Just going to the hairdressers and being treated respectfully by gorgeous 20somethings does it. I used to know where I stood with rejection and denial.
The greying hair and sore ankles are offering a bit of a pointer too… 
ALL the music references in this thread make me feel old. I rmember music BEFORE rock and roll. You don’t want to know about early fifties pop.
Oh, shit…I’m feeling old right now.
I graduated high school in 1966.
Thanks a whole bunch, Astroboy
Born in 1951. I feel old just about every time I read the messages on this board!
I thought of a couple other things that made me feel old recently:
[ul]
[li]When an elderly man called me “Ma’am”.[/li]
[li]When I realized that I’m old enough to be the new guy at the office’s mother.[/li]
[li]When I realized that I’m older now than my mother-in-law was when I married her son.[/li]
[/ul]
“Daddy, your hair is getting all silvery!”
It’d be justifiable, wouldn’t it?
Spanking, I mean.
Or witholding Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends.
I told some kids to get off the lawn a couple of years ago. Didn’t even think about what I was saying till after I said it. At least I didn’t shake my fist at them or call them “you damn kids!” It was pretty funny.
And it wasn’t even my lawn!
Several years ago I went to see Marilyn Manson on his Antichrist Superstar tour.
I had bought the album based on word-of-mouth recommendations, and found that it was just my cup of tea: loud, angry, and very fast. Tickets to the concert were fairly cheap (about $20, IIRC) and L7 was opening, so I was in a great mood for a couple of weeks beforehand, anticipating a great show.
During Manson’s set, I left my excellent front-and-center-on-the-barricade position to get something to drink and let someone else enjoy the close-up view. I got my water and stood at the back of the room (you don’t take drinks, food, etc. to the mosh pit). There I am, bangin’ my head, havin’ a great time…
…and I realize…
I’m that guy. I’m that guy I always used to see at all the punk shows I went to growin’ up. That guy who just stood at the back of the room absorbing it all. That guy who didn’t quite have the right clothes on for the show. That guy who’s a little too old to be there, but was havin’ a ball anyway.That guy was me.
Of course, I just laughed and made my way back into the pit, but MAN was it a stunner realization for me.
A few days back, I was going to tell a joke to some people at work, from a thread in Cafe Society, which Data from ST:NG might have told. Four of six people I approached had never seen the program or heard of the character.
You know, I’m starting to rethink attending that Queens of the Stone Age/NIN concert now…
Nah, go to the show.
Rock and roll is not about meeting anyone else’s expectations, or conforming to arbitrary rules.
Anyone gives you a hard time, just grab their arm and drag 'em into the pit. A little dual-moshing time and they’ll forget they ever had a problem. 
Bo
I was just reading this thread in the Pit about the [del]new[/del] recently introduced [ del ] tag, when my mind harked back to the day when we used to do the same thing^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H something similar on old style BBS message boards.
Bonus points for anyone who understands the reference.
Understand the reference? It happens to me at work everyday when I get on a console with the wrong emulation.
I’ve been feeling old right here on the SDMB. Here’s why…
I’ve been reading, and making brief contributions to, the charming IMHO thread Help me score a geek date!, all about the imminent dating relationship of two cuties who met at an advance screening of Serenity…
…and I have no clue what Serenity is. OK, let’s look it up. It’s “the feature-length adaptation of Joss Whedon’s TV show ‘Firefly’.”
Joss Whedon? “Firefly”? Sorry, I’m lost. A little more research and it turns out Joss Whedon is the creator of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” OK, at least I’ve heard of that. But I’ve never seen it. And so on…
I’m so far out of it, it will probably meet me coming the other way.
But I take satisfaction in knowing that the old dance of geeks slowly working up the nerve to date hasn’t really changed.
Simple. Turning 30 yesterday.
Bah! Get offa my lawn, you whippersnapper you!
Funny…Foster’s Home was the source of my last ‘Oh, god, I feel old’ moment.
An episode aired last weekend here…Mr Harriman was panicking because he thought there was a dog loose in the house. Frankie tried to calm him. Bloo turns to him, says ‘Yeah, man. Frankie says relax!’ and walks off.
I cracked up.
Then after I finished laughing my fool ass off, I realised - the target audience is about 20 years too young to get that joke, and it would have been put in for the parents stuck watching with their kids.
The discovery of my first gray pubic hair last year.
I don’t think there’s a chance for recovery from that.
[hijack] I’ve decided, when I turn 30, (November) I’m going to do something really outrageous…skydive or hang-glide or anything. You should, too…it will make you feel young again.[/hijack]
Shave it…out of sight, out of mind. But yeah, that’s pretty traumatic.
Good idea! On my 30th birthday I went white-water rafting for the first time. Maybe not as outrageous as skydiving, but still a way to end my 20s with a bang, not a whimper.