# 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:** 3
**Author:** ![movingfinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@movingfinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/movingfinger)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2017, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-youve-gotten-old-when/776452/41 "2017-01-07T06:45:13Z")
From time to time I recall a conversation I had with my father when I was a kid. He was talking about a restaurant that was too expensive for the likes of us. “They charge a dollar for a hamburger there.” I was stunned. NOBODY would pay a dollar for a hamburger. Most burgers then (early fifties) were in the 35 cent range. ---
**Author:** ![X.L.Lent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/a5b964/32.png) [@X.L.Lent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/X.L.Lent)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2017, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-youve-gotten-old-when/776452/42 "2017-01-07T07:32:18Z")
1. It is assumed that you have grandchildren 2. Someone is surprised when they find out that both your parents are still alive. 3. You remember seeing the original Star Wars movie when it first came out. (This year will be the film’s 40th anniversary!) 4. Worse, you remember when the Beatles Sgt. Pepper album came out. (In June of this year it will be 50 years ago today Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play!) 5. While at a meeting at work you look around and realize nobody at the table: - has ever used a rotary phone - was alive when man landed on the moon - was a kid back when there were no video games 1. You turn on the local oldies radio station and find that they have added songs from the 90s to their play list ---
**Author:** ![kiz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7feea3/32.png) [@kiz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kiz)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2017, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-youve-gotten-old-when/776452/43 "2017-01-07T07:50:46Z")
> [@X.L.Lent](#): > > 1. It is assumed that you have grandchildren Or you have friends/coworkers who are already grandparents…and they’re younger than you by a year or two, sometimes more. ---
**Author:** ![Heracles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heracles/32/487_2.png) [@Heracles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heracles)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2017, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-youve-gotten-old-when/776452/44 "2017-01-07T13:32:05Z")
Context: In French (much like Spanish), the second person singular can take two forms: casual (_tu_) and formal (_vous_). When addressing a person who is from the same generation or younger, one will typically use the casual form, unless there’s some reason not to (business relationship, patient-doctor, etc.). One’s own parents (and even gods) are addressed casually. These rules made me feel old starting at about 30, when youngsters at the gym started using the formal form when asking if I was done with a machine. :eek: I started a new job (in IT) this year, at 48. The interviews and the first few days were a delicate dance around this particular issue. Even though my boss (in his fifties) and all other directors are addressed casually. :rolleyes: And then there’s the whole [invisibility thing](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=685432). ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a8b319/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_wuzzy)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2017, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-youve-gotten-old-when/776452/45 "2017-01-07T13:42:39Z")
When grown men all around you are wearing those tight fit skinny jeans and you suspect it signifies the downfall of civilization. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2017, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-youve-gotten-old-when/776452/46 "2017-01-07T13:51:11Z")
> [@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. I’m in my 30s and remember a time when smoking was allowed on planes, and I _still_ have flights (from major airports) where I have to walk across the tarmac to board the aircraft. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2017, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-youve-gotten-old-when/776452/47 "2017-01-07T14:46:30Z")
You remember when your choices at McDonald’s were ten cent hamburgers, twelve cent cheeseburgers, ten or fifteen cent fries and sodas, or a 20 cent milkshake. ---
**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2017, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-youve-gotten-old-when/776452/48 "2017-01-07T14:53:02Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > You realize there are people who voted for Hillary Clinton who don’t remember when her husband was President. Whippersnapper. I remember arguing about voting for him in college… for Governor. Back to the OP; For me, old is looking at all those beauty ads showing before/after pics, and thinking the “before” looks pretty hot. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2017, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-youve-gotten-old-when/776452/49 "2017-01-07T18:23:17Z")
…you’re on stage with Keef and Charlie and Ronnie and there are a few dozen walkers placed about so’s you can still “dance” while singing and you break into a tune… HEY! (Hey!) YOU! (You!) GET OFF OF MY LAWN! (I’m goin back to bed.) ---
**Author:** ![Patx2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/73ab20/32.png) [@Patx2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patx2)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2017, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-youve-gotten-old-when/776452/50 "2017-01-07T20:38:28Z")
Being old is when you are in a situation and you think to yourself we could really use an adult here and then you realize, oh shit I am an adult, to make it worse I’m the oldest adult in the room. ---
**Author:** ![Marion\_Wormer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d07c76/32.png) [@Marion\_Wormer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marion_Wormer)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2017, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-youve-gotten-old-when/776452/51 "2017-01-07T21:40:42Z")
> [@Patx2](#): > > Being old is when you are in a situation and you think to yourself we could really use an adult here and then you realize, oh shit I am an adult, to make it worse I’m the oldest adult in the room. I’ve been places where I’m the oldest adult in the Building! ---
**Author:** ![JHBoom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/13edae/32.png) [@JHBoom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JHBoom)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2017, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-youve-gotten-old-when/776452/52 "2017-01-07T21:53:54Z")
…when a new Airman checks in to the squadron, you ask him how old he is, and you realize he was born a couple years after you joined the military. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2017, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-youve-gotten-old-when/776452/53 "2017-01-07T21:56:35Z")
> [@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. Yep, remember all these. > [@Chefguy](#): > > and smoking was allowed in movie theaters. Hell, smoking was allowed pretty much _everywhere_ back then. > [@Emergency911](#): > > …When people you work with were born AFTER you started working for the company. This one hasn’t happened to me yet, but then I’ve only been working there 18 years. But the young lady wo started working for me last summer was younger (by a few years!) on 9/11/2001 than I was when JFK was shot. I may have shared this one on the Dope lately, but since I’m old, of course I’m gonna tell it again. 🙂 In another forum, we were chatting about Dr. Wernher von Braun, and when I looked at his Wikipedia page, I noticed that he was buried in the same cemetery as my dad. So I mention this to a couple of co-workers. “Who’s Dr. Wernher von Braun?” they asked. So I explained, and mentioned that Tom Lehrer had written a song about him. “Who’s Tom Lehrer?” they asked. Yeah, I felt old. ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2017, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-youve-gotten-old-when/776452/54 "2017-01-07T22:29:16Z")
I was watching a Youtube show yesterday about teens/20-somethings where they tried to name 80s action movies based on the posters. Okay, I get young people not recognizing \*\*Die Hard \*\*or **Lethal Weapon** , but the shocker was when one girl exclaims “That guy used to be governor! Are you saying he used to be an _actor_!?” ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2017, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-youve-gotten-old-when/776452/55 "2017-01-07T23:26:55Z")
When your daughter complains about not getting carded. ---
**Author:** ![Personal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Personal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Personal)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2017, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-youve-gotten-old-when/776452/56 "2017-01-07T23:33:03Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > Movies and music is where I feel it, and usually when I compare them to the things I thought were old when I was enjoying them. > > Like when I realize that Nirvana is as old to today’s high schoolers as The Monkees were to me. > > Or that Ferris Bueller is as old now as The Ten Commandments was when Ferris Bueller came out. You are now living in a time a year and a half past the future date they traveled to in a time-travel movie you saw in the theater as a new release. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2017, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-youve-gotten-old-when/776452/57 "2017-01-08T00:20:55Z")
> [@Personal](#): > > You are now living in a time a year and a half past the future date they traveled to in a time-travel movie you saw in the theater as a new release. Make that [16 years past](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001:_A_Space_Odyssey_(film)), for us older folks. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2017, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-youve-gotten-old-when/776452/58 "2017-01-08T00:21:43Z")
When I separated my shoulder falling off my bicycle, and the ER doc says, “OK, let’s talk about exercising over 50…” ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2017, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-youve-gotten-old-when/776452/59 "2017-01-08T01:34:58Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > …you’re on stage with Keef and Charlie and Ronnie and there are a few dozen walkers placed about so’s you can still “dance” while singing and you break into a tune… > > HEY! (Hey!) YOU! (You!) > GET OFF OF MY LAWN! > > (I’m goin back to bed.) More like [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/Ltexj_2UTQo/hqdefault.jpg "Rev Billy C Wirtz - Hey you little bastards, get off of my lawn") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ltexj_2UTQo) ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2017, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-youve-gotten-old-when/776452/60 "2017-01-08T01:56:00Z")
[quote=“kopek, post:59, topic:776452”] More like [/QUOTE] He stole that! I’m tellin Mick–as soon as he wakes up from his 6-hour afternoon nap. And puts his teeth in. (That was priceless, **kopek**! Thanks!) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-youve-gotten-old-when/776452.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-youve-gotten-old-when/776452.md?page=4)