# "Old-personisms" that have sneakily snuck into your habits or vocabulary **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 12, 2023, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111 "2023-01-12T16:52:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2023, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/41 "2023-01-12T23:18:01Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > Hiya, fella! > -From a former Rockefeller Republican (back when there were liberal/progressive pubbies) Well, now, hi you fellas doing t’day? I fear it’s only a matter of time before it morphs into “fellers”… ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2023, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/42 "2023-01-12T23:23:15Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > I have experienced this with my new wife. I’ve been loading dishwashers logically and successfully now for 40 years. But apparently I was doing it wrong all that time. Who knew. See. That’s the thing. Everyone does it a different way. I live with three others and everyone else does it wrong! Sometimes there is plenty of room for more stuff if adjusted, or it is over-full and things wont get clean. Sometimes someone puts a plate in front of the silverware so they don’t get clean. Someone always puts plasticware in wrong, so dishwasher water pools-up in it. If they load the upper tray too heavy, my MacGyver solution from the last time it broke will break again. If it weren’t for me, we’d have no clean dishes, I tells ya! And hey, get off my lawn! ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2023, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/43 "2023-01-12T23:23:16Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > I fear it’s only a matter of time before it morphs into “fellers”… Well, good old Nelson always kept it as fella or fellas depending on his audience. It’s how he kept in touch with the “common man”. 😜 “He was also known for a gregarious personality, though his detractors claimed his habit of exuberantly greeting people with a loud [“Hiya, fella!”](https://www.thoughtco.com/nelson-rockefeller-4685812) was a carefully calculated effort to appeal to ordinary people.” ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2023, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/44 "2023-01-12T23:30:02Z")
I turned seventy recently (an age my dad never reached) so, yeah, I feel old. What I tell people is that I don’t feel like a seventy year old, I feel like a fifty year old…who’s been tossed from a moving car. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2023, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/45 "2023-01-12T23:42:49Z")
comparing prices from when i was younger and now… ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2023, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/46 "2023-01-12T23:44:52Z")
I find myself saying “Back in the day…” a whole lot more than I used to. A former department chair once said to me “You know you’re getting older when you don’t find any student even remotely attractive but some of their moms are **hot**!” I’ve been at this long enough that I’ve had to start saying “grandmas” because I likely taught the _mothers_ of a number of my students. Back in the day. ---
**Author:** ![Bootb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19b73/32.png) [@Bootb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bootb)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2023, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/47 "2023-01-13T00:36:20Z")
> [@nightshadea](#): > > comparing prices from when i was younger and now… I’m 44, and I’ve started doing that. I worked at Burger King during college, and the price of a Whopper meal was about $5.00 (I don’t remember the exact figure). Mind you, I started out there making $4.75/hour, so. . . . ---
**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:** [January 13, 2023, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/48 "2023-01-13T00:42:57Z")
I’m no teacher, but I’ve had the “Mom is hot; her coed daughter is not” thing for a number of years now. Working as I do with so many professionally attractive flight attendants it is interesting to see how my taste in generations has shifted over the three-plus decades I’ve been at this. “Back in the day…” seems to be a larger part of my vocabulary every day. Those stories I tell from “the day” fall on increasingly bewildered young ears too. “You people did _what_?” seems to be a common response. Ouch. Sonny. ---
**Author:** ![Sylvanz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@Sylvanz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sylvanz)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2023, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/49 "2023-01-13T05:09:34Z")
If someone at works bumps into me I look at them sternly and say, “Watch out there I could break a _HIP_!” snerk ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2023, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/50 "2023-01-13T05:21:37Z")
One weird thing that I noticed recently: When I meet people close to my own age, they look like old geezers. When I meet old schoolmates, I perceive them to be almost as attractive as they were back in school. ---
**Author:** ![Sylvanz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@Sylvanz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sylvanz)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2023, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/51 "2023-01-13T05:59:23Z")
I often don’t recognize people I went to school with. I don’t know if it’s my failing memory or their failing youth. 6 of 1 half dozen of the other? ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@Dead\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Cat)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2023, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/52 "2023-01-13T07:14:37Z")
Damn straight. The 90s was about a decade ago, right? I’m 37 and well on my way to being a old fart. Maybe a ‘young fart’ for now. I was (genuinely) delighted to discover recently that my generation can be labelled ‘geriatric millennial’. I’ve never felt the ‘millennial’ tag fitted me, but that one is just perfect. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2023, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/53 "2023-01-13T13:41:32Z")
> [@solost](#): > > > [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > > > If you’re saying it as “neether,” you’re still a young’un. “N **ī** ther,” you’re old as dirt. > > Yes, it was “NIGH-ther”… 🫤 Let’s call the whole thing off. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2023, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/54 "2023-01-13T14:39:27Z")
> [@nightshadea](#): > > comparing prices from when i was younger and now… Ha. I must be older than your are. There was massive inflation in my teens. The 5c candy bar went to…i don’t remember, a lot more. But the result is that i dont have a firm idea of what things “ought” to cost, unless i bought them last week and noticed. There was too much flux in my formative years. So i don’t do this. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2023, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/55 "2023-01-13T14:43:02Z")
I wear suspenders every day. With my 68-year-old waistline, they are just more comfortable than a belt. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2023, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/56 "2023-01-13T14:50:12Z")
Same here. I also tell people I am classic Coke. Would you want to live in a world without classic Coke? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2023, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/57 "2023-01-13T14:53:29Z")
For those of us suffering from Dunlap’s, suspenders are a life saver. So are elastic belts. ---
**Author:** ![Joeu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/joeu/32/2911_2.png) [@Joeu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joeu)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2023, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/58 "2023-01-13T15:25:35Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > I’ve slipped into the old fart habit of calling women “sweetheart,” “hon,” “dearie,” what have you. It seems to go over better than “ma’am,” “Miss,” “Missus.” I haven’t started doing that, yet, and it’s probably a good thing. It wouldn’t go over well at all in my workplace environment coming from an old man (“just” 60, but still). But last week I did catch myself calling a young man “son.” Luckily it was a young man on the television, and he couldn’t hear me at all (is talking to the characters on the TV another old-ageism?). > [@Si\_Amigo](#): > > Same here. I also tell people I am classic Coke. Would you want to live in a world without classic Coke? Oh, Walter. (Heisenberg?) ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2023, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/59 "2023-01-13T15:36:35Z")
> [@Joeu](#): > > (is talking to the characters on the TV another old-ageism?). I don’t think so. I’ve been doing that as long as I can remember. ---
**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:** [January 13, 2023, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/60 "2023-01-13T17:20:09Z")
Is it a sign of old age that I can remember similar prior threads from over a decade ago and have searched them up for your reading pleasure? From 2008: > [@Subtle signs that you're getting older](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subtle-signs-that-youre-getting-older/435244): > > I just realized that I’ve recently started looking at a woman’s hand for a wedding ring before I talk to her. Soon I’ll be asking if they have kids. Wow. From 2009: > [@When do you realize you're old?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-realize-youre-old/510943): > > It started for me innocent enough at work yesterday. I saw some dude dressed in what could best be described as visual cacophony, He looked like he was wearing a mismatched set of PJs. His hair was just as bad. He had vomit pink spot on the front that faded to an unnatural shade of brown, and finally into a more natural color hair color. Other items included metallic belt, and a fortune in scrap metal embedded in his face. Didn’t care for the mullet either. Then I saw another person whom also w… From 2011: > [@You know you're getting old when...](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-youre-getting-old-when/589930): > > …you’re in the store and you see a new washer and dryer and think to yourself, “Man, I so want that! It even has a steam setting!” … you have friends turning 30 (I’m 24) and think, “30’s not so bad.” … you’re looking at what your insurance covers and get genuinely excited that they cover 80% of dental costs. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111.md?page=4)