Everyone looks twelve

Morethan I have problems with packaging too. I cannot even seem to be able to pull open a bag of lettuce and the tops on milk bottles are impossible. Are they using stronger glue do you think or are we just getting old?

I remember well that utterly mortifying moment when I was offered a seat on a bus - at 62!

I can't read any small print without my glasses (and good light) so I often don't bother.

Does anyone else have to suppress inner rage when offered help and advice by (what looks like) a child? My doctor, dentist, bank staff - are all kids!

Haha. I told the chap at our local Garage I used to be a Mod in the 1960s... and he said he'd done Mods as part of his History exam course !

I'm 74 and agree with all these comments. I used to be a bit miffed but now I think isn't it wonderful that people care, that good manners still exist and I'm offered a seat near the front of the bus.

Laugh and the world laughs with you, comes to mind!
but then I am told that I don`t look my age, ie. look younger!

Oh and being pounced upon by a group of young Christians when cautiously (bad back) tying my dogs lead on a low bar at the shop:

'Would you like us to pray for you? Maybe for relief of aches and pains?' they said.

'No thanks', I said 'I have no pains, - except you!'

polnan, I suspect that we're all told that. Nobody's going to tell us we look older, are they?

Twenty years ago when I was 55 and teaching, one of my pupils asked me, 'Was you in the war Miss?' I was, but as a baby. Another time, I said seriously, 'Of course, when I was a child, we didn't have chairs - we had to sit on rocks.' Not one of the children challenged me on this. Nothing like children to make you feel old! Of course it will only get worse now that we have all this technology which we didn't have even ten years ago. At about the same time, my 80 year old father went into sheltered housing, where he found that his neighbour was an old girl friend from sixty years ago. I couldn't understand her hostility when I met her. She thought I was his wife - her usurper. She had cataracts of course, but still...

I did smile Morethan when I saw you are 66 3/4, I remember little children adding the 1/2 or 3/4. so that would make me 77 3/4. the years fly by now.

The small print, cellophane, jar tops all a nightmare. Haven't really noticed folk offering me a seat but I would consider it being polite. I have noticed my ASs being just a tad protective when we are out eg putting arm across in front if waiting to cross the road or perhaps its just habit with their children. No one in authority seems to be older than 20 these days.

We had a locum in our surgery who had gone to the same university as our youngest daughter and was in the same year. My saving grace was that the university had an excellent medical department!

I think that most of the drs now look so young a sign of me getting older, we were talking about age and my daughter said mum do you remember when I was little and nana was ironing on a table n I said what are you doing! I’m ironing she said doesn’t mummy iron like this and I said no she’s not old enough, lol I was 25 at the time

Dh and I have just been to Australia on holiday. After booking into our hotel in Melbourne we went out for an evening walk to stretch our legs after the long journey. We saw no one over the age of thirty! Then I remembered that some part of Australia have euthanasia and dh and I thought it might be for the best if we scuttled back to our hotel before anyone noticed us 'oldies'.

Next day we did see some older people but that evening was really quite disconcerting!

I was once asked by a pupil at the school where I taught ,what I had thought of the abdication of Edward 8th when it happened -several years before I was born I might add!

I remember a joke that might be appropriate here:

A woman was at the dentists, and it suddenly occurred to her that she had been at school with someone with the same name as the dentist
.
"It can't have been him though", she thought, look in at the elderly, balding man who stood over her, "he's far too old, way older than I am".

However, before leaving the room she saw his certificate on the wall, and the dates made it perfectly possible that it could actually be the same person.

She tentatively said "I think you might have been in my class at school!"

He looked her up and down, thought for a moment, then asked, "What subject did you teach?"

One of the things I embrace about being old (74 next week) is that I am always offered a seat on the Tube when I go into London. Long may that continue!

In M&S the other day the young lady assistant was telling me that she'd just been on a cruise; I told her that I had been on a cruise 50 years ago, when my 3 friends and I were the only single girls on the ship and what a fabulous time we'd had. She said she didn't realise cruises happened all that time ago.... Sigh.

Never surprised me to be considered aged, when 31 my
5 year old elder daughter asked me if I had ever seen Queen
Victoria

Little tip I want to share which has proven wonderful for me. For difficult jar tops, simply puncture the top (I use a pointed knife) to release the vacuum and stick a piece of tape over the incision immediately.

"Did they have electricity when you were a girl, Mummy?" said my daughter many years ago.

We had a new social worker call at the house to see my AS who has Learning difficulties. He was wearing skinny jeans and canvas shoes and looked no more than fourteen. I have to say, though, that he was very efficient. I was amused, later, to hear another parent referring to him as ' Barry the Kid '!

Haha. I told the chap at our local Garage I used to be a Mod in the 1960s... and he said he'd done Mods as part of his History exam course !
Love this! Yes, we are all ancient history now.....

I think children struggle to understand time, which is why they ask if we were around during the war or remember Queen Victoria etc. Anything over 20 years probably means little to them. I have made a 20th century spreadsheet which shows special dates, WW2, Beatles, Coronation, Elvis death, birth of family members, or anything they might relate to. I hope it will help them better understand time and the passing of years.

MamaCaz, a joke but sooo true. When I go home to visit parents (I left the small town 30 years ago) I catch myself trying to recognise people in the street and have to remind myself that I have to look at old (balding) people to do so.
Also I now know more people in the cemetery than in the streets.

Kim19
Easier than puncturing the lid is to turn it upside down and knock it smartly (not the edge, the whole top) on the table. I've seen young strong men grappling to get a lid off, I gently take the jar, do my trick and BINGO!

I knew I was old when I saw Mick Jagger on the History channel!!

I'm a writer for children and sometimes do school visits. One dear little boy asked if I used to write with a feather! (I am not THAT old)