Now that I’m over 50, some of my personal observations have gradually become more apparent. Here’s one that is very common for me:
I see someone in a public place (street, gym, mall, driving, etc.) that looks just like someone I knew in school, college, summer camp, early career, etc. to the point where I’m about to say hi. And then I quickly realize that there is no way that person could be that young. I’m remembering that person as they were 20-40 years ago, and they certainly would have aged. It’s actually pretty disappointing when it happens, and while there’s a chance that the person could be a younger relative, child, etc., of the person from my past, that’s not enough to warrant an introduction.
Aches and pains. An innocent sounding phrase to a youngster, a mild sounding phrase. But the 'pains" part of that phrase is actual pain, just like it says.
I’d like to modify that. “Aches and pains”…for no apparent reason.
Aches and pains that last just long enough to make you worry that something’s really wrong, to the point I’m about to make a doctor’s appointment, and then the ache/pain vanishes. My body sure does like to play mind games on me.
As far as aches & pains go, I now cannot fathom how people wake up and go to the gym. I need be awake and moving around for at least a couple of hours for the muscles and tendons to be relaxed enough, and the joints to be lubed enough, to do a squat or bench press. For that, I now actually take a Motrin before I go to the gym.
I spoke to my doc and he was ok with taking a single Motrin daily. He’s about my age, and I mentioned that I now get normal soreness from the gym 2-3 days after my workout, but now also get muscle soreness about 6-7 days out if I DON’T go to the gym that long. His response: “That happens to me too!”; he had no idea why this happens.
I discovered this decades ago after a stint pulling green chain in the lumber yard as a young man. Hurt like hell for a couple week when I started and hurt like hell for a couple weeks when I stopped. Growing old ain’t for the faint of heart.
My age related discovery is musical. Music that was popular when I was a teenager that I didn’t really care for, I listen to with new ears now and can actually appreciate and enjoy it(well some of it)
I’ve discovered that, at least in my case, Grumpy Old Man Syndrome is more of an “I don’t give a shit” attitude than a matter of being generally ill-tempered. I try to be nice and agreeable as much as I can. I truly don’t like confrontation. But in recent years, I’ve found I’m much more willing to say “Bite my ass” if I think someone is behaving like a dick and therefore has it coming. It’s kind of liberating, really.
I’m learning what my elders meant when they talked about having “good days or bad days”. Some days you wake up feeling crappy for no apparent reason, and on others you feel pretty good, also for unknown reasons.
The opposite of the grumpy old man. That was middle age, when I was irritated at the pointless inefficiency and incompetence that anyone applying common sense could so easily eliminate. Now I accept it as just one of our species’ limitations along with our lack of prehensile tails.
I was disappointed that there’s still so much war Raised in the aftermath of WWII and seeing us turn away from war in Vietnam gave me false hope growing up. So I became aware of how susceptible we are to false hope. The current expectations that technology, or some financial scheme, or if we could just shut down “those other people” will deliver humanity from the brink don’t appeal to me. We’ll need kindness more than those; kindness in quantities not abundant in our species.
TL;DR: I now use my senior discount: I’m discounting humanity’s possibility for improvement.
I’ve also run into people who I don’t recognize right away because they’ve aged inappropriately. Apparently dealing with severe illness/cancer can really accelerate the aging process.
According the the television and radio commercials I am constantly bombarded with, because I’m over 50 that means there is prostrate problems and I better take this pill or that pill or consult with a medical professional…
I personally drink so much water throughout the day and right up until bedtime it’s no wonder I shuffle to the restroom several times a night.
Time drags a lot when you’re younger, as when you are in school in a dull class, or at a dull event with your parents, or stuck in the house during a long stretch of bad weather.
Time becomes a snowball rolling down the hill at top speed when you get older, days weeks months years go by in the blink of an eye…I take out the trash and am astonished when I have to take it out again, because I swear I just took it out yesterday. A cousin’s son is graduating? Why, I just saw them at a family reunion…it can’t possibly have been 12 years ago!
I couldn’t predict that I’d have to adjust my self-view from “I’m a youngster” to “remember you’re an old granny type now so you have to behave accordingly.”
It’s hard to tell if some new little ailment is something I ought to see the doctor about, or if I just suck it up and deal because it’s just another sign of getting old.
And yes, since about age 50, the phrase “the wee hours” has taken on a whole new meaning.
My dad made a remark about sort of the opposite of this. My parents moved halfway across the country when they were married in the 60s, and so didn’t have much contact with old friends from back home. When they went to my dad’s highschool reunion in the 90s, he said he could only figure out who was who by “looking for their parents”. All the people had aged so much, he only realized who they were by thinking, “Hey, that old guy looks like Mr. Smith, Bob’s father. Must be Bob!”
I’m noticing that everyone looks too young for their jobs recently. Even when I know that person has to be a legal adult to hold that job (police, EMT, etc.), they still look like kids to me, and a lot of other people on the road look too young to be driving.
