it, but he would have been alive. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2024, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-realised-i-am-old/1009575/120 "2024-11-21T21:15:21Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > IMO, and intending you and your wife only the best, it sounds like your head knows the time to move is this upcoming spring. And maybe last spring would’ve been even better. But your heart is really struggling with that, so “a few years” (read “never”) is what it’s saying. And so far heart is winning the argument with head. As they usually do. I work from home (I could work from anywhere). My Wife does not, and really can’t. We had planned on retiring when we where ~67. But enough is enough. I can’t take work anymore. It’s become overwhelming, and is just gonna get worse. I get tangled up in the ‘latest’ new thing, again, and again. I’ve frankly, lost interest about every new thing that comes down the pike. 32 years in this company. 36 doing this kind of work. With similar work before that. Enough. I’m working on getting a person up to speed to replace me. I like these people, and I’m not going to abandon them. My wife is the same. And we both want to wait for Medicare. If Trump jacks that up, we will figure out something. It’s not gonna be never. We have been looking at houses, and pretty much nailed down where we are going. My Wife totally agrees, and, well, watch out. It’s gonna happen (she may come in as one of the last of an IronMan race, but by god she is gonna finish). My Wife is a property appraiser, she’s doing the heavy lifting on that (checking out property taxes, mill levies, and a dozen other things). But we totally agree on what we want. We make a great team. Hell, if she said she found the right house, I would write the down payment check sight unseen. That’s how much I trust her. We both have out strengths. Our house probably will be easy to sell. Location, location, location. We are only 20 minutes from Breckenridge, a huge ski/general recreation location. We have a financial advisor that is giving us the 👍 One thing that concerns my Wife and I is that we may have to own two houses for a while so we can coordinate a move. That’s OK, but is gonna be a juggling act. Thank you for the well wishes @LSLGuy [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-realised-i-am-old/1009575.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-realised-i-am-old/1009575.md?page=7)