Watching my parents age has been the most difficult milestone. There comes a point where you treasure every birthday & Christmas because you know there aren’t that many left.
On a trivial note, the discovery of a gray pubic hair was a clear warning my body is changing. 
Buying furniture the first time made me feel like an adult.
I’d been out on my own for a while, running a household for years even, but with the typical early American garage sale and handmedown furnishings. Going into a furniture store and discussing features of couches and recliners, I sorta felt like a fraud somehow. Like I was only pretending to be a knowledgeable adult consumer who made decisions like this and my parents should be along any minute to tell me what to do.
Realizing that regardless of what I chose, someone, someday would see it and think “Gah, what an ugly couch” just like I had thought a million times before, but deciding anyway, that felt like some kind of milestone to me.
I married 4 years younger than my Mom and 5 years younger than my Dad and I have a grandkid now:cool: Hahahaha.
I realized I was really old last week when I figured out that the first group of kids I taught at the U are now in their 40’s…Aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh I’m old.
When you teach your son ‘the secret handshake’, but leave the ending off because it mimics smokin’ a doobie.
When you find out Grandma had a ribald sense of humor and did something similar…If I coughed or sneezed she’d say “Oooh, you’re not well, you need a Doctor”.
Only much later I find she USED to say “Oooh, you’re not well, you need TO GET IN BED with a Doctor”.
I had a horrible moment just yesterday when I heard and ad for an Adult Contemporary Radio Station. It’s the radio station that I used to mock as totally uncool because it was such drippy music, and one that was sited by a music industry professional evaluating boy bands (basically, when a boy band starts doing mainly ballads played on the hits-you-listen-to-at-work station for all the soccer moms and middle aged secretaries, you know the band is at the end of their run). You know the radio station. It’s the one with the “no repeat workday!”
The music on the Adult Contemporary Pop station they were advertising was the music I partied to in highschool and university… I have become THAT demographic.
My best friend’s little sister was born at the end of our freshman year of high school, and is graduating this year. Eep.
Three of my grandparents went before I was born and the last one when I was very young. So my big milestone was when my uncle died; the eldest brother in my mother’s family. That really brought home to me that one day soon I’d be alone; all my family would be gone.
I was in Vegas last year and noticed that ALL the background music was from the late 80’s. Seems we’re now the demographic with money. (or at least a gambling problem)
I first had that feeling when I was 24. (24!!! :eek:) I was in the army, and was the second oldest in my platoon, pretty much everyone else was 17 or 18. The rather hot lieutenant in charge of us had to be about the same age as I was then.
I’ve been in my current job for 10 years now (I’m 38), and I’ve always been one of the oldest here, again, most people are 25 or younger including a few of my supervisors/managers. (And I feel like a pervert for looking at the SYTs!)
You notice that you’re getting your first grey hairs, and they’re not on your head. Or in your ears and nose. Or anywhere north of the equator.
It’s all about pop culture for me. I don’t know about most TV shows. I don’t know most actors, or singers, or groups. But the real killer is, I don’t care. I simply do not care in the least.
As someone mentioned above, The Wall is a new album. I think the most current CD I own is a Tom Petty release from maybe 10 years ago.
I just checked. It’s “The Last DJ” from 2002. I’ve bought two CDs since then: Jackson Browne “Running on Empty” and David Bowie “Ziggy Stardust.”
My daughter’s little childhood friend who used to play on our swingset? Married, has a baby and one on the way. :eek:
That blue terrycloth rag you found in the back of the linen closet, to wash the car with? It’s the last hand towel from a set of towels you received at your wedding shower umpteen years ago… all its brothers and sisters have gone on to that big laundromat in the sky…use it? keep it? throw it away? This is how hoarding starts if you wonder.
You feel twinges in your knees when you walk down a flight of stairs. It’s the very beginning of something that will be one of your frequent future topics of conversation: “oh, my joints are killing me today!” (rinnngg…“Hi, Mom, how are you today?” …“Oh, my joints are killing me, Sali!”)
Moving to a new town, where you don’t have any family.
Going to the hospital for something major, and your parents aren’t the ones who take you or pick you up.
Choosing a religion, or choosing no religion (rather than just going along with whatever you were raised as – and yes, choosing a religion could include actively choosing the one you grew up with).
Transitioning from socializing with family because you must to actively seeking them out. It was great to realize that my sister, cousins and aunts/uncles are friends as much as relatives.
Similarly, the first time to disassociate yourself from someone toxic.
When you realize it’s OK to have more than one “best friend,” or no “best friend.”
When you realize that you’re not nearly as kinky as you thought you were.
This is an issue for parrot fanciers. An African Grey lives 50-60 years and tends to bond to one person.
A cockatoo lives to around 80, tends to bond intensely to one person, and will sometimes cry or scream if unable to have physical contact with his or her pair-bond. A cockatoo’s scream can be heard for at least three miles.
If I got a cockatoo now I might be sentencing the poor thing to scream in loneliness for 40 or 50 years.
.
::sniff:: Any other members of the Sap Society in here?
I don’t think it ends. (Or not until you do). I once worked as elder abuse case worker (social work) and had clients of varying ages telling about…
• Your first grandchild
•The moment your first child retires
• The moment you realize your children have grown old
• Your first great-grandchild
• Your first great-grandchild’s first pregnancy
•When the last of your children predeceases you (ouch!)
• The first time you talk to a kid whose birthyear is in a century 2 removed from the century of your own.
My own experiences echoing some of the previous entries:
Sometime during the late ‘90s, I was listing to Jammin’ Oldies (key word) 105.1 (“Jammin’” translates as “music by black people that white people will listen to”- mostly a lot of old Motown and Earth, Wind, and Fire type of stuff). They abruptly played something from “Purple Rain.” Great- music from my high school days on an Oldies station.
Just a couple of months ago I plucked my first gray chest hair.
As of some time within the past year, I’ve lived in my current (and only) post-college city for longer than my entire life up to the point I left for college.
When your 13 yr old daughter starts…erk…“becoming a woman”.
It has been ten years since I graduated high school. I’m only 26 though.
The day you are older than your parents were when they were married.
The day you are older than your parents were when you were born.
The day you are older than your parents were when they divorced.
2 down, 1 coming up soon … still no marriage or children. They did it all too young anyway
The day you son can beat you easily in a game on one on one basketball.