# Stark reminders that you are getting old **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 30, 2004, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stark-reminders-that-you-are-getting-old/257632 "2004-07-30T19:38:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2004, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stark-reminders-that-you-are-getting-old/257632/61 "2004-08-01T05:34:18Z")
One of my young friend gave me a link to her website. On it she’d posted the lyrics to _Sound of Silence_ - you know, the old Simon and Garfunkle tune. I told her what a great song that was. She said, “It’s a song? I just thought it was a neat poem.” And a recent young co-worker didn’t know who Jerry Lewis was. Finally she connected with the telethon guy, but had no clue about Jerry Lewis ever doing anything besides the telethon. She’d never seen a Jerry Lewis movie. Nor, when I was going to a James Taylor concert last year, had she ever heard of James. I had to bring in some CDs. StG ---
**Author:** ![ccwaterback](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@ccwaterback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ccwaterback)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2004, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stark-reminders-that-you-are-getting-old/257632/62 "2004-08-01T05:56:13Z")
- A good friend of mine just had his 25th wedding anniversary. - My sister will be 50 this week. - I’m referred to as “the old guy” if I go to a concert to see a band with members who were born after I graduated from college. - I had my 20th high school graduation anniversary reunion several years ago. - I looked back at my college major department list of faculty the other day. Only one of my professors is not retired. - My beard now has more gray than brown. - I look at friends and say to myself, gee they are looking old. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2004, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stark-reminders-that-you-are-getting-old/257632/63 "2004-08-01T06:21:33Z")
Yesterday, or maybe it was the day before, my friend **delphica** made a reference in her LiveJournal to To Kill A Mockingbird. I have read the book, but it was back in high school and I didn’t get it. It must not have made much of an impact on me, it wasn’t that long ago that I was in high school, right? When was I in high school, again? Oh, that’s right, I read that when I was a freshman, _twelve years ago_. I remember when I _was_ in high school, having a conversation with a girl with whom I’d gone to elementary school. We were amazed that we could remember events that had occurred ten years earlier. It hadn’t been so much earlier that ten years before had been too hazy to remember. Some of you might not think this is a big deal, but I just turned 26 the other day. I’ve spent almost my entire life being a kid, it’s very difficult to make the adjustment that not only am I no longer a kid, but I’m rapidly approaching my late 20s and if I don’t get my head screwed on straight soon, it won’t be too long before I’m middle-aged and futzing about in a job I don’t care about and a life barely more sophisticated than that of my college years. It was okay to have a stupid job when I was 22 and newly released into the world, but to be 26 and similarly aimless is getting pathetic. ---
**Author:** ![pyrrthon1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/2acd7d/32.png) [@pyrrthon1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pyrrthon1)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2004, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stark-reminders-that-you-are-getting-old/257632/64 "2004-08-01T13:17:28Z")
It recently occured to me that I have been living on my own longer than I lived with my parents. ---
**Author:** ![Draelin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce73a5/32.png) [@Draelin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Draelin)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2004, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stark-reminders-that-you-are-getting-old/257632/65 "2004-08-02T13:30:44Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > I’ve just been informed (by two beautiful college girls and several high school ones) that Doc Martens - you remember, the big, heavy sh!t-kickin’ combat style boots that punks and goths wore - are now only worn by preps. As in preppies. Kids who dress to please their country-club parents. That is, too lame to consider wearing. Ever. > > :smack: Oh. My. Gods. You’re _kidding_! I saved my allowance for months to buy a pair of Docs that would now make me look_preppy_?? :eek: That’s gonna stay with me all day. _sigh_ ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2004, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stark-reminders-that-you-are-getting-old/257632/66 "2004-08-02T13:47:50Z")
> [@SHAKES](#): > > He does this and as soon as he gets in the car I tell him “Way to go there Indiana Jones!” to which he replies: 😕 “Who’s Indiana Jones?” 😕 Clearly the boy needs an education in the classics. I blame you, the father. :dubious: 😉 I don’t really feel or look old yet… (I’m 26) - but I’ve always gotten along with you fogeys. Must be all that Nick-at-Nite I watched as a child. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2004, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stark-reminders-that-you-are-getting-old/257632/67 "2004-08-02T20:58:55Z")
Mine happened several years ago, and was particularly harsh: I was in my early thirties, and worked at an Eckerd Drugstore with other people of various ages, but the person I got along with best was a seventeen year old. He was really smart and witty and listened to classic rock, like me! Anyway, this boy was my friend. One night, I was working and he came in with his girlfriend. When he introduced us to each other, he described me as _like a mother to him!_ Oh! I had to go in the back and lie down. I try to comfort myself that he just said that to keep his girlfriend from getting jealous, but I think it might have been that I’m old! ---
**Author:** ![Danalan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/76d3ee/32.png) [@Danalan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Danalan)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2004, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stark-reminders-that-you-are-getting-old/257632/68 "2004-08-02T21:28:56Z")
Double whammy this week: 1. Our 25th wedding anniversary. (?!) Twenty-five years? When did that happen! That’s more years than we were old when we got married. 2. Our son & daughter-in-law are visiting. She’s 6 months pregnant. That means I’ll be a grandfather before the years out. A GRANDFATHER! I’m still trying to wrap myself around those concepts. 25 years. Grandfather. 😕 Damn it. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tastes_of_chocolate/32/3232_2.png) [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tastes_of_Chocolate)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2004, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stark-reminders-that-you-are-getting-old/257632/69 "2004-08-02T21:59:06Z")
1. I play a couple of on-line games. When it finally clicked that the guys flirting/hitting on me (it’s amazing how often that happens) were 10-20 years younger then me, I wanted to hide for a while. I learned my first computer language before most of them were born. 2)I tried to come up with a meal plan for a casual get together with a bunch of friends, and here were the medical limitations… One person needs Low Sodium One person needs Low protein One person needs lactose free One person needs low spice due to ulcers My friends have all gotten old, and from now on, we will all be eating treebark. It’s the only think I can think of that we can all eat. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stark-reminders-that-you-are-getting-old/257632/70 "2004-08-03T01:38:04Z")
This isn’t very profound or nuttin’, but… A man’s first gray hair is a depressing day indeed. Actually, I’ve had a few gray hairs previously, but they were weird extra-long individuals easily dismissed as freaks and mutants. Now I have a handful, enough thatI can see that they’re concentrated near my temples, as is traditional. I’m 30, by the way, and I keep wanting to make fun of the 26-year-olds posting in this thread… but of course everyone over 40 views me as being in precisely the same category as them 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Old\_Goat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/5daacb/32.png) [@Old\_Goat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Old_Goat)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stark-reminders-that-you-are-getting-old/257632/71 "2004-08-03T02:31:09Z")
You know you are old when you know more dead people than live ones. ---
**Author:** ![flickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7bcc69/32.png) [@flickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flickster)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stark-reminders-that-you-are-getting-old/257632/72 "2004-08-03T03:07:12Z")
You have been out of touch with current hot groups for 10 years - and don’t care. Find yourself scanning the obits for ppl your age Can’t wait to get home instead of can’t wait to go out. Mature porn sites don’t make you flinch anymore. Body parts don’t cooperate without planning for drug lag time. ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stark-reminders-that-you-are-getting-old/257632/73 "2004-08-03T03:47:08Z")
> [@](#): > > Some of you might not think this is a big deal, but I just turned 26 the other day. I’ve spent almost my entire life being a kid, it’s very difficult to make the adjustment that not only am I no longer a kid, but I’m rapidly approaching my late 20s and if I don’t get my head screwed on straight soon, it won’t be too long before I’m middle-aged and futzing about in a job I don’t care about and a life barely more sophisticated than that of my college years. **Kyla** , dear, if it’s any help: yes, you are right to be trying to focus. OTOH, I’m in my 24th year in geophysics (I’m a geophysicist) and at 26, I hadn’t even thought about it yet. My father was a very successful anthropologist, and he was ~30 when he decided to pursue that. The bit about my father is an aside. I experienced the same thing many of my friends did, that being that we reached a point where decisions had to be made very quickly about available opportunities, and (the corporate) we committed, even after long years of hedging our bets through our twenties. Good luck, and you go, girl! ---
**Author:** ![Fiona\_Orange](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7feea3/32.png) [@Fiona\_Orange](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiona_Orange)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stark-reminders-that-you-are-getting-old/257632/74 "2004-08-03T04:25:35Z")
I’m 18 and starting to lose my hair. You people make me realize how deathly afraid I am of passing 24. ---
**Author:** ![E.Thorp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@E.Thorp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E.Thorp)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stark-reminders-that-you-are-getting-old/257632/75 "2004-08-03T07:00:17Z")
> [@spoke-](#): > > If they were making The Big Chill today, it would be about people who graduated college in 1989. Please, say it ain’t so… – **E. Thorp** , Class of 1989 ---
**Author:** ![phall0106](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/phall0106/32/5934_2.png) [@phall0106](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phall0106)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stark-reminders-that-you-are-getting-old/257632/76 "2004-08-03T12:46:04Z")
I’m 37 and have never felt old until I began seeing a guy who is 12 years younger than I am. (Yes, I’m glutton for punishment.) He’s not the one who makes me feel old–I do that perfectly by myself. For example, the other night, we were cruising through the television stations and stopped on VH-1, I love the 70’s–you know, Pet Rocks and Shazzam and Land of the Lost, stuff like that. For me, it’s bringing back memories of my childhood (many of which would be better left in the 70’s), but he’s sitting there with a slightly bemused look on his face, and then I realize…he wasn’t born until 1979… At one point, we were having an innocent conversation, and he asked me, “What did you do on your 12th birthday?” Me, not thinking, launch into a stroll down memory lane, which was abruptly halted when he said, “On your 12th birthday, I was being born.” (Our birthdays are on the same day of the year.) Zing. He didn’t mean it to be taken as dramatically as I took it, but lemme tell you, I’ll not forget it. Ever. Except when my mind begins to slip and I can’t recall anything. Oh, there was this one time when we were watching VH-1, I love the 70’s… ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stark-reminders-that-you-are-getting-old/257632/77 "2004-08-03T12:56:01Z")
I know I’m not old yet, because none of the Playboy Playmates have been born since I graduated from my second grad school. They have, of course, been born since I graduated from my first grad school. But I try not to think about that. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stark-reminders-that-you-are-getting-old/257632/78 "2004-08-03T13:15:50Z")
1. The first sign you’re getting old is when you notice that people in positions of authority (policemen, doctors, pastors, airline pilots) are your age or younger. It’s scary the first time you look at a cop on the street, or the pilot of a flight you’ve just been on, and think, “My God, he’s just a KID!” 2. Another strong sign you’re getting old: there are athletes YOUNGER than you playing in the Yankees’ “Old-Timers Day” game. 3. One day, you look at the Billboard charts and mutter, “I don’t know who ANY of these people are.” At that moment, you realize you’re as clueless about current pop music as your parents were about Led Zeppelin. At that point, you’re grateful when somebody like Santana makes a big comeback (“Thank the Lord, somebody I’ve actually HEARD of!”) ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stark-reminders-that-you-are-getting-old/257632/79 "2004-08-03T14:27:09Z")
You know you’re getting old when… …you recognise _and like_ the music on the ceiling speakers in the grocery store. …the Minister of Health is younger than you are. …so is the up-and-coming new Member of Parliament profiled in your daily paper (who nevertheless has twelve years of experience in city politics) …you realise you have passed out of the Dating Zone and into the Medical Maintenance Zone. …the young suit-wearing man in the cubicle behind you is suddenly promoted to Marketing Director for your whole organisation. …People twenty years younger than you are talking about marriage and children. And doing it. …your best friends have grandchildren. Being 40 sucks. ---
**Author:** ![dwc1970](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@dwc1970](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwc1970)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stark-reminders-that-you-are-getting-old/257632/80 "2004-08-03T14:45:57Z")
Last night I saw a Circuit City commercial and they advertised five new CD releases. Of the five, I only recognized one of the bands (Beastie Boys). The other four were completely foreign to me. McDonald’s is recognizing their 25th anniversary of the Happy Meal. To think I was only _nine_ when those first came out! The toys and other premiums offered have improved considerably since then, too (can’t say the same about the food itself, though). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stark-reminders-that-you-are-getting-old/257632.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stark-reminders-that-you-are-getting-old/257632.md?page=5)