# You know you've gotten old when... **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 6, 2017, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-youve-gotten-old-when/776452 "2017-01-06T14:32:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-youve-gotten-old-when/776452/1 "2017-01-06T14:32:37Z")
We had an all hands meeting at my workplace a few weeks ago, and each manager introduced their group members and mentioned an interesting fact about each of them. My manager said “Knowed Out once received an email from Rodney Dangerfield. In case you haven’t heard of him, he was a famous comedian about 30 years ago…” ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-youve-gotten-old-when/776452/2 "2017-01-06T14:40:24Z")
…you realize you’ve spent more than a quarter of your life on the Dope. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-youve-gotten-old-when/776452/3 "2017-01-06T14:54:28Z")
… Snap, Crackle, Pop is getting out of bed rather than your breakfast cereal. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-youve-gotten-old-when/776452/4 "2017-01-06T15:26:11Z")
…what was the question?.. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-youve-gotten-old-when/776452/5 "2017-01-06T15:36:33Z")
I was going to type the definitive answer to this … then I reached the top of the stairs and couldn’t remember it. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![sevenwood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@sevenwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sevenwood)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-youve-gotten-old-when/776452/6 "2017-01-06T15:36:41Z")
You know you’re getting old when the Sweet Young Things hold the door open for _ **you** _. …and you’re grateful. ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-youve-gotten-old-when/776452/7 "2017-01-06T15:45:47Z")
> [@sevenwood](#): > > You know you’re getting old when the Sweet Young Things hold the door open for _ **you** _. > > …and you’re grateful. This has been happening to me so so often lately, and I do like it, but realize she’s doing the same thing she would do for her grandfather. A young gay guy did it this morning. I purposely walked slower so he wouldn’t do it, but he hung in there and apologized for cutting me off. Fuck, how decrepit do I look? ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-youve-gotten-old-when/776452/8 "2017-01-06T15:49:04Z")
You drop a suppository and say, “5 second rule!” ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-youve-gotten-old-when/776452/9 "2017-01-06T15:52:37Z")
> [@sevenwood](#): > > You know you’re getting old when the Sweet Young Things hold the door open for _ **you** _. > > …and you’re grateful. And you wonder if her mom is single. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-youve-gotten-old-when/776452/10 "2017-01-06T15:56:04Z")
The baggers at the grocery store have begun asking me if I want help carrying the groceries out to my car. I’m only 43, dammit! When I was in college in the 90s, one of my instructors, who was probably in his late 40s or early 50s at the time, interrupted his usually stodgy lecture one day to do an impression of an Adam Sandler SNL character. We politely laughed and later joked about how we didn’t know how to react when this old dude was trying to engage us on our terms. I am now a college instructor. One day I was going through a slide deck for a lecture, looking at the memes and movie references I’d put there, and I stopped. My god! I was just like Dr. Chatlos all those years ago! _I’m_ the old dude trying too hard to relate to the kids!! ☹ ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-youve-gotten-old-when/776452/11 "2017-01-06T16:05:22Z")
When we travelled when we were younger we had concerns that stamps from Peru or Nepal would get us flagged as drug runners. (We always dressed like Mormans going through customs, just in case!:D) Drugs on us amounted to birth control pills and polysporin! Now when we travel my carry on bag contains a lot of drugs, as they can’t be trusted in checked baggage! (Last trip we were gone over 60 days!) We both take BP meds, plus some supplements, plus a sleep aid, plus, plus, plus! My bag was full up! It was kinda shocking! Worse still, whenever I opened it so someone could inspect the contents, it raised not a single eyebrow! Utter indifference to a literal bagful of drugs! “Yeah, yeah, you’re old and got a lotta drugs. Ho hum, move along!” ☹ ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-youve-gotten-old-when/776452/12 "2017-01-06T16:06:43Z")
> [@sevenwood](#): > > You know you’re getting old when the Sweet Young Things hold the door open for _ **you** _. > > …and you’re grateful. Phaw … of late I’ve been having Lil’ Old Ladies hold doors open for me … damn that’s embarrassing … ---
**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:** [January 6, 2017, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-youve-gotten-old-when/776452/13 "2017-01-06T16:12:40Z")
. . .when your doctor precedes every statement with “Well, at _your_ age. . .” ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-youve-gotten-old-when/776452/14 "2017-01-06T16:21:16Z")
A couple of years ago, my wife and I took a vacation in Hawaii, along with another couple. We were having lunch at a restaurant on a beach on Maui; our waitress was a very attractive young blonde woman. I was wearing a Green Bay Packers baseball cap. Waitress: “Packers? Cool!” Me: “Yup…I’m originally from Green Bay.” Waitress: “Oh! I grew up in Pulaski!” (A small town about 15 miles from GB) Me: “I know where that is! When I was in college, I dated a girl from Pulaski.” Waitress, with a playful smile on her face: “Maybe she was my mom.” ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Krupe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ebca7d/32.png) [@Leo\_Krupe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Krupe)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-youve-gotten-old-when/776452/15 "2017-01-06T16:36:07Z")
…when you can remember smoking was allowed on airplanes. …when there was a time before metal detectors at airports. …when you had to walk out of the terminal onto the tarmac to board the plane. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-youve-gotten-old-when/776452/16 "2017-01-06T16:42:30Z")
. . . when you page through People Magazine in the doctor’s waiting room,., and you don’t recognize a single name or face in it. ---
**Author:** ![stillownedbysetters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/41988e/32.png) [@stillownedbysetters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stillownedbysetters)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-youve-gotten-old-when/776452/17 "2017-01-06T17:23:24Z")
Your answer to any invitation is a denial and that denial contains the world ‘too’. (I’m too tired, it’s too far away, it’s too late, too expensive, too hot, too spicy…you get the picture) ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-youve-gotten-old-when/776452/18 "2017-01-06T18:11:24Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > . . . when you page through People Magazine in the doctor’s waiting room,., and you don’t recognize a single name or face in it. I’ve almost had that happen. I’m doing good if I recognize a couple names or faces. I can’t get used to the dashboards of new cars. The electronics in there look like something from Star Wars. I drive a commercial 2014 van. Fairly new but it doesn’t have SAT Nav and all the other bells and whistles of new cars. ---
**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:** [January 6, 2017, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-youve-gotten-old-when/776452/19 "2017-01-06T18:11:42Z")
> [@Leo\_Krupe](#): > > …when you can remember smoking was allowed on airplanes. > > …when there was a time before metal detectors at airports. > > …when you had to walk out of the terminal onto the tarmac to board the plane. And the planes all had propellers, 4WD was restricted to trucks, car phones were some oddity that only the very rich had, and smoking was allowed in movie theaters. ---
**Author:** ![Emergency911](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/43a26b/32.png) [@Emergency911](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emergency911)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-youve-gotten-old-when/776452/20 "2017-01-06T18:26:38Z")
…When people you work with were born AFTER you started working for the company. This started for me just a few years ago. Took me a while to wrap my head around it. Funny thing was I never considered my age as being ‘old’ until it happened. It still makes me pause when age comes up in conversation. Luckily, it doesn’t depress me, I just shake my head and think “Wow, how did you survive this long?”…Then I go home and yell at the neighbor kids to get off my lawn, take my evening meds and try to get to bed before the sun goes down. 🙂 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-youve-gotten-old-when/776452.md?page=2)