...you go the the optician and come home with a pair of varifocals!

..you talk about music from the eighties with your sister, and your youngest niece (aged 9) says "Wow! That was YEARS ago!!"

...you celebrate your 101st birthday

Can I ask something?

Recently, I've found that if I am placed within a group of people, with ages ranging from my own age (16) to about 60ish, I am automatically drawn towards the older people in the group, those who are over 40. (I'm not saying that people who are over 40 are old, but that they are older than me ). They're just much more respectful, open-minded and welcoming than my generation, but does this make me 'odd'?

(Incidentally, I've found it to be similar on this forum. Whilst I am more than happy to, and like to, talk to people my own age, often I find myself communicating more with those of you who are a generation above mine.)

So, in my case, you know you're getting old when you can relate to what 'older' people are saying, more than you can relate to what your own age group are talking about.

No, it doesn't make you odd! It just means that you are more mature than most people of your age.

I don't think you are odd, but realistic. I think young people seem to be more concerned with their image and how they are fitting in with those of their peers they want to seem to be like than how they actually feel comfortable to be in themselves. I'm 60 and remember I also felt more comforatble with older people in my teens - they didn't seem to be judging me all the time.
So if I'm odd too, join the oddball gang

Can I join - I've always felt like that too (glad I'm not the only one!)

That's exactly how I find it. When I'm with certain peers, it's all about competing, looking good, and being 'cool' (I still don't really know what fits into this category! I know that having a conversation about Mozart isn't deemed 'cool' though )
If 'odd' is the word to use, then yep, I'm in! Thanks for your replies, they were very reasuring, and sorry for going Phil.

No apology needed.

Just wish my eyes were as good as my ears. My left eye has stopped focusing for some darn reason. There's two of everything at the moment.

That sounds really horrible - should your new glasses help?

Nope.

I need to go to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford to have an operation performed on my eye. That should make me giggle!

Oh.

I remember when my Nan had two eye ops a couple of years ago, it was quite unpleasant, although I don't think it was for the same reasons (she has glaucoma, it was possibly related to that). Nevertheless, she was 76 and came out smiling, and has much improved vision now.

I think that telling a new pupil that you used to teach their parent is a sure sign! Also when it is not just the policemen who look young enough to be at school, but some of the MPs too. When you find that the toys of your youth are now EBay collectables, and when your old clothes are back in fashion and the youngsters in the family want to wear them.

very pertinent comments Petrat

Nice to read that Miss Ross can get on with the next generation up so nicely. That says a lot about you, Miss Ross.

Me too, please!

Ever since I can remember (around 2 1/2 to 3) I hated other children and only ever felt happy in the company of adults (the older the better) as I could have nice conversations with them and they talked about sensible things!

Other children just scared me - they were like strange foreign creatures that I didn't understand. I didn't have a friend until I was 9 (and we're still friends ).

Now - I have friends of all ages, from four to ninety-four - and I just see everyone as a person in their own right and rarely think consciously about their age.

I'm a lot better with adults too. I have a lot of friends who are a generation above mine, and they think of me as a friend just as much as they'd think of someone the same age as them as a friend. They invite me over to their houses and I often have no intentional contact with their children!! Often I have more in common with adults than I do with a lot of people my own age. There are still a lot of wonderful people my age, of course!

Glad someone has brought this up!

So it's definitely not only me then? That's reassuring. I'm ok with younger kids, the ones who haven't yet learned how to be disrespectful, rude, ill-mannered and judgemental. I've only met a few of these though, but they are a delight to be around . And yes, I should add that I also know some lovely people my own age, but generally speaking, I prefer 'older' people.

According to my mother, she knew she was getting old when she realised I was old enough to get married, and when my brother came home and said he had a girlfriend.

Exactly. That's what I tell myself!

I do feel I can talk to people other than my generation, not really better, but as well as the people in my own generation. In my case, I think alot of this comes from being an only child and having alot of contact with adults without any other children from an early age and being expected to sit with them and follow conversation. I'm a member of a folk camping group and most of the members are retired. I find that they have loads of interesting things to say much more than my generation and, particularly in the tradition of folk, it's great to hear their experiences and to hear their wisdom. Another of the only three youth members of the group commented once that he "couldn't" talk to "old people". They are just the same as us, but they have experience and wisdom and manners!!
There are many sayings about how we should take heed of history, lest we repeat it again. On a small scale I think this is true in this situation. The older generation have knowledge and experience that they are mostly willing to share and infact take joy in doing this. We should be listening to them and learning from them, to benifit our own lives if nothing else.

[/rant]

The generation gap is not what it used to be. When I was younger (being in my 40's now) the older generation had to be respected purely because they were older. I don't think that's so much the case any more. Yes, older people have more experience of life, but they're not necessarily wiser! Certain things were a mystery to the younger generation in the past, but with life being such an open book now, I reckon that there are older people out there who wish they had been allowed to enjoy the things that younger people can now enjoy, without the hang-ups or the prejudice.

I knew I was old the first time I said "I remember 20 years ago when...."

Ah, yes, Lottie's point says it perfectly, I think .

One of the nice things about getting older though, is being able to have friends right across the age ranges - my oldest friends are in their eighties, I have good friends also who are contemporaries, and others who are very much younger than I am, in their twenties; thanks to having kids myself, I've also got very much better at talking to children - was lousy at this when I was a kid.

The downside of being older now is that if you dare to play in a competition festival after a few years of music lessons, and find yourself up in competition with a bunch of teenagers, everybody expects that you ought to be able to play better than they do. Since when does grey hair bestow such ability ?

anyone remember the white £5 note?




dare you say 'yes'?

I think my age-group can be defined as the 'blue smartie' generation. I remember the introduction of blue smarties as a new thing, in 1989, at around an age when I would be eating smarties. People more than a few years younger than that cannot remember blue smarties being new; people more than a few years older weren't of a smartie-eating age when they were introduced. And of course now, blue smarties have been withdrawn .

I too was more fond of adult company than that of my peers, they were less intent on taking the mickey and more interested in constructive conversation....

You know your old when, as Phil says you come back from the opticians with varifocals. You join the Mothers Union and wax lyrically about having got your grade 8 20 years ago. You require hair dye to cover up the salt-and pepper in your previously brunette hair.

I might not have hit 40 yet, but compared with a 20 year old I'm not young anymore.

I have a friend who is in her nineties, and she isn't old the things she gets on with and the way she thinks she is one of the youngest people I know!!

Hee hee I think I will remain as one of the young people too.
I like jokes too much

I knew I was getting old when I started drinking sherry and reading gardening columns.

I'm seventeen, but I felt old today. I was watching the Hunchback of Notre Dame, and I said "Oh I've always loved this film, it's one of the more recent ones isn't it?"

My eleven year old sister replied: "It's absolutely ancient! It's more than ten years old! I wasn't even alive when this came out!"

Oh dear...*scrambles to hide empty sherry glasses and Gardener's World Magazines*

if it's good sherry then you're not old, you simply have good taste

I remember my father showing me a white note but I couldn't say if it was for five pounds ot ten or any other denomination. I seem to remember it was rather large and I think my father thought it was a small fortune! I must have been very small at the time!

Did I hear someone mention sherry???

You know you're getting old when your children ask you what was that thing called that came before CDs!

Or if they even think VCDs are old.

I am not yet"old". BUT, when I get there I am determined to do it disgracefully. Maybe I'll turn into Great MAy Well, maybe not quite that disgraceful then. Red shoes and a purple hat though
My youngest, age 6, asks me about the olden days, when we used wash boards and mangles
Bev

That might be your mom's time then?

do you play one of those? this is a musical forum

I noticed I was getting old today when I was in a National Trust shop checking up to the light to see which mugs were made of proper china.

What's old about checking real china? I do that - it's way nicer to drink from!

see? once again getting older is to do with developing good taste!!

When your little sister looking at her career options...

wait till it's not sister but children

I can't remember blue smarties being new But then I was only born in 1989 :roll eyes:

I definitely prefer older company too

Well, we used a mangle and a dolly washer when I was young. Wash day was monday and it was a long job. We had a twin tub when I was about ten years old and it made a huge difference. We didn't have a fridge until about then either.We used a pantry with a cold slab and used to bottle fruit and veg to preserve them.

I have a slight memory of asking my Dad about the olden days, because when he was in primary school they used to write on slate. I was only about 4/5 at the time, and I thought that slate was only used in the stone age!

I'm going to start a new thread about The Olden Days


I know I'm getting old when.... nah, I'm never going to get old

My very first year of school we used chalk on slates.... I'm not kidding!!! And I'm not even 40 yet!!!

One side was blank and the other had the letters of the alphabet painted on them so we could trace them with chalk. We had tiny little felt blocks to rub the chalk off with just like the bigger ones for the blackboard. Boys and girls had separate playgrounds too.

I also remember my Dad showing me old shillings and pence in a box... anybody remember what year it was that money changed to decimal?

It was 1971 or 1972 I think. I can remember going to the sweet shop to get some "new" money in change.
I don't play the wash board
We had a twin tub when I was about 3, and a fridge when I was 6. Colour TV and telephone after I had left home at 18.
Bev.