# Things that make you feel old

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-feel-old/584530>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [June 6, 2011, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-feel-old/584530 "2011-06-06T18:51:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 3

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Shawn1767](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Shawn1767](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shawn1767)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2011, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-feel-old/584530/41 "2011-06-06T23:06:44Z")

</div>

Yesterday, I heard “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” by Wham! on the Oldies station here…

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2011, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-feel-old/584530/42 "2011-06-06T23:10:42Z")

</div>

The grandchildren of people I went to high school with are now in high school.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2011, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-feel-old/584530/43 "2011-06-06T23:20:53Z")

</div>

I was born in '65, okay? Leading wave of Generation X, I guess.

The folks at work who are the leading wave of Baby Boomers are turning 65 and retiring at an amazing rate. I was in my early 40s and still in the younger half of all the people in my office. Suddenly I’m in the middle of our group, age-wise, and there are all these cute young punks joining us. C’mon! We’re Generation X! We’re always gonna be the “kid” generation behind them, right? Right? We can’t be _old._

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2011, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-feel-old/584530/44 "2011-06-06T23:23:58Z")

</div>

My grandkids graduating high school.

My grandniece giving birth to my great-grandniece.

The fact that I’ve been married a total of 39 years to two different women.

My reflection in the mirror.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\
**Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-feel-old/584530/45 "2011-06-07T00:18:42Z")

</div>

Yeah, Medicare, for sure.

Then also being called “Mr.” followed by my first name (Bill) by those in their 20’s or 30’s. (I don’t mind it from the really young’uns. I think it’s cute).

Thank goodness those who _call_ me “Mr. Bill” now are of a different generation than the ones who were around in the early days of SNL! :rolleyes:

“Oooooooooooh! Mr. Bill!!!”:mad:🙂

Quasi

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![maggenpye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecc23a/32.png) [@maggenpye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maggenpye)\
**Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-feel-old/584530/46 "2011-06-07T00:31:44Z")

</div>

Going to the ‘mummy and baby’ groups and realising I was the oldest one there (at 33!) and that I had more in common with the grandparents.

And just now, remembering that the ‘baby’ starts high school in six months.

Mind you; she, me and my mum all belted out _I’m a believer_ when it came on the radio, so Mum and I get to feel kinda young for the duration of the \*Shrek \*association - which itself is now ten years old… sigh.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\
**Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-feel-old/584530/47 "2011-06-07T00:35:25Z")

</div>

First time I taught a college course, as a grad student, I showed up in my grad student clothes, and was embarrassed to realize that I looked like my students (I was only a few years older than them) so I resolved to wear a suit the first day of every class. Cut about to twelve years later, when it dawned on me that I didn’t need the suit anymore, just my thinning hair, to establish that I was no longer conceivably one of them.

That was about twenty years ago.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Shade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)\
**Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-feel-old/584530/48 "2011-06-07T00:36:25Z")

</div>

New undergraduates will probably never remember a time:

- before there was iTunes
- before the human genome was sequenced
- before the Iraq war  
…

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\
**Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-feel-old/584530/49 "2011-06-07T00:38:40Z")

</div>

I can’t say I’m older than any presidents, but you should have heard the silence on my mom’s end of the phone this last birthday when I pointed out to her that I am now old enough to _be_ President…

According to my dad, it was when they started advertising Metamucil on his radio stations. And I’m not much younger than he was when he told me this. Eek!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\
**Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-feel-old/584530/50 "2011-06-07T00:43:56Z")

</div>

> [@Shade](#):
>
> New undergraduates will probably never remember a time:
> 
> - before there was iTunes
> - before the human genome was sequenced
> - before the Iraq war  
> …

Before companies bought the rights to human genomes…🙂

Here’s one for my mom feeling old - her youngest daughter turned 40 this year. Her oldest daughter will be 50 in two years.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\
**Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-feel-old/584530/51 "2011-06-07T00:55:59Z")

</div>

I heard this once on Car Talk…

Apparently there was this guy walking by a barber shop, and as he looked in the window he thought he saw a guy he recognized as an old high school chum getting his hair cut.

So he (with thinning hair to the point of doing a comb-over) went inside and asked the guy (who had a full head of hair), “Say, aren’t you Joe Jones?”

“Ummmm yeah, I am.”

“Well, I’m Dirk Doright, and you were in my class!!!”

“Yeah? What did you teach?”

😃

Quasi

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\
**Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-feel-old/584530/52 "2011-06-07T00:57:15Z")

</div>

Every goddamn day, it’s something else. Many of the things mentioned, plus being truly young at heart, I’m always getting jerked back into reality in an extremely jarring manner. I’m not going down without a fight though.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Full\_Metal\_Lotus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/df705f/32.png) [@Full\_Metal\_Lotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Full_Metal_Lotus)\
**Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-feel-old/584530/53 "2011-06-07T04:40:30Z")

</div>

A few years ago, I was working at a place where the age demographics were, shall I just say, rather harshly skewed away from "my’ end of the graph.

One day, a 17 year old co-worker very innocently asked me: " You’re old right? So, how do dial telephones work?"

She had only seen them in movies, TV, etc…  
Sheesh

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\
**Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-feel-old/584530/54 "2011-06-07T05:02:10Z")

</div>

My girlfriend is almost a decade younger than I.

She says I look younger than my age.

She’s probably right. I don’t act my age either. I’m rather childish.

So. The friction between this behavior and my actual age makes me feel old.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\
**Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-feel-old/584530/55 "2011-06-07T05:35:31Z")

</div>

> [@Shade](#):
>
> New undergraduates will probably never remember a time:
> 
> - before there was iTunes
> - before the human genome was sequenced
> - before the Iraq war  
> …

Er, at some point in time, these things will be true, but are you seriously suggesting there are undergraduates right now who cannot remember events from more than 8 years ago? (the sequencing of the human genome was announced as completed and the Iraq war was begun in 2003; iTunes is just a couple years older, dating to 2001).

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\
**Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-feel-old/584530/56 "2011-06-07T09:58:51Z")

</div>

> [@osme](#):
>
> Ringo =70  
> Paul=69 on the 18th

Thanks for nuthin. Your post brought a tear to my eye.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![maggenpye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecc23a/32.png) [@maggenpye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maggenpye)\
**Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-feel-old/584530/57 "2011-06-07T10:04:43Z")

</div>

It made me feel slightly younger!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![gallows\_fodder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8c91f0/32.png) [@gallows\_fodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gallows_fodder)\
**Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-feel-old/584530/58 "2011-06-07T12:17:07Z")

</div>

> [@kbear](#):
>
> I took my daughter to a vintage sale last weekend. Half the clothes were from the 80’s :-/

Ha, same! I’ve been looking for vintage purses online and I keep seeing things from the 1980s labeled as vintage. That is not vintage!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\
**Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-feel-old/584530/59 "2011-06-07T13:26:27Z")

</div>

> [@](#):
>
> Do not go gentle into that good night,  
> Old age should burn and rave at close of day;  
> Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

I am just grateful I am not being called “young” in that slightly jealous, very annoying manner.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\
**Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-feel-old/584530/60 "2011-06-07T13:30:11Z")

</div>

Speaking of which, being called “young man” when you’re obviously already way past that stage is patronizing and pisses me off as well. My doctor does that.

Quasi

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-feel-old/584530.md?page=2)

[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-feel-old/584530.md?page=4)
