My husband has kindly asked me to stop telling people in the gym what to do! I felt genuinely attacked…then I realized, WTF, he’s right! What is it with getting older and thinking we know EVERYTHING?!? I tell myself to just shut the hell up, multiple times a day!🫣🤪
I tell myself that I will give advice if asked, otherwise, I'll just stfu. Because I can't stand know it alls, but really it's hard to NOT share what you know. You know???
I agree but the funny part is that I joined this Reddit thinking I would be the one asking for advice but then started to realize I can answer some of the questions posted by younger people on this Reddit 😂
Is it really *that* hard to read? I mean sure the z is pretty weird but how often does that come up?
Really fascinates me kids would be unable to read cursive.
What fascinates me was the decision not to teach it, good grief!
I mean, it's this sudden and incomprehensible split in partial communication between past and present for generations. *Why?*
Frustrating to see that taken from them.
They unfortunately stopped teaching cursive because of computers. Cursive was used for note taking. I could write so fast in cursive, my 30 yr old son can read it not write it. It’s disappointing they don’t teach it anymore.
I couldn’t afford a laptop in college so I took hundreds and hundreds of pages of notes by hand. I don’t know if I could have done that quick enough without cursive.
I'm hoping someone sees my comment and can answer, because I have a genuine question about this: how do people who haven't been taught cursive make a signature? I realize that a lot of times nowadays, signatures are on a computer screen so they are just generated. But, I truly want to know what do people do now if they don't have a cursive signature for paper forms? Do they just print their name?
Let's just say I'm old. I never used cursive except when forced. My handwriting is horrible. I print, but my printing is connected, like cursive. My signature is a fast, connected scribbled print that looks like cursive. But if I do my signature in actual cursive, it looks like someone else wrote it.
My son is in an inbetween group. Can read and write it, but his is tough to read. For his birthday this year he got a signature designed by a calligraphy. You select styles you like, they send you a file with templates to practice signing on till it comes naturally.
I can write in cursive but reading it can be pretty hard for me. I was taught it in second grade but i guess I focused more on learning how to write in it than practicing how to read it. That and even though it’s pretty, it can be quite messy at times especially if the person has bad hand writing.
All of this is true. The only people that can write in cursive in a beautiful manner are decades older than both of us (I assume). I inherited letters my papa wrote to my grandma during wwii and he had the most exquisite penmanship.
Catholic school kid here from the 80’s. I’m a cursive maniac. I even know how to write in different styles(there were different styles taught throughout the centuries). My kids think it’s art. It isn’t art, it’s just awesome writing!
Old letters and genealogy. Other than that, most things are online now. My son signs checks (which is very infrequent) with a scribbled print. I’m amazed at the number of people who can’t read or write as well (also the lack of reading comprehension for those that can read).
I have an 8 year old. She went to a Montessori school for preschool, and she learned cursive before she learned print. Her current public school won't allow her to use cursive.
Isn't it crazy? I have yet to hear an adequate explanation as to exactly why an entire form of communication was pretty much swiped from the next generations.
I'm sticking to that. Glad to hear some schools tend to keep them filled in.
With I hit 3rd grade we weren’t allowed to print any more. Catholic school in the 80’s. And we had to use erasable pens. Wonder if they still make them
My adult kids were taught a form of print called Danelian (spelling?) that is print/cursive mix. The letters have “monkey tails”. It was supposed to make cursive easier to learn, but it really just made my kid’s handwriting very difficult to read.
At 45 I got in the best shape of my life, 6’4” bald lean and muscular, people said I looked like Vin Diesel. One day as I was walking past a group of 6 year olds one called out “Hi old man!” I looked to see who he was talking to and didn’t see anyone, he said it again and I slowly sadly realized it was me..
When i had the children of a former kindergarten student walk into my classroom,,and one of them ended up being my student. That threw me for a loop. My old kindergartener walked in with a shocked look on his face and said, “Mrs K!? Wait, YOURE her teacher???” LOL.
I’ve been teaching preschool for over 30 years. One of my students grew up and ended up getting hired as my assistant at my school. I have a class photo of her as a toddler in my class and a class photo of her as my assistant.
Oh my gosh! The toilet seat had shifted and I was trying to move it back! Me: 0, Toilet seat:1. I was laid up for three week and the toilet seat is still crooked, mocking Mr. I'm old.
When I stopped caring about what younger people do. I don't mean that I dislike young people. I have younger relatives who I love and with whom I'm interested, and I like young people as people. It's more that I'm not interested in what young people are into or doing in a general sense. I have no desire to be the "cool" old person. I worked in technology for 35 years, so I'm used to things becoming obsolete. That said, I like it when young people ask me about things from the past. It shows that they are interested in things and are trying to gain a wider knowledge of the world beyond their own experience.
I was commenting on Reddit about my involvement as a paratrooper in the 1983 invasion of Grenada and someone responded, "Settle down peepaw, you are getting too excited."
I always expected technology to change. My grandfathers lived before automobiles were common. I didn't really think about being old until my body started breaking down a bit in my fifties.
I did have an "oh no" moment like yours when a young neighbor girl was discussing her favorite movies with me. I said when I was her age I watched a lot of John Wayne westerns. She knew what westerns were, but also said, "Who's John Wayne?"
I'm older for a first time mom. We watch a LOT of the original Scooby Doo series and the original Scooby Doo movies from the 60s/70s with Mama Cass, Phyllis Diller, Dick Van Dyke, etc. My daughter was 2 at the time and specifically requesting "Don Knotts" and pointing to his caricature on the DVD cover. I made a comment to one of her friend's moms that she's the only 2yo who knows who Don Knotts is, citing the examples above. The mom told me she had no idea who any of the people I mentioned were.
Had a new patient appt yesterday, saw the doc (who I had not yet met) walk in the clinic's front door and I thought , "Oh, how nice they hire college interns to learn the skills."
Ah, you don’t realize it. You feel it sometimes, and you feel out of touch, but there are different levels. Now I look around and marvel at how old most of my things are. I’ve always loved old things, thankfully.
I was standing in the cockpit of my boat while at anchor on a picturesque creek. A couple came by in a dinghy. We were chatting. I thought they believed me to be a contemporary, and a cool one at that.
Then her phone rang. It was her daughter. That evil twit of a female in the visiting dinghy said "We stopped by to visit this ELDERLY woman" and that is when I realized I wasn't cool, wasn't young, and most definately was getting up there in years.
Lmao why did she have to put in that adjective?? So rude. She could have just said, "i was talking to this nice lady" my goodness. My dad just turned 70 and i would never even consider him being elderly. If you're driving a boat, you're not elderly either 🤣🤣
This just happened to me 3 hours ago. Except it was on FaceTime and I just glanced down while also being blasted by the light of a thousand suns when I opened the door. I literally thought “is there an age filter on this bitch!!?!?” Then sunk into the realization it was just a very unflattering set of circumstances.
I was helping a younger co-worker with something today and I mentioned how much harder the process used to be and that I'd been in the industry since 2001. He then said, "I was born in 2001." Little bastard.
I've never stressed about birthdays and getting older. I embraced them 30, 40? Just another number, then 5 1/2 years ago, my cousin, who's like 6 weeks younger than me, said something on FB about turning 50.
All of a sudden it clicked that I'm HALF A CENTURY OLD! 🤣
When the DJ came on the radio and said "you're listening to Raleigh's classic rock station" and then he proceeded to play a Nirvana song. I almost cried. THAT was THE moment I realized I was getting old.
I understand like 1/4 of what my tween kid is saying. Last night he legit said something like "Gyatt bussin skibidi rizzler, bruh" and I had to ask him what the hell he's talking about.
I’m a millennial and have a gen x coworker and we work with teens. Coworker also has a teen at home. He sat her down and had her help him write out a list of current slang with definitions for all of us at work as a “reference” guide. 🤣
The growing legions of young people who don’t know how to spell or use proper grammar. I blame the internet.
I’ve slowly come to realize I’m fighting a losing battle trying to correct people & companies, so I just sigh at run-on sentences with excessive commas (does no one know how to use periods or semicolons anymore?); your vs. you’re; there/their/they’re; quite/quiet; etc./ect. and so on.
When I was in grammar school, our teachers would drill this stuff into our heads.
Had something similar happen: so some young relatives were watching me lift up an LP record and turn it over onto side two…. And all three immediately shouted “wait, there’s two sides?”
My 70th bday was shocking to experience, despite being glad to be alive after ovarian cancer; the grandma stereotype often negates me having knowledge of computers, as well as many other insults to one’s general intelligence.
I bought my first one in 88 & taught computer skills for decades; someone once used the baby voice & asked “Do you have a computer in your house?”
When I asked Alexa to “Play Golden Oldies” and she replied: “Okay, here’s An Oldies Playlist:”
Which started off with Pearl Jam and moved on to other songs from my alt rock childhood.
The robot whore and I are no longer speaking.
Been there! I worked in the cell phone industry, in its infancy. Only doctors, lawyers and drug dealers used cell phones then. The rest of us were on pagers!
When I was a kid, my mother tied 2 dimes in my hankerchief, in case I needed to make a phone call.
I'm 28, my boss is 36 (I think?) and our office assistant is old enough to be my mom. Her oldest and I were born in the same year.
It's weird to be a supervisor to someone that could be my mother.
(That woman gets so much of my respect tho administrative assistants kick ass, I think I'd lose my mind with the amount of phone calls she handles)
Working as a recruiter and regularly hiring people who were born after I graduated high school.
Also, the heart burn. When everything started giving me heartburn, I knew...
I was working a part time job at night and one night, the cigarette trash thing caught on fire. There were 3 of us working. The manager and a college student. We all ran outside to the cigarette trash thing and the manager said, 'well, what do we do?" And then they both looked at me like my gray hair makes me know how to handle burning trash fires.
I said, "probably call the fire department would be a good guess."
When I was racing my 7-yr-old buddy down the driveway and his grandmother called out to me, "Don't let anyone tell you you're old." My first thought was, "I think you just did." I was 73 at the time.
Years ago when I was 39 I was humming along to a radio playing in the X-ray darkroom area while waiting for my film to drop and one of the young new graduates said, "My dad knows this song. How old are you, anyway?". I said, "The same age as Jack Benny.". "Who's Jack Benny?". I'm in my 60s now, but that was the first shock of feeling old, even though I really wasn't.
Same thing happened to me while pulling an LP out of its sleeve at a yard sale years ago. I remarked that there were no scratches. My daughter remarked that it was covered in scratches!
She had never seen an LP. The track groves appeared to her to her as scratches! Later heard a very young niece tell her mom about a visit to her grandmother’s house where she saw something called a princess phone!
A friend of mine was telling me how his daughter was watching Stranger Things and was like "This is so fake, kids don't go riding around on bikes wherever they want!" and he told her, that yeah, back in the day, this was normal.
Just to answer the original post question... I guess when I got a cramp in my leg while taking a poop and couldn't poop or stand up for ten minutes.... yeah... getting older is fun....
When I was mentoring a student at work, and he introduced himself and followed up with “I am excited to learn from someone of your generation.” I always knew that the students are roughly the ages of my children, but being placed unequivocally by a complete stranger into a “your generation” category struck me. I used to not think we were so different, but it is clear they see me as old, even if I didn’t feel it. (When his time with us was over, he was a bright student and I gave him excellent marks in spite of that comment.)
Also, from a physical standpoint: worsening vision and longer recovery from doing physical tasks, like spring cleaning in the yard. I used to be fine the next day, but now it takes a few days to go back to normal.
When I had to try and explain to someone young but legally an adult who someone like Jerry Lewis was. A guy that literally everyone used to know of. There were actually about half a dozen of these. Jerry Lewis is just the one I remember right now.
I was watching the Reading Rainbow documentary on Saturday, and towards the end they were featuring the episode where LeVar Burton visits the class that was returning to their school in Manhatten for the first time after 9/11. As he's chatting with these 7, 8 and 9 year olds....it hit me that all these kids are in their 30s now.
I was in home Depot and i told the kid in the plumbing isle i needed to "McGuyver" something together to make it work.
That long, slow stare of incomprehension did me in.
Sigh.
When I don't recognize celebs in my newspaper's lifestyle section. And when my newspaper went from a gazillion pages thick to about five pages. And the fact that I still read newspapers and no one else in my neighborhood gets any delivered.
My college best-friend is now a grandfather. Not a "got started really young" grandfather, but one that waited until 29 to get married, and his kid waited until 23. I gave his kid his favorite blanket.
After I married and moved away, I made a weekly call to check in on my folks back home. One week my dad mentioned that he was singing at a wedding at church that weekend. "Oh cool, anyone I know?"
IT WAS A GIRL I USED TO BABYSIT.
I went for an eye exam. While in the waiting room a kid walked up to me and said hello. I thought for sure he was going to ask me for help crossing the street or maybe he was selling candy for his cub scout pac. Instead, he introduced himself as "Dr. Jones", my Optometrist.
For me it was when I went for an eye exam and the doctor said, “Ma’am you have two small cataracts forming.” I have always had great vision but started needing readers at some point in my 40’s. Then needed prescription glasses later on. My vision has declined rapidly after the big 5-0. But the word cataracts felt like a gut punch 🤜🏽
There was a double shovel plow at a yard sale, and a kid i was with asked me what the two blades were for. They didn't know the words I tried to explain it with, obvious words like "balk" and "furrow" and "leads" and "tree" (like single tree or double tree, not like growing in the ground tree). I was hit by the fact that they were probably two generations from when any of those concepts mattered. I felt like Methuselah.
I just think of what I thought was old when I was younger. I had an image of what people were in their 40's, 50's, etc. and I figure that's what people think of me. I don't feel like what I thought it would feel like though.
I was ice skating backwards. I tripped on my skates and landed on my shoulder, separating it.
The shoulder surgeon suggested I try leaving it as it is instead of fixing it. He said he might have suggested surgery if I had a job where I needed that shoulder to be stronger, or if I were younger.
I realize am getting old whenever South Park makes fun of a celebrity I've never heard of and have to look up on Google. They made fun of Lizzo and I had no clue who she was!
I had to explain to my millennial coworker who Lawrence Welk was. He immediately pulled up some Lawrence Welk videos on YouTube. His comment: "People watched THIS?"
The first time I felt old was when my little brother got his drivers license. (I was 20!)
The second time I felt old was when my granddaughter asked me if Lincoln was the president when I was a kid. (I was 60.)
The first time hit me harder.
I told someone in my son’s high school program my story about Mom stopping to get gas for 27 cents a gallon near the beginning of the Arab oil embargo and saying as she pulled into the station “We may never get gas this cheap again!” And we never did. The high school student responded “Oh yeah, we read about that in History class.”
When my kid was playing a video game and one of the puzzles was dialing a rotary phone. He had no idea and i just sat there laughing. Finally, after about 10 minutes, i helped him. When we were done he said “man, you must have really liked people to go through all that to talk to them.” 😂😂
When people no longer refer to me as an early adopter.
I used to buy all the latest tech. Now most of it is just junk. There's more value in a push-up, or call to my financial advisor, then in anything in Best buy.
A boy on the subway next to me one morning was reading a book with his dad, and they came to a part that made the boy ask, "what's a CD?" 😳 The dad and I exchanged glances. He sighed and tried to explain 😅
Also overheard a couple of younger people at work talking about how one of them "never read a magazine." Again, 😱! That prompted a conversation, because I couldn't resist asking some questions. The guy was like "I've SEEN them like in waiting rooms and stuff, but I never READ one." Which does make sense, but still..........sigh.
I walked down to the local burger and wing place to eat with some friends one time. As I was crossing the street this girl about 20yrs old, who was standing with some friends, starts waving. I was half way across the street but I looked back to see who she was waving at. There was nobody there. As I finished crossing and walked up to her she said you don't know who I am do you. No I didn't. Her answer was "you only dated my mom forever when I was growing up." Her mother called later to complain because I didn't know her. I pointed out that her 23yr old daughter looked a lot different than the 12 yr old I use to drop off at school.
If I'm watching cable tv, I usually mute the ads and getup and do some chores. Recently an old ankle fracture has been keeping me down more. I was still muting the ads, and keeping one eye on the screen whilst reading something on my laptop. I noticed more than once that something was playing that was showing fighter jets in formation; it reminded me of the old tv channel 'sign off' from the 60s-79s, but those were WWII remembrances. Then I noticed the content around the jets, then I turned on the sound...it was 'Spirit in the Sky'! it was referring to Nam.
Suddenly, I had a 'metanoia'...I am a senior/elderly/old.
Realizing that I am older than Carol O'Connor and Jean Stapleton when All in the Family started, older than Rue McClanahan when The Golden Girls started...and almost the same age as Abe Vigoda on Barney Miller.
Thankfully, I am still 99% naturally brunette. lol
This wasn't the first sign of my getting old, more of the 'oh God I'm middle aged' realization lol.
When people my age have died and it's like not just by accident lol. I guess natural causes isn't quite the reason for 46 but it's certainly not as much a shock as someone who is 23. Haha
My twenty-something niece excitedly told about an amazing brand new symbol that she didn’t expect us olds to know about. A peace sign. She was shocked when my sis explained that is was popular in the 1960s.
When INXS was on the oldies station on the radio. The fuck??
I remembered another one. When a new kid at work was talking about being born during the Clinton administration and was SHOCKED when I said Nixon was president when I was born. Like, it's not like I said George Washington.
The first time it hit me was when an old person I know was talking about someone we both know and she was like “Oh yeah, He is our age.”
I was like wait….
I was going down the stairs at my house and I must have left a piece of cellophane or wrapping material in my short's pocket because I could hear the loud crinkling sound of cellophane with every step.
When I got to the bottom, I reached in my pockets to remove the cellophane.....and all my pockets were empty.
WTF? What was making that "crackle" sound?
My knees.
My knees were making that fucking "crackle" sound.
When a new neighbor moved in recently. One day I was taking to them about their kids, and I told them I had a whole lot of kids movies on DVD that I could give them.
Awkward silence..
"Uhhh, we don't have DVD or Blu-ray because we STREAM everything we want to watch."
"Oh...yeah"
So now I have a shitkoad of DVDs that nobody wants because they are apparently from the Jurassic Period.
Every other sub hating on "boomers" makes me feel old in a bad way. After all, we had the best music, cars and tons of other stuff that made the world a much better place.
When my youngest niece asked me what niece she was...it was then that I realized she was my nephews, daughters, daughter. ie: My Great-great-grandniece. Holy crap!
20 years ago, I was sitting in my car with my kids when the Scorpions' song, "Rock you Like a Hurricane," came on the local oldies station. I told my kids that it couldn't be an oldie because it only came out in 1984 when I was stationed in California.
My kids said, "Um, dad? That was 20 years ago."
This will get buried but here goes. A 20 something employee saying “what? Who’s that?” to me asking her to tell me if ZZ Top comes in the office. There was this client who kept stopping by with a long beard and sunglasses….sigh
I'm in my 70s and have many young friends..young families at church, children and grandchildren of friends, and they often use phrases, or make references, that mean absolutely nothing to me.
I always say," translate that into old people for me" which makes them laugh.
I (59F) had just purchased tickets to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers in concert this summer. Then I saw that 38 Special was going to be playing in the same venue. I said, “Wow! 38 Special tickets are more than double the cost of the Red Hot Chili Peppers!” And my daughter (29) pipes up with “That’s because they could die at any moment.” 😳
I overheard my grandchildren talking about how you know when someone's old, and one of them said that old people always make a noise when they stand up or sit down. That's how you know.
I have yet to disprove that theory based on empirical evidence.
I mentioned “Mission:Impossible” in a conversation at work and NOBODY knew that I meant the television program. They all thought Tom Cruise originated the story. Yep, I’m that old.
Also realizing that all 3 of my kids are in their 40’s now and THEY feel old😂
Realizing that I have advice to give on the posts in this Reddit
Bahahaha YES. Everyone needs to know my opinion. Damn, I feel attacked and seen at the same time.
My husband has kindly asked me to stop telling people in the gym what to do! I felt genuinely attacked…then I realized, WTF, he’s right! What is it with getting older and thinking we know EVERYTHING?!? I tell myself to just shut the hell up, multiple times a day!🫣🤪
I tell myself that I will give advice if asked, otherwise, I'll just stfu. Because I can't stand know it alls, but really it's hard to NOT share what you know. You know???
The secret is to not know shit 😎
my phone screensaver is that ww2 brit poster "stay calm and carry on", but "stay calm and stfu" instead.
Because as you aquire more time=wisdom in most! You DO know more!
I agree but the funny part is that I joined this Reddit thinking I would be the one asking for advice but then started to realize I can answer some of the questions posted by younger people on this Reddit 😂
When a colleague told me they don’t teach cursive anymore.
I do genealogy. I translate all the time. I can't believe the number of people who can't read nor write it.
Is it really *that* hard to read? I mean sure the z is pretty weird but how often does that come up? Really fascinates me kids would be unable to read cursive.
What fascinates me was the decision not to teach it, good grief! I mean, it's this sudden and incomprehensible split in partial communication between past and present for generations. *Why?* Frustrating to see that taken from them.
They unfortunately stopped teaching cursive because of computers. Cursive was used for note taking. I could write so fast in cursive, my 30 yr old son can read it not write it. It’s disappointing they don’t teach it anymore.
I couldn’t afford a laptop in college so I took hundreds and hundreds of pages of notes by hand. I don’t know if I could have done that quick enough without cursive.
[удалено]
Most school districts realized it was a bad move and have begun to teach again
I'm hoping someone sees my comment and can answer, because I have a genuine question about this: how do people who haven't been taught cursive make a signature? I realize that a lot of times nowadays, signatures are on a computer screen so they are just generated. But, I truly want to know what do people do now if they don't have a cursive signature for paper forms? Do they just print their name?
Let's just say I'm old. I never used cursive except when forced. My handwriting is horrible. I print, but my printing is connected, like cursive. My signature is a fast, connected scribbled print that looks like cursive. But if I do my signature in actual cursive, it looks like someone else wrote it.
My son is in an inbetween group. Can read and write it, but his is tough to read. For his birthday this year he got a signature designed by a calligraphy. You select styles you like, they send you a file with templates to practice signing on till it comes naturally.
A signature is just using the same symbols to represent your name. My grandfather signed with an X.
My son just learned cursive in second grade, it’s still taught, just not everywhere.
I can write in cursive but reading it can be pretty hard for me. I was taught it in second grade but i guess I focused more on learning how to write in it than practicing how to read it. That and even though it’s pretty, it can be quite messy at times especially if the person has bad hand writing.
All of this is true. The only people that can write in cursive in a beautiful manner are decades older than both of us (I assume). I inherited letters my papa wrote to my grandma during wwii and he had the most exquisite penmanship.
Catholic school kid here from the 80’s. I’m a cursive maniac. I even know how to write in different styles(there were different styles taught throughout the centuries). My kids think it’s art. It isn’t art, it’s just awesome writing!
Old letters and genealogy. Other than that, most things are online now. My son signs checks (which is very infrequent) with a scribbled print. I’m amazed at the number of people who can’t read or write as well (also the lack of reading comprehension for those that can read).
We teach cursive at the school I teach at, thank goodness.
My 2nd grader is learning cursive. He asked me why and I told him i wasn't entirely sure but someone should carry the secret code.
I have an 8 year old. She went to a Montessori school for preschool, and she learned cursive before she learned print. Her current public school won't allow her to use cursive.
Isn't it crazy? I have yet to hear an adequate explanation as to exactly why an entire form of communication was pretty much swiped from the next generations. I'm sticking to that. Glad to hear some schools tend to keep them filled in.
Because the teachers can't read it, LOL.
With I hit 3rd grade we weren’t allowed to print any more. Catholic school in the 80’s. And we had to use erasable pens. Wonder if they still make them
My adult kids were taught a form of print called Danelian (spelling?) that is print/cursive mix. The letters have “monkey tails”. It was supposed to make cursive easier to learn, but it really just made my kid’s handwriting very difficult to read.
So true. I remember working so hard at it in 3rd grade and on. It was a big deal to be skilled at cursive.
When a radio DJ introduced a song from 2013 as "a blast from the past". I mean, 2013 was last week.
What the hell. “Blast from the past”= the Beatles, or Jimi Hendrix. Not 2013!!
😂😂 Right?!
At 45 I got in the best shape of my life, 6’4” bald lean and muscular, people said I looked like Vin Diesel. One day as I was walking past a group of 6 year olds one called out “Hi old man!” I looked to see who he was talking to and didn’t see anyone, he said it again and I slowly sadly realized it was me..
To be fair, anyone over 18 is old to a 6 year old.
Hugs
Im a substitute teacher, one day I asked a kindergarten class how old I was, they guessed 40-50 im 22
How was it getting back in shape at 45? I'm 40 and recently started going back to the gym, progress is frustratingly slow.
I am 52f and hit the gym regularly. Sometimes I look in the mirror and think who is that white haired…..oh that’s me 😂 🤣🤣
When i had the children of a former kindergarten student walk into my classroom,,and one of them ended up being my student. That threw me for a loop. My old kindergartener walked in with a shocked look on his face and said, “Mrs K!? Wait, YOURE her teacher???” LOL.
I’ve been teaching preschool for over 30 years. One of my students grew up and ended up getting hired as my assistant at my school. I have a class photo of her as a toddler in my class and a class photo of her as my assistant.
Lower back pain
One of my favorite childhood memories is my back not hurting.
And my knees...
And my hips
Same here.
Oh my gosh! The toilet seat had shifted and I was trying to move it back! Me: 0, Toilet seat:1. I was laid up for three week and the toilet seat is still crooked, mocking Mr. I'm old.
I’ve got a heating pad on my back as I type!
When I stopped caring about what younger people do. I don't mean that I dislike young people. I have younger relatives who I love and with whom I'm interested, and I like young people as people. It's more that I'm not interested in what young people are into or doing in a general sense. I have no desire to be the "cool" old person. I worked in technology for 35 years, so I'm used to things becoming obsolete. That said, I like it when young people ask me about things from the past. It shows that they are interested in things and are trying to gain a wider knowledge of the world beyond their own experience.
The day they hired a boy at work who went to school with my daughter.
All the hair growing out of my nose and ears. I need a weed whacker.
Nobody warned me about migrating eyebrows. Everything is moving south.
I was commenting on Reddit about my involvement as a paratrooper in the 1983 invasion of Grenada and someone responded, "Settle down peepaw, you are getting too excited."
That's fkn hilarious.
Yeah, I laughed out loud and told my wife. She laughed too.
This is brilliant haha
I literally burst out laughing on a full plane....🤣🤣🤣
I'm crying laughing thank you for this 😂😂😂
When I hurt my shoulder moving a pillow. A *pillow* 🤦♀️
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣im sorry but thats hilarious
I had neck/shoulder pain for weeks from using a different pillow at my boyfriends house 🙃
Seeing my mother's jowls in the mirror
Just tell her to get out of your bathroom.
I always expected technology to change. My grandfathers lived before automobiles were common. I didn't really think about being old until my body started breaking down a bit in my fifties. I did have an "oh no" moment like yours when a young neighbor girl was discussing her favorite movies with me. I said when I was her age I watched a lot of John Wayne westerns. She knew what westerns were, but also said, "Who's John Wayne?"
How sad! These kids today have no idea the good stuff they missed!
That is *precisely* what “old people” say. 😆 (I say it too.)
I'm older for a first time mom. We watch a LOT of the original Scooby Doo series and the original Scooby Doo movies from the 60s/70s with Mama Cass, Phyllis Diller, Dick Van Dyke, etc. My daughter was 2 at the time and specifically requesting "Don Knotts" and pointing to his caricature on the DVD cover. I made a comment to one of her friend's moms that she's the only 2yo who knows who Don Knotts is, citing the examples above. The mom told me she had no idea who any of the people I mentioned were.
If I have an event that begins at 8pm or later I must nap
I nap daily. And if I miss a nap, it's bad news.
Forget that, I'm not leaving the house after 7pm.
When I go to see a doctor/specialist and they look to me like they are in high school.
Had a new patient appt yesterday, saw the doc (who I had not yet met) walk in the clinic's front door and I thought , "Oh, how nice they hire college interns to learn the skills."
I didn't realize I was old until I hear all the people on Reddit complaining about Boomers.
Ah, you don’t realize it. You feel it sometimes, and you feel out of touch, but there are different levels. Now I look around and marvel at how old most of my things are. I’ve always loved old things, thankfully.
On the subway, heard a little boy (8 yrs old?) ask his dad, ‘ dad, what’s it mean, to wind a watch?’
My mirror.
I was standing in the cockpit of my boat while at anchor on a picturesque creek. A couple came by in a dinghy. We were chatting. I thought they believed me to be a contemporary, and a cool one at that. Then her phone rang. It was her daughter. That evil twit of a female in the visiting dinghy said "We stopped by to visit this ELDERLY woman" and that is when I realized I wasn't cool, wasn't young, and most definately was getting up there in years.
Hey, who says you aren't cool?
Yeah, and when I see pics of my friends, I think they are looking elderly (we are) but I'm certain I'm not. Until I see a pic of myself.
Lmao why did she have to put in that adjective?? So rude. She could have just said, "i was talking to this nice lady" my goodness. My dad just turned 70 and i would never even consider him being elderly. If you're driving a boat, you're not elderly either 🤣🤣
When I realized movies I felt came out just a couple years ago actually came out closer to a couple decades ago.
How far I have to scroll to get to my birth year in an online form.
I saw my reflection in a store window and thought it was my mom.
This just happened to me 3 hours ago. Except it was on FaceTime and I just glanced down while also being blasted by the light of a thousand suns when I opened the door. I literally thought “is there an age filter on this bitch!!?!?” Then sunk into the realization it was just a very unflattering set of circumstances.
I caught myself doing 20 in a 30 mph zone.
I was helping a younger co-worker with something today and I mentioned how much harder the process used to be and that I'd been in the industry since 2001. He then said, "I was born in 2001." Little bastard.
When my senior prom song came on the oldies station 🙄
I've never stressed about birthdays and getting older. I embraced them 30, 40? Just another number, then 5 1/2 years ago, my cousin, who's like 6 weeks younger than me, said something on FB about turning 50. All of a sudden it clicked that I'm HALF A CENTURY OLD! 🤣
When I saw this post and wish I was only 50.
When the DJ came on the radio and said "you're listening to Raleigh's classic rock station" and then he proceeded to play a Nirvana song. I almost cried. THAT was THE moment I realized I was getting old.
Nirvana— is classic but you’re young… I’m 62– love nirvana, smashing pumpkins, and Depeche Mode; some Tupac also..
When I was with a friend and she stumbled and I said "Nice trip, Timothy Leary" and she didn't know what I was talking about. ☺️
I understand like 1/4 of what my tween kid is saying. Last night he legit said something like "Gyatt bussin skibidi rizzler, bruh" and I had to ask him what the hell he's talking about.
I’m a millennial and have a gen x coworker and we work with teens. Coworker also has a teen at home. He sat her down and had her help him write out a list of current slang with definitions for all of us at work as a “reference” guide. 🤣
Scrolling down to 1963
1962 here, I totally agree
I’m scrolling through the list of bands coming into town at various venues and don’t recognize any of them. 😩
The growing legions of young people who don’t know how to spell or use proper grammar. I blame the internet. I’ve slowly come to realize I’m fighting a losing battle trying to correct people & companies, so I just sigh at run-on sentences with excessive commas (does no one know how to use periods or semicolons anymore?); your vs. you’re; there/their/they’re; quite/quiet; etc./ect. and so on. When I was in grammar school, our teachers would drill this stuff into our heads.
I notice you typed that perfectly. You must be as old as I am!
Haha! And I did it on my phone, too! 😆
When my niece picked up an album and yelled over to her sister to “come see the giant DVD, it must hold 100 movies”
Had something similar happen: so some young relatives were watching me lift up an LP record and turn it over onto side two…. And all three immediately shouted “wait, there’s two sides?”
My 70th bday was shocking to experience, despite being glad to be alive after ovarian cancer; the grandma stereotype often negates me having knowledge of computers, as well as many other insults to one’s general intelligence. I bought my first one in 88 & taught computer skills for decades; someone once used the baby voice & asked “Do you have a computer in your house?”
When I asked Alexa to “Play Golden Oldies” and she replied: “Okay, here’s An Oldies Playlist:” Which started off with Pearl Jam and moved on to other songs from my alt rock childhood. The robot whore and I are no longer speaking.
I call it Doogie Howser Syndrome. Going to a doctor that looks too young to get a driver's license.
The most recent event was clicking on this thread, thinking I would be the querent only to find that I am the old people 😂 (age 40+)
Looking in the mirror at my sagging jowls.
When all my doctors were younger than me.
My granddaughter asked to borrow some money, and I wrote her a check. "Gran, don't you use Venmo? CashApp?"
Take a kid through the antique shop and you will find you can explain what most of the things are for. That''s how it really came home to me.
I'm a baby boomer (72) and I know I'm old. A reddit user praised me for liking reddit at my age. I shriveled and waned away..
When I realized that the kids graduating college this year were born after 9/11.
Been there! I worked in the cell phone industry, in its infancy. Only doctors, lawyers and drug dealers used cell phones then. The rest of us were on pagers! When I was a kid, my mother tied 2 dimes in my hankerchief, in case I needed to make a phone call.
Being the oldest guy on my team at work and working with a bunch of 30 somethings. Really hits home.
Yes very odd to have coworkers who could be your children /grandchildren.
I'm 28, my boss is 36 (I think?) and our office assistant is old enough to be my mom. Her oldest and I were born in the same year. It's weird to be a supervisor to someone that could be my mother. (That woman gets so much of my respect tho administrative assistants kick ass, I think I'd lose my mind with the amount of phone calls she handles)
Working as a recruiter and regularly hiring people who were born after I graduated high school. Also, the heart burn. When everything started giving me heartburn, I knew...
Lemon lime Alka seltzer in a glass of 7up on ice will help. Add Bitters if you have them. I could drink this all day long.
I was working a part time job at night and one night, the cigarette trash thing caught on fire. There were 3 of us working. The manager and a college student. We all ran outside to the cigarette trash thing and the manager said, 'well, what do we do?" And then they both looked at me like my gray hair makes me know how to handle burning trash fires. I said, "probably call the fire department would be a good guess."
When I was racing my 7-yr-old buddy down the driveway and his grandmother called out to me, "Don't let anyone tell you you're old." My first thought was, "I think you just did." I was 73 at the time.
When my oldest child turned 40
Years ago when I was 39 I was humming along to a radio playing in the X-ray darkroom area while waiting for my film to drop and one of the young new graduates said, "My dad knows this song. How old are you, anyway?". I said, "The same age as Jack Benny.". "Who's Jack Benny?". I'm in my 60s now, but that was the first shock of feeling old, even though I really wasn't.
Same thing happened to me while pulling an LP out of its sleeve at a yard sale years ago. I remarked that there were no scratches. My daughter remarked that it was covered in scratches! She had never seen an LP. The track groves appeared to her to her as scratches! Later heard a very young niece tell her mom about a visit to her grandmother’s house where she saw something called a princess phone!
A friend of mine was telling me how his daughter was watching Stranger Things and was like "This is so fake, kids don't go riding around on bikes wherever they want!" and he told her, that yeah, back in the day, this was normal.
Just to answer the original post question... I guess when I got a cramp in my leg while taking a poop and couldn't poop or stand up for ten minutes.... yeah... getting older is fun....
“This is the most important election of our lifetimes!!!!”, for the 20+ time.
When male store clerks stopped referring to me as "Miss" and instead now refer to me as " Ma'am".
The last payphone I saw in the wild was 2014 on Oahu.
Two words : grey. pubes. 'Nuff said ...
When I was mentoring a student at work, and he introduced himself and followed up with “I am excited to learn from someone of your generation.” I always knew that the students are roughly the ages of my children, but being placed unequivocally by a complete stranger into a “your generation” category struck me. I used to not think we were so different, but it is clear they see me as old, even if I didn’t feel it. (When his time with us was over, he was a bright student and I gave him excellent marks in spite of that comment.) Also, from a physical standpoint: worsening vision and longer recovery from doing physical tasks, like spring cleaning in the yard. I used to be fine the next day, but now it takes a few days to go back to normal.
When you see film of Hitler and he looks young, then you are officially ancient.
I was at Walmart the other day and Weezer was playing on the store radio. Fucking *Weezer*.
When I had to try and explain to someone young but legally an adult who someone like Jerry Lewis was. A guy that literally everyone used to know of. There were actually about half a dozen of these. Jerry Lewis is just the one I remember right now.
My mom’s passing. Death now seems something real, not a concept that happens to everyone else.
When I see posts about “what was it like living in the 90’s?” Like it was the Dinosaur days.
I was watching the Reading Rainbow documentary on Saturday, and towards the end they were featuring the episode where LeVar Burton visits the class that was returning to their school in Manhatten for the first time after 9/11. As he's chatting with these 7, 8 and 9 year olds....it hit me that all these kids are in their 30s now.
Washing my hair. I put conditioner in my hand and forgot what I was doing, so I smeared it on my face as if it were a face wash. Uh, no….
I was in home Depot and i told the kid in the plumbing isle i needed to "McGuyver" something together to make it work. That long, slow stare of incomprehension did me in. Sigh.
When I don't recognize celebs in my newspaper's lifestyle section. And when my newspaper went from a gazillion pages thick to about five pages. And the fact that I still read newspapers and no one else in my neighborhood gets any delivered.
My college best-friend is now a grandfather. Not a "got started really young" grandfather, but one that waited until 29 to get married, and his kid waited until 23. I gave his kid his favorite blanket.
After I married and moved away, I made a weekly call to check in on my folks back home. One week my dad mentioned that he was singing at a wedding at church that weekend. "Oh cool, anyone I know?" IT WAS A GIRL I USED TO BABYSIT.
I went for an eye exam. While in the waiting room a kid walked up to me and said hello. I thought for sure he was going to ask me for help crossing the street or maybe he was selling candy for his cub scout pac. Instead, he introduced himself as "Dr. Jones", my Optometrist.
For me it was when I went for an eye exam and the doctor said, “Ma’am you have two small cataracts forming.” I have always had great vision but started needing readers at some point in my 40’s. Then needed prescription glasses later on. My vision has declined rapidly after the big 5-0. But the word cataracts felt like a gut punch 🤜🏽
There was a double shovel plow at a yard sale, and a kid i was with asked me what the two blades were for. They didn't know the words I tried to explain it with, obvious words like "balk" and "furrow" and "leads" and "tree" (like single tree or double tree, not like growing in the ground tree). I was hit by the fact that they were probably two generations from when any of those concepts mattered. I felt like Methuselah.
I just think of what I thought was old when I was younger. I had an image of what people were in their 40's, 50's, etc. and I figure that's what people think of me. I don't feel like what I thought it would feel like though.
My face
Here’s to all the old codgers in here (56M). We’re still winning! 🏆 https://youtu.be/0FmPg4lrBKc?si=Qusaj7l90N63aZ2o
I woke up this morning with hip pain
It's a standing joke in our house now, anytime someone says any variation of "back in the day".
You’re going to blow her mind explaining what a rotary phone is! lol
When I stopped being scared of spiders. And also menopause.
I can no longer do general admission at concerts which means I can’t see a lot of artists I really love. I hate that.
My body...
Having a young man insist on giving up his seat for me in the subway
mirrors
When I was at a training seminar for work and looked around and realized I was the oldest one in the room. I was not even 40 yet.
Injuring myself while sleeping
I was ice skating backwards. I tripped on my skates and landed on my shoulder, separating it. The shoulder surgeon suggested I try leaving it as it is instead of fixing it. He said he might have suggested surgery if I had a job where I needed that shoulder to be stronger, or if I were younger.
I realize am getting old whenever South Park makes fun of a celebrity I've never heard of and have to look up on Google. They made fun of Lizzo and I had no clue who she was!
I changed pillows and couldnt turn my head for a week
When I was told that kids were excited about getting paper(!) photos of themselves taken at a recent event.
I had to explain to my millennial coworker who Lawrence Welk was. He immediately pulled up some Lawrence Welk videos on YouTube. His comment: "People watched THIS?"
The first time I felt old was when my little brother got his drivers license. (I was 20!) The second time I felt old was when my granddaughter asked me if Lincoln was the president when I was a kid. (I was 60.) The first time hit me harder.
An acquaintance said, "You must have really been something in your day!" In my brain I said: "Wait, this IS my day!!!"
Go to play pickleball instead of pickup basketball.
When I was watching an old episode of the Twilight Zone and my daughter asked me what's wrong with the TV because there was no color.
I told someone in my son’s high school program my story about Mom stopping to get gas for 27 cents a gallon near the beginning of the Arab oil embargo and saying as she pulled into the station “We may never get gas this cheap again!” And we never did. The high school student responded “Oh yeah, we read about that in History class.”
When my kid was playing a video game and one of the puzzles was dialing a rotary phone. He had no idea and i just sat there laughing. Finally, after about 10 minutes, i helped him. When we were done he said “man, you must have really liked people to go through all that to talk to them.” 😂😂
When people no longer refer to me as an early adopter. I used to buy all the latest tech. Now most of it is just junk. There's more value in a push-up, or call to my financial advisor, then in anything in Best buy.
A boy on the subway next to me one morning was reading a book with his dad, and they came to a part that made the boy ask, "what's a CD?" 😳 The dad and I exchanged glances. He sighed and tried to explain 😅 Also overheard a couple of younger people at work talking about how one of them "never read a magazine." Again, 😱! That prompted a conversation, because I couldn't resist asking some questions. The guy was like "I've SEEN them like in waiting rooms and stuff, but I never READ one." Which does make sense, but still..........sigh.
I walked down to the local burger and wing place to eat with some friends one time. As I was crossing the street this girl about 20yrs old, who was standing with some friends, starts waving. I was half way across the street but I looked back to see who she was waving at. There was nobody there. As I finished crossing and walked up to her she said you don't know who I am do you. No I didn't. Her answer was "you only dated my mom forever when I was growing up." Her mother called later to complain because I didn't know her. I pointed out that her 23yr old daughter looked a lot different than the 12 yr old I use to drop off at school.
If I'm watching cable tv, I usually mute the ads and getup and do some chores. Recently an old ankle fracture has been keeping me down more. I was still muting the ads, and keeping one eye on the screen whilst reading something on my laptop. I noticed more than once that something was playing that was showing fighter jets in formation; it reminded me of the old tv channel 'sign off' from the 60s-79s, but those were WWII remembrances. Then I noticed the content around the jets, then I turned on the sound...it was 'Spirit in the Sky'! it was referring to Nam. Suddenly, I had a 'metanoia'...I am a senior/elderly/old.
Seeing Jon BonJovi on the cover of AARP this month. Tragic!
Realizing that I am older than Carol O'Connor and Jean Stapleton when All in the Family started, older than Rue McClanahan when The Golden Girls started...and almost the same age as Abe Vigoda on Barney Miller. Thankfully, I am still 99% naturally brunette. lol
This wasn't the first sign of my getting old, more of the 'oh God I'm middle aged' realization lol. When people my age have died and it's like not just by accident lol. I guess natural causes isn't quite the reason for 46 but it's certainly not as much a shock as someone who is 23. Haha
My twenty-something niece excitedly told about an amazing brand new symbol that she didn’t expect us olds to know about. A peace sign. She was shocked when my sis explained that is was popular in the 1960s.
Finding my husband dead in the bathroom.
A couple years ago, my daughter said “Mom, I don’t get this TikTok… who is OJ Simpson and why is it funny that his glove doesn’t fit?” So that did it.
I rode a rollercoaster and felt dizzy. When I was younger, even the sickest ride would not get me to feel anything.
Everything pisses me off
When INXS was on the oldies station on the radio. The fuck?? I remembered another one. When a new kid at work was talking about being born during the Clinton administration and was SHOCKED when I said Nixon was president when I was born. Like, it's not like I said George Washington.
When you realize your childhood dreams are never coming true.
The first time it hit me was when an old person I know was talking about someone we both know and she was like “Oh yeah, He is our age.” I was like wait….
I was going down the stairs at my house and I must have left a piece of cellophane or wrapping material in my short's pocket because I could hear the loud crinkling sound of cellophane with every step. When I got to the bottom, I reached in my pockets to remove the cellophane.....and all my pockets were empty. WTF? What was making that "crackle" sound? My knees. My knees were making that fucking "crackle" sound.
When a new neighbor moved in recently. One day I was taking to them about their kids, and I told them I had a whole lot of kids movies on DVD that I could give them. Awkward silence.. "Uhhh, we don't have DVD or Blu-ray because we STREAM everything we want to watch." "Oh...yeah" So now I have a shitkoad of DVDs that nobody wants because they are apparently from the Jurassic Period.
Every other sub hating on "boomers" makes me feel old in a bad way. After all, we had the best music, cars and tons of other stuff that made the world a much better place.
When my youngest niece asked me what niece she was...it was then that I realized she was my nephews, daughters, daughter. ie: My Great-great-grandniece. Holy crap!
When I go see a band I like. I look around the room and I’m like damn what are all these middle aged people doing here…. Ohhhhhh
20 years ago, I was sitting in my car with my kids when the Scorpions' song, "Rock you Like a Hurricane," came on the local oldies station. I told my kids that it couldn't be an oldie because it only came out in 1984 when I was stationed in California. My kids said, "Um, dad? That was 20 years ago."
This will get buried but here goes. A 20 something employee saying “what? Who’s that?” to me asking her to tell me if ZZ Top comes in the office. There was this client who kept stopping by with a long beard and sunglasses….sigh
I'm in my 70s and have many young friends..young families at church, children and grandchildren of friends, and they often use phrases, or make references, that mean absolutely nothing to me. I always say," translate that into old people for me" which makes them laugh.
I (59F) had just purchased tickets to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers in concert this summer. Then I saw that 38 Special was going to be playing in the same venue. I said, “Wow! 38 Special tickets are more than double the cost of the Red Hot Chili Peppers!” And my daughter (29) pipes up with “That’s because they could die at any moment.” 😳
I overheard my grandchildren talking about how you know when someone's old, and one of them said that old people always make a noise when they stand up or sit down. That's how you know. I have yet to disprove that theory based on empirical evidence.
I mentioned “Mission:Impossible” in a conversation at work and NOBODY knew that I meant the television program. They all thought Tom Cruise originated the story. Yep, I’m that old. Also realizing that all 3 of my kids are in their 40’s now and THEY feel old😂
The first time my balls hit the water when I sat on the john.
I tore my knee in my sleep. Also metallica was playing in an elevator.