Whenever I’m in a public place and I hear someone whistling, far more often than not it’s a senior citizen. I almost never hear younger people whistle. Was whistling considered trendy in the 1940s and 1950s, or is there some other phenomenon that happens as you get older that makes you more inclined to whistle some random notes?
Old people tend to lose their eyesight and whistling is a form of sonar.
This is such a wonderful question. I’ve observed the same tendency, particularly once in a supermarket when I heard a middle-aged white guy whistle, off key, “Strangers In The Night” in the produce section. He went On and On, oblivious. This made me want to assemble a troupe of whistlers “The Whistling White Men”, who, dressed ala Dad circa 60’s, and whistled aimlessly through life. "Appearing at Busstops and Supermarkets near you. 8:00 B sharp (harhar).
So, could be, when you get to a certain age, you just don’t care what people think, and want to hear tunes you don’t hear anymore. Interesting, too, I’ve never heard older women whistling this way in public, just men.
Really great question, hope there are more answers.
They forgot the words.
Whistling was common in my family of origin in the 1940’s and 50’s and it was even used as a signal when I came home from school or my mother came in from work. When I was pre-school age there was a popular song called Heartaches that was whistled all the way through. My mother whistled while she did the housework and since that was the norm to me, I copied her and find myself whistling while I work even now. For a long time I thought eveybody whistled.
I’ve been told that a whistling woman comes to no good. But I remember how pleased my husband-to-be was the first time that he heard me whistling.
I guess that I don’t do it in public, but I do like it when I hear other people. What is this younger generation coming to? Don’t y’all even whistle for your dogs to come to you? (We whistled one of the familiar army bugle calls.)*).
many songs that were/are popular earlier in a person’s life, cease to be played on the radio’s, TV’s etc. because they are no longer popular. Tony Dorsey(sp) was very popular at one time, but alas you can’t turn on a radio and hear Tony Dorsey today. Hence, my father whistles Tony Dorsey’s music almost constantly. He likes to whistle it, in spite of having every son in mp3 format, because he doesn’t always have an mp3 player on hand, at the moment he wants to listen to the music.
He doesn’t have the mp3 player on hand because he left it my the computer,
He left it by the computer, because he did not have a reason to carry it right after he listened to all the music on the computer.
Since he doesn’t carry it with him, he whistles… Sort of a circular amount of logic working here.
He whistles also.
Does that mean we’ll be whistling Led Zeppelin, Metallica and Nirvana songs when we hit our 60s?
The majority of whistling I do hear from the oldsters sounds like random notes and warbling, as if there was absolutely no attempt to sing a particular song. It’s not Frank Sinatra or Dean Martin; it’s the senior citizen version of a kid bashing his fists on a Casio keyboard.
My late father used to think he was humming or whistling to himself, inaudibly. In reality, he was doing so out loud, but since his hearing was so poor he didn’t know others could hear him.
Not a matter of age. Years ago it was common to hear somebody whistle, young or old. Young people usually don’t whistle nowadays, perhaps because of the availability of music everywhere.
I remember years back, there was one city bus driver, an older man who I seemed to encounter on the bus a lot. He had a voice just like Sean Connery and a terrific whistle. Many times he whistled throughout the trip, and it was so pleasant that everyone on the bus seemed to really be paying attention and enjoying it.
This could actually be true 
My dad couldn’t whistle so he used to click his false teeth…sounded like a whole bunch of dolphins having a conference 
I just wanted to pop in and say that I have NEVER heard or seen old folks whistling in public before…
Until about 12 hours before this thread was posted. I was at the grocery store and an eldery gentleman was on the same “course” as I, and he was whistling the whole time. Weird…
I’ll add a little speculation, tho. When i was in college and not sleeping enough (or not at all) I would whistle during my commute, or inbetween classes to stay awake and alert. Perhaps older folks are losing some facilities (hearing, balance, memory) and it aids them in keeping focused and aware.
I have to say I haven’t noticed old people whistling but I was born in the 50’s and it was very common for men to whistle tunes back then. My own father whistled constantly as he was going about his work, walking down the street or just pottering around the house. I imagine if he was alive today he’d still be doing it.
As one of the VERY old let me enlighten you.
Whistling is an ever available companion when working alone,walking alone,sitting alone or just BEING alone.
Whistling,like an ever faithful dog,never argues with you as to selection or ad-lib variation.
It allows one to enjoy melody And verse which is several stories above
“yeh-yeh” and “beh beh”.
It can be Mozart or Mercer-------Ellington or Rossini!
There are many more reasons along the same line----------and it is,like a puppy,
often the opening to many a pleasant romantic interlude.
ALso permit me to point out that there are many people who whistle,but there are only a few who are REALLY whistlers.
There’s them what can and them what wish they could.
But everyone can enjoy it-even if it’s bad!
EZ
EZ
I’m a public whistler.
Most of the recorded music I have is from the 78rpm era or shortly thereafter.
Coincidence?
Ever tried whistling The Beasty Boys? It doesn’t work.
That matches my experience growing up in the 50’s. I practiced hard to learn to whistle, since everyone (at least males) did it. I wasn’t thinking of any age group, but being able to whistle seemed to be something Real Men did, and I sure wanted to be a Real Man™.
It was only recently that I tried to whistle again and realized I had lost my embouchure and can hardly make a sound.
Bingo. Whistlers come from the era when popular music was more dependent on a catchy melody. Anybody could whistle Strangers in the Night, or Mack the Knife. These days, the melody is either non-existent (hip-hop) or just not catchy enough for amateurs to learn.
Us oldsters are training for the time that comes for all of us to make the mystical journey throught the valley of the shadow of death.
Whistling helps to ward off the evil one, beelzebub, lucifer, satan, etc.
That’s lovely, spingears, and it does make one wonder about the personal effect of music. Atuned and catchy and lovely, or, as my gen and later, fairly neuronally dispersed, spraying angst, not catchy tunes, but life now isn’t so happily melodic. People don’t whistle now, light-hearted, how sad.
Ezstrete
I’ve really liked seeing your posts here the past couple of days. Perhaps it’s these last couple of topics that brought you out, or my lack of notice, but, please post more. You are quite wonderful and incisive.
While most people think the older folk whistle more, I find kids around me almost always listening and one of my friends supposedly went to a Whistling Competition and brought back a trophy and shirt to prove it