You know you’re getting older when……

[duncanp]

As soon as you utter the phrase "...when I was your age...", it marks you out as an old fogey and coffin dodger who has turned into your parents or grandparents.

 

[philjo]

Using a cassette tape to load (slowly) the program on the BBC computer at school. I think one computer was shared between 4 classes so our class had it 1 week per month.

 

[Typhoon]

When you realise you’ve probably only got another twenty years or so to finish off your extensive family history research and present it as an illustrated document for your children and grandchildren. Only then can you get rid of the large number of files and scraps of paper you have amassed over the last few decades.

Similarly, when you show family members photos and they assume the girl is my sister - only to be told it is our mother (the photos were pre-war black and white).

Also: When your children start making less than subtle hints about things around the house that they would like you to leave for them after your demise.

Worse still when you are putting things by because you think it would be nice for them to have but they ask why you haven't skipped them.

 

[Killingworth]

It's when a 12 year old train spotter, armed with video camera for his own YouTube channel, remarks that some people have very poor manners nowadays. Presumably an expression picked up from parents or grandparents.

 

[Paul Jones 88]

When you can remember London before it became a crime ridden dump controlled by cartoon gangs.

 

[2192]

In the early days of COVID I was horrified to be ushered past the queue at the supermarket 15 minutes before the end of the special hour for the elderly and vulnerable - I was only 52 at the time!

I was equally horrified when I was 23 and
1. I was offered a child's ticket by the bus conductor (I was wearing my school mac) ... and a few days later ...
2. I was invited to join the bowls club.

At age about 60 I was extremely grateful to be offered a seat on a bus by a teenager. I had an exhausting working day involving a lot of walking and standing.

Now I'm 80 and one's social life seems to revolve around the crematorium buffet...

 

[Busaholic]

Now I'm 80 and one's social life seems to revolve around the crematorium buffet...

Beats being part of the main course!

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

When you go to have your leg dressings changed at the NHS clinic and at the end of the treatment, the nurse says "Shall I tie your shoelaces for you to save you having to bend over".

Happens to me regularly.

 

[Gloster]

I wish someone would tie my shoelaces: if they come undone in town, I just have to walk around like that unless there is a wall at just the right height. The alternatives are kneeling down and being unable to get up again without help, bending over and collapsing, and trying to lift my leg onto something of the wrong height and toppling over sideways.

 

[2192]

I wish someone would tie my shoelaces: if they come undone in town, I just have to walk around like that unless there is a wall at just the right height. The alternatives are kneeling down and being unable to get up again without help, bending over and collapsing, and trying to lift my leg onto something of the wrong height and toppling over sideways.

When you put the shoes on at home, try double knotting them. Modern laces seem so slippery. (But it's more work getting the shoes off at the end of the day.) Or swop the laces for a same length pair from shoes that wore out long ago.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Modern laces seem so slippery.

I always buy my laces from Timpsons, who offer a choice between round and flat laces.

 

[birchesgreen]

Converse laces are pretty good. Sketchers are a bit more slippery.

 

[duncanp]

I wish someone would tie my shoelaces: if they come undone in town, I just have to walk around like that unless there is a wall at just the right height. The alternatives are kneeling down and being unable to get up again without help, bending over and collapsing, and trying to lift my leg onto something of the wrong height and toppling over sideways.

I always buy slip on shoes, or ones with a velcro fastening, to avoid this problem.

Which, I guess, is another sign that you are getting older.

An additional sign of getting older is when you go into a coffee shop, cafe or pub, and decide where to sit based on which table has the most comfortable chairs. For me, stools that don't provide any back support are completely verboten.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

For me the thing with footwear is more a case of "can I still pull off that look?"

Not as bad as some of the above... who'd have thought a thread called "You know you're getting older when..." would actually help me feel younger!

 

[Gloster]

You see someone’s age at death in their obituary and think, “S/he was younger than me.” It used to be, ”That’s not too bad an age to reach”.

 

[Baxenden Bank]

You see someone’s age at death in their obituary and think, “S/he was younger than me.” It used to be, ”That’s not too bad an age to reach”.

In a similar vein, don't start reading memorial plaques on benches. Especially if those benches, at regular intervals, are a great help nowadays!

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

When you find yourself "nodding off" for hours on end during the day......or is that just me..

In my very much younger days, the first thing that my great aunts would turn to in the evening newspaper was the obituary column.

 

[Baxenden Bank]

When you find yourself "nodding off" for hours on end during the day......or is that just me..

No, my mother does it, then complains about how she can't sleep at night.

 

[Calthrop]

In my very much younger days, the first thing that my great aunts would turn to in the evening newspaper was the obituary column.

I once had a work colleague -- a great (and repetitive) exponent of corny humour -- who had a favourite anecdote about the chap who, very first thing every day, would look at the obituaries in the morning paper: if he didn't find himself featuring there, he would get up and commence getting on with his day.

 

[Dai Corner]

I once had a work colleague -- a great (and repetitive) exponent of corny humour -- who had a favourite anecdote about the chap who, very first thing every day, would look at the obituaries in the morning paper: if he didn't find himself featuring there, he would get up and commence getting on with his day.

You know you're getting old when ..... you can recall a Two Ronnies sketch where they count up the number of 'peaceful' and 'sudden' deaths in the Times or Telegraph obituary column, but you can't remember the punchline or find it on Youtube.

 

[The Ham]

Early onset "getting older" is hearing a song and finding out that it is now older than you were when it was released.

 

[32475]

You know you’re getting older when you look back to your childhood and you’re really quite pleased that you grew up when you did rather than now.

 

[contrex]

When you can remember London before it became a crime ridden dump controlled by cartoon gangs.

When was that? I lived in London 1952-1971 and it was like that during all that period.

 

[A Challenge]

When you find yourself "nodding off" for hours on end during the day......or is that just me..

I have friends who are at Uni and nap during the day, if that helps you feel younger

 

[contrex]

I once had a work colleague -- a great (and repetitive) exponent of corny humour -- who had a favourite anecdote about the chap who, very first thing every day, would look at the obituaries in the morning paper: if he didn't find himself featuring there, he would get up and commence getting on with his day.

I once heard of someone arriving at Cambridge University who heard a noise outside their window one night. It was a very elderly professor who was on the lawn with a spade, cutting worms in two, and shouting 'You haven't got me yet!'.

 

[Lloyds siding]

...you can't remember if you've posted something on this thread already....

 

[Gloster]

You used to have hair covering your ears. Now it is coming out of your ears.

 

[duncanp]

....when hearing the group Gerry & The Pacemakers reminds you of a device for regulating the electrical functions of the heart.

 

[simonw]

When you find out people don't know who the casey Jones was and have to explain it. See Waterloo retail thread

 

[Mcr Warrior]

When you find out people don't know who the casey Jones was and have to explain it. See Waterloo retail thread

Thought Casey Jones was a TV series about some late 19th century midwest American railroad engineer. Don't really remember it being a one-time railway station fast food outlet from BR days.