# I'm Getting Old **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 18, 2007, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-getting-old/412269 "2007-07-18T14:55:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2007, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-getting-old/412269/21 "2007-07-19T01:32:43Z")
I am so sorry to hear of your impending decrepitude. I do most sincerely hope that you’ll be fitted for a Zimmer frame\* in a timely fashion, as well as receiving several pairs of hand-knit slippers. \*I think that’s what you all call 'em–I’m from Chicago! PS-I just turned 45 and still have ALL my teeth. It can happen! ---
**Author:** ![Rysdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7cd45c/32.png) [@Rysdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysdad)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2007, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-getting-old/412269/22 "2007-07-19T01:38:18Z")
**garius** , I’m twice your age, fer chrissake! And I’ll tell you when you’re getting old, young man! You’re getting old when you come home from the doctor’s office, not only with a prescription, but with **equipment**. Yep, it started with a CPAP machine so I can go to bed every night and pretend I’m Darth Vader. Then, last week, came the shocker, and I came home with a brand new glucometer. Yep. Diabetes. Sumbitch. 54 years, and now I’m diabetic? Oh, groovy. What’s next, self-cath tubing? 'Scuse me. I need to go eat my no-carb, no-fat, no-taste gruel. 27 years old…_harrumph!_ ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2007, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-getting-old/412269/23 "2007-07-19T05:04:13Z")
27? Oh hell. You were born the year I went through my first mid-life crisis and had to learn to drive all over again. I have age spots older than you. When I was 27 I read _Stanyan Street and Other Sorrows_ and other lesser books of the Western world. I got my insight into the meaning of life from Helen Gurley Brown in _Sex and the Single Girl_. Then in my late twenties, the women’s movement came along and changed everything. I hope that you enjoy growing older as much as I have. Things start to pop after you turn thirty. You ain’t seen nuthin’ yet! ---
**Author:** ![kitemaker\_chuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a88e4f/32.png) [@kitemaker\_chuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitemaker_chuck)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2007, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-getting-old/412269/24 "2007-07-19T06:21:43Z")
Don’t feel bad! I’ve been 27 TWICE — IN A ROW!!! ---
**Author:** ![garius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e19b73/32.png) [@garius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garius)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2007, 8:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-getting-old/412269/25 "2007-07-19T08:47:57Z")
> [@](#): > > I do most sincerely hope that you’ll be fitted for a Zimmer frame\* in a timely fashion, as well as receiving several pairs of hand-knit slippers. Actually what I really want is a smoking jacket. I don’t smoke, but I could probably get one of those pipes that blows bubbles just to round out the look. > [@](#): > > You’re getting old when you come home from the doctor’s office, not only with a prescription, but with equipment. Well the inexplicable pains have already started. I’ve always had bad knees - I was informed by the doctor when that this was due to a lack of cartilage - and I generally hold this responsible for my failure to become a Beckham-esque footballer of global renown (nothing to do with having limited talent, honest…) but now other niggles have started as well. I get infrequent short stabs of pain in the elbow for example, and often wake up with a serious headache. Admittedly the last one is probably linked in some small way to drinking heavily the night before, as the two always seem to coincide but its annoying none the less. I’ve also started to do that “old man” groan when I sit down or stand up and worst of all… …I now laugh like my dad :eek: S’all downhill from here, as far as I can tell. Don’t know how you oldies cope with it all 😉 > [@](#): > > Then in my late twenties, the women’s movement came along and changed everything. At the risk of getting serious for a second (see! I’m being _serious_ that’s how old I am now!) the thing that genuinely amuses/scares me is the thought that one day my grand kids are going to listen in amazement as I tell stories about the days when **the internet didn’t exist** 😃 ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2007, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-getting-old/412269/26 "2007-07-19T10:10:00Z")
27 is old?! 😕 :smack: Heck, I’ve got Roleplaying manuals older than that. 🙂 Anyway here’s something to look forward to \*\*in about 63 years time \*\* - you can front a rock band, chart in the UK and appear on Leno 🆒 : [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/zqfFrCUrEbY/hqdefault.jpg "The Zimmers "My Generation"") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqfFrCUrEbY) ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_C](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Captain\_C](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_C)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2007, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-getting-old/412269/27 "2007-07-19T11:24:57Z")
[QUOTE=garius] …I don’t smoke, but I could probably get one of those pipes that blows bubbles just to round out the look. [/QUOTE] No, you really can’t. I’ve looked EVERYWHERE for a bubble pipe, they don’t exist. And if they do, you will tell me where! ---
**Author:** ![garius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e19b73/32.png) [@garius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garius)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2007, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-getting-old/412269/28 "2007-07-19T13:47:18Z")
[QUOTE=Captain\_C] No, you really can’t. I’ve looked EVERYWHERE for a bubble pipe, they don’t exist. And if they do, you will tell me where! [/QUOTE] [Ask and ye shall receive…](http://tangenttoys.stores.yahoo.net/bubblepipe.html) 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Sunrazor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sunrazor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunrazor)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2007, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-getting-old/412269/29 "2007-07-19T14:18:29Z")
[QUOTE=Least Original User Name Ever] I’m 26. I see its all downhill from here… [/QUOTE] Yeah, but you gain speed rapidly so you don’t have to pedal as hard! ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2007, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-getting-old/412269/30 "2007-07-22T15:42:11Z")
Cool! You’ve been whacked in the face by the Board of Mortality™! And stop gripin’, My hair started falling out when I was 21. I’m 34 now, but you make it work. One word of advice: Shave the hair down to no longer than a millimeter. If you have a problem with this, get over it, don’t even think about it, and just do it. You’ll look a ton better (if you haven’t already). The most annoying thing about hitting 30: I actually have to get up in the middle of the night to take a piss. Unbelievable. But don’t fret… I hoping, NAY, depending on modern science to make some breakthroughs over the next 30 years to keep me alive until at least the 22nd century. WHO’S COMIN’ WITH ME?! ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2007, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-getting-old/412269/31 "2007-07-22T16:25:18Z")
38 years ago I was 27. Stop your whinging you young sprog. I’ve got all my hair with just a few silver threads among the brown ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2007, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-getting-old/412269/32 "2007-07-22T22:04:26Z")
I wrote this on another forum, you’re not the only person feeling that way…what I’ve noticed is: You young for a little bit, but old for a LONG time. I had to do some math. Found I was near my trusty calculator and did some subtraction. I have an HP-48…had it in college. It was a kickass superdeduper handheld computer. It would graph, do matrix calculations, write equations all pretty like. It was my LIFELINE in College taking my engineering courses. I left college and used it occasionally for balancing my checkbook. Now it gathers dust. Funny thing is though, I remember sliderules, and the first new LED calculators. This thing was like comparing a fuckin NFL linebacker to a member of the AV club. It was so far beyond what those early calculators could do it wasn’t even funny. I’ve had that thing for 15 years. They don’t really even MAKE calculators like this anymore…it’s an irrelevant technology. My kids will look at it like it’s one of those ‘old things Dad has’. The week my kids were born, I looked around the house and all the neat cool stuff (the TV, the computer, the carpet…that Microwave we bought new just a little bit ago) will be categorized by my kids as ‘old stuff’. Cuz that’s what _I_ did when I was a kid. Things fit in two categories: New stuff (star Wars collector cards) and Old Stuff (Dad’s Tie tacks, the belt buckle with the Johnson Silver Dollar in it.) When I was a kid, I remember going upstairs to watch the Black n White TV…I knew it wasn’t as good as the TV in the living room (cuz, you know, it’s not in color) But I never thought that once that was the coolest TV in the house (Heck, the ONLY TV in the house) I’ve been around long enough to have a _progression_ of TV’s in the house. The 1978 Crap Zenith in the guest bedroom with the bad color got pitched when Grandpa passed away…8 months after we got his TV, we discovered it was crap too…but if you’re old, and your vision sucks, and the TV never gets turned off, you don’t notice it takes 20 minutes to warm up. So we got the new whizzy HTDV in the livingroom, and the 12 year old (christ! _12_ years?) 48" Toshiba got wedged into the guest bedroom…Gramp’s TV got pitched…And my kids will think that BIG REAR PROJECTION Toshiba…the one my fiancee and I bought as our first real purchase together, is an old piece of shit. I guess some folks just stack the new TV on the old one when it dies. You can map out their personal history on how many TVs are on the pile. I’ve outlived records, 8 tracks, cassettes, VHS, CD’s and DVD’s are on life support. And as hard as it is to believe, that iPhone is gonna look like outdated shit at some point in time. That THAT will just make me feel older. ---
**Author:** ![KlondikeGeoff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3e96dc/32.png) [@KlondikeGeoff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KlondikeGeoff)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2007, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-getting-old/412269/33 "2007-07-22T22:04:49Z")
Oh, brother, I’m **three times** your age, less one year. Just to make your day, I’ve still got all my hair, grey though it is, and almost all my teeth (in my mouth, not in a glass of water). Also a long list of aches and pains. The only parts that don’t hurt are numb. Have fun, and maybe you’ll get here. 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-getting-old/412269.md?page=1)