I’m nopt sure mine fits with the tone of the thread, but mine came when I had a sex dream about a co-worker and, in the dream, I said, “No, thanks.”
I’d had my share of “headaches” up to that time, but in a dream!?! WT… H, I guess.
-When I noticed I was older than the Playboy centerfold
-When I met someone who had never seen B/W TV in a household setting
-When I met someone who had no idea what I was talking about when I described that plastic adapter you snap into the center of a 45 so you can play it on a turntable
I was in a bike shop last year and took one out for a test ride. While taking the bike outside I asked the girl how you changed gear on it - I knew that the shifters had developed since I’d last got a new bike in 1984. She misunderstood me and started to explain how derailleur gears work - to her the bit that was invented 90 odd years ago was the same as the bit that was invented 3 years ago.
It’s hard to explain why, but she managed to make me feel both old and stupid.
When a friend of mine asked me if I knew Phil Collins was in a band before he went solo.
[QUOTE=ivylass]
When a friend of mine asked me if I knew Phil Collins was in a band before he went solo.
[/QUOTE]
It could be worse; I had a co-worker who didn’t even realize Phil was ever a “regular” pop singer. She thought he was just a “composer and singer of Disney soundtracks.”
[QUOTE=cochrane]
When I learned that Billy Joel’s current wife was born (1981) after I had bought some of his hit albums, such as The Stranger (1977), 52nd Street (1978), and Glass Houses (1980).
In fact, she was an infant when he was dating Christie Brinkley.
[/QUOTE]
When the ‘cover bands’ that occasionally play in a park near where I live stopped playing ‘oldies doo-wop’ and switched instead to ‘Billy Joel’… :eek:
Oh, while we’re on the subject of music: a few years ago, there was a local radio station that used to do “Now and Then” music blocks, meaning they’d play an new and then an old song by a particular artist. At any rate, I turned them on one day in the middle of U2’s “Mysterious Ways.” Far from my favorite U2 song, but I stuck around to see if maybe they were going to play “I Will Follow” or “Gloria,” or maybe at least “New Year’s Day” next.
At the end of the song, I realized that"Mysterious Ways" had been the “then” track. 
So, to sum up, you know you’re getting old when: a radio station plays a song recorded after you consider the artist to already have been washed up, and they call it an oldie but goodie.
[QUOTE=Bayard]
He invited some of his pals over. So far, so good, but I was beginning to realize that I was a 31-year-old in an apartment full of 19- to 22-year-olds. The evening progressed, a lot of liquor was consumed, and I was feeling like my old college self. Then, in a moment that haunts me to this day, my hip, young coworker leaned over to me and quietly, politely asked, “Do you mind if we all smoke some pot?”
But I hadn’t previously realized that I was an adult.
[/QUOTE]
Let me make you feel better, I think they were asking you because you just met all these guys tonight. They were being polite, not making you feel old.
As for me, I’m only 26, but I always feel old when I realize that the teenagers I have to supervise weren’t even born when The Simpsons debuted. That blows my mind in ways some of these other examples (which I can somewhat relate to) don’t.
…when you read in the Dope about the hot actress in the latest Harry Potter film (which you saw a couple days ago) and all you can remember is a child. You follow his link…and all you see is a child.
You know you’re old
When I realized I was older than the college football players–sorta felt old.
When I realized I’m older than the professional players–that’s old.
[QUOTE=Flipshod]
When I realized I’m older than the professional players…
[/QUOTE]
…when they talk about players who are well past retirement age and they are my age!
[QUOTE=Justin_Bailey]
Let me make you feel better, I think they were asking you because you just met all these guys tonight. They were being polite, not making you feel old.
[/QUOTE]
I dunno, man. If he’d been 23 instead of 33, the politeness probably would have taken the form of, “Dude, you want?” 
[QUOTE=OneCentStamp]
I dunno, man. If he’d been 23 instead of 33, the politeness probably would have taken the form of, “Dude, you want?”
[/QUOTE]
Ah, so old people don’t smoke pot. Excuse me while I inform a certain old pothead of that.
[QUOTE=Telperien]
Ah, so old people don’t smoke pot. Excuse me while I inform a certain old pothead of that.
[/QUOTE]
I didn’t say it was valid. But when I was in my early twenties, I would have felt it really dangerous to just assume a guy in his mid-thirties was “cool” like that.
[QUOTE=OneCentStamp]
I didn’t say it was valid. But when I was in my early twenties, I would have felt it really dangerous to just assume a guy in his mid-thirties was “cool” like that.
[/QUOTE]
Maybe it’s just because I don’t want to smoke pot that it makes sense to me. I was absolutely awestruck in my teens when my friend’s sister just lit up in front of a group of us without asking and thinking it was OK.
No one wanted to smell like that and we made her put it out immediately.
[QUOTE=OneCentStamp]
I didn’t say it was valid. But when I was in my early twenties, I would have felt it really dangerous to just assume a guy in his mid-thirties was “cool” like that.
[/QUOTE]
No, I get what you’re saying. I was joking.
I realized a few weeks ago that at work I casually refer to people 20 years old as “kids”.
I’m only 23
I started feeling a disconnect from “younger” people when I was in college. Around the time of the Bush 41 generation, ahead of the first Gulf War, it seemed to me like there was a big change in the culture. I was a child of the 80s .
[QUOTE=Bayard]
Do I mind? Hey, I’m a cool young guy. What makes you assume that I don’t want to smoke pot with you? OK, so I’ve never smoked pot, and I’m a complete dork. But I hadn’t previously realized that I was an adult.
[/QUOTE]
I was at a boat party on the Thames a couple of weekends ago, and an attractive young lady asked if she could borrow my newspaper.
I thought “how nice, maybe she can help me with the crossword”.
Turns out she wanted a clean surface to hoover up some Colombian Marching Power from… :dubious:
Sigh… I’m only 29, and an ex-raver as well.
(Hah! That’s another one… admitting that I am an ex-raver. The thought of dancing in a field till 6am doesn’t sound half as appealing as an evening on a tuscan hillside with a bottle of wine or three.)
[QUOTE=Koxinga]
I started feeling a disconnect from “younger” people when I was in college. Around the time of the Bush 41 generation, ahead of the first Gulf War, it seemed to me like there was a big change in the culture. I was a child of the 80s .
[/QUOTE]
That was a cool essay. Subtract 20 years, and the Atari, there’s me.