That might be a sign of getting old too. Not only that an attractive woman approaches you and you think immediately of the crossword, but that you were at a party doing a crossword. Everyone knows you play pinochle at parties. Sheesh.
Maybe so. Or maybe he just didn’t feel like sharing. Both perfectly reasonable. But there was something in his tone to suggest that he didn’t want to scandalize the geezer. Maybe I should have signalled my coolness by saying something like, “Hey, don’t bogart that joint.”
I was driving somewhere with my youngest brother (he’s 18) and he mentioned something about a shopping mall we were passing. I don’t know why I said it but I told him, “I remember when this mall was nothing but woods!” It had nothing to do with the conversation.
If that’s not something old people do, I don’t know what is.
No, they get one labelled as a pin-headed lackey of that plebian excuse for a news-paper man, Hearst! Any true American patriot would be fighting the d-mned Spaniard!
Some of us are a little preoccupied with events in Zululand at the moment, dear chap- Apparently Chelmsford’s in a spot of bother there and no-one’s heard from the boys at Isandhlwana in a few days now…
A couple of years ago we had a friend over for dinner who was 20 at the time; we were 29. After dinner we watched my recently-acquired DVD of This is Spinal Tap.
She just didn’t get it. “Did bands really used to act like that?” I realized that when Nirvana came along and bands started staring at the floor, she was, like, six. She had never known the dubious joy of true cock rock.
About the same time a commercial was playing for a local radio station that said, “It’s not your little sister’s music!” Except it was, in fact, my little sister’s music.
When a co-worker and I were discussing cars, and he had never heard of the Chevy Vega.
Also when I was telling this guy about John Lennon’s “Cold Turkey” being about when John quit drugs, and he looked at me blankly and said “Lennon did drugs?”
Finally, in reference to a previous post about gray nose hair, the first time I saw a gray pubic hair was quite unnerving.
If it helps at all, I do this a lot and I’m still pretty young*. Especially when it’s me and my nephew or something. I remember telling him how our town wanted a new school really bad, but had to pass the school tax to get more money for it (then the state would chip in so much) and I walked out to the site where they wanted to build it with my teacher. We went to a news thing and held up signs, along with 6 other kids, and then it was built. He didn’t believe me that the athletic complex used to be a cow field, and that the school was a gas station.
… when I flipped over to the Top 40 radio station and didn’t like anything I heard.
… when I was casually flirting with an attractive young woman at work, and during the conversation I discovered that I’m a year older than her mom (for the record, my young coworker is 19, now almost 20, not jailbait).
… when, prior to the 2007 season, I was perusing the Seattle Mariners’ 40-man roster and discovered five players who were born after I graduated from high school.
… two months from now, when my baby sister turns 30.
I just hit “old” the other day when I found myself reading Woman’s Day in the break room and enjoying it more than Cosmo. Yes, “20 tips to speed-clean your place before company arrives” gets my attention more than “20 new ways to tease your man”.
The threshhold of TMI in medical discussions has dropped dramatically. Younger collegues cringe if they forget and mention a medical problem within my earshot. I discuss bodily functions or dysfunctions in public that only a few years ago would have been off limits in a doctor’s office.
My younger friends look at me like Nipper when I say I now look for gadgets just for utility. I just want stuff to work. They can’t wrap their minds around me not wanting to spend my time looking for the tweaked-est out computer or phatest MP3 player with radio and recording and… I’m, though, not quite to the point of this man,.
In 1991 I was talking to a new employee and mentioned the musical ‘Half a Sixpence’.
She asked what a sixpence was.
Further investigation proved she had been born after the UK went decimal, meaning she’d never seen the coin.
For the benefit of young US readers, the UK decimalised in 1971. :eek:
I remember not only the sixpence, but the threepenny bit, the half-penny and even the farthing. :smack:
I also remember watching England win the Soccer World Cup and hearing JFK had been shot.
Soon they’ll be helping me cross the road.
When I realized that all pop music sounds the same, and has for a couple of years now. I have visions of me as an old man, talking about Guns ‘N’ Roses and Metallica the same way my parents talk about the Beatles or the Rolling Stones.
