I just bought a book of crossword puzzles and I swear I am not sure who they are marketing too.
They had clues in the same puzzle that a person would have to know who Billie Eilish and Travis Kelce were
and then know who Jack Parr, Harold Lloyd and The Keystone Kops were..
Just a bizarre mix of new and old celebrities.
They’re marketing to crossword fans. There are a lot of old celebrities that I couldn’t tell you anything at all about their work, aside from a datum or two that is sometimes used as a crossword clue.
I did some minor grocery shopping today. The cashier packed my reusable bag, and then walked around the counter and put it in the cart for me. On another occasion, I was carrying a heavy bag from the liquor store and was about to step off the curb but figured I should go around to the wheelchair ramp where there was no curb. Seeing this, a nice young gentleman asked me where my car was, took the bag to the car and put it in the trunk.
I fear that my decrepitude is becoming visible. Maybe when cute young cashiers call me “dear”, they’re not ogling for a hot date.
I was carrying a load of cans and bottles down the street after work to recycle. These two eleven year olds sidled past me on bikes with one casually hailing me, “Hello Dad.” I casually greeted in turn while still moving along.
I told my roommates about the interaction. My one roomie said, “You must be the frenetic fifty year old on this block - Dad!”
Recently, several beautiful women have been very nice to me. I have a nagging suspicion that I remind them of a father, or an uncle, or someone else whom they have no intention of ever sleeping with.
… or a grandfather! 
Earlier this week I was watching an episode of the Jeffersons. It was about George Jefferson feeling old. He said that he wished he was 20 years younger. I did the math… If I was 20 years younger I would be the same age as him. (off by a year, but close enough)
My wife used to run a Girl Guide Company (girls aged 10 and up).
She retired after a new girl proudly announced that her granny had been one of my wife’s guides.
I’ve become the oldest person in my section at the office. Recently, I looked in the archives at a case over 20 years old and realized that it was my case. There are only 4 people in my whole government department that were here when I started. Some years ago, I noticed that a coworker, a college grad, was born after I started at this office. I’m the guy who comes up to all the new hires and tells them, “Start your IRA now!”
All these things make me feel old.
A few years ago I was at a Los Straitjackets performance when a woman attending the concert brushed into me in a flirtatious move. She had to be over 60. That was a potent reminder that I’m past my prime, if there ever was a prime.
Karl was the most absurd, but people did not laugh at him as much as he deserved.
For the first five years on my job I was the youngest person there. Hired in my twenties and working amidst a bunch of grouchy 40 and 50-somethings. Problem is that I was there for 35 years, which eventually flips the script 
.
Yeah, I am now the fountain of stories about “what used to be there.”
A few years ago, a friend and I were at a music festival. At that time, we were both in our early 60s and both single. We passed a booth where they were selling something, I don’t recall what. A perky young 20-something woman at the booth started talking to us, and my friend was being kind of flirty with her. As we were about to leave, she offered to give him a free bandana. My friend said, “no thanks, that’s not the kind of thing I would wear.” She replied, “Well, you could give it to your grand-daughter.” Instantly recognizing her faux pas, she quickly added, “… or your daughter”.
As we walked away, my friend started fuming “Granddaughter? Granddaughter?!?” I thought it was hilarious.
I was trying to enter my DOB on a website that would only let me scroll back one month at a time. My rodent has a locking scroll feature. I set it to start scrolling. Come back 10 minutes to find I was only somewhat closer to the century of my birth.
I was flirting with someone on bumble and she mentioned that she’s a grandma.
It’s no problem of course, it’s just the first time for me, and so I had that realization that that’s the stage my cohort is at now.
I’m under 60 and one of our interns has two grandparents younger than me. I was just getting used to the idea that some of my coworkers parents were younger than me.
Loretta Lynn had her first child at 16 and was a grandmother when she was 29.
Yes, when I worked in a store as an assistant manager almost 40 years ago, an 18 year old female employee without children was the exception, not the rule.
But I work in an environment where close to 100% of employees have college degrees. Including this intern’s mother. I guess she was a teenage mom, whose mom was a teenage mom, but went to college and had a reasonably successful corporate career. She’s a Director at our company (every single one of our interns is either the child, niece or nephew of a Director, VP or SVP)
You know who might feel old right about now? Lionel Messi; the forward on the Argentine national team who will be playing in the World Cup final game on Sunday. On the opposing Spanish team will be Lamine Yamal. When Lionel Messi was twenty years old, he was playing for the professional football team in Barcelona and posed for a photo for a UNICEF calendar bathing a five-month-old in a little blue tub. That baby was Lamine Yamal.
