You know you’re getting older when……

[PeterY]

I'm not an 'older person' but I use bars of soap.

I used to use liquid soap, but switched to bars when we had all the Covid panic buying and there was no liquid soap left in the shops. I am amazed at how long a bar lasts compared to a bottle of liquid, it works out much cheaper so I won't be going back (and it also avoids the need to produce a wasteful plastic bottle).

I also switched to bars of soap and yes it lasts for ages. I keep liquid soap for when my daughter visits.

 

[32475]

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.
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.

 

[gg1]

When you can remember buying a newspaper to read yesterday's news during your bus or train journey.

Not that long compared to most other things mentioned here though, I would have thought for most people it would be sometime in the 21st century.

I think I stopped buying them after I bought my first smartphone about 10 years ago.

 

[contrex]

I will add a couple more...

The man from the Pru or Co-op who used to come to the house to collect the insurance money. And there was another man who came to collect the 'pools' coupon and money. For our younger members this was basically a door-to-door bookmakers service!

And there were all kinds of mobile shops used to visit the street. I remember a butchers van, a greengrocers van, a bread van, a pop man and a fish man. All long gone now.

We had the O-Cedar man come round who having sold my mum a kind of mop that had to be kept in a container like a biscuit tin, used to make regular repeat visits to sell her a bottle of the stuff that went on it, a kind of polish I think. My dad used to joke that she looked forward to these visits which made her blush then giggle.

 

[Paul Jones 88]

Seeing Max Bygraves on the telly last on BBC 4 and thinking about how young he looked.
Remembering the lovely, friendly station master at Ponders End in the 70s who always had time to chat with me as a child, now Ponders End hasn't got staff at all and is poorer for it.

 

[Howardh]

Not that long compared to most other things mentioned here though, I would have thought for most people it would be sometime in the 21st century.

I think I stopped buying them after I bought my first smartphone about 10 years ago.

Sat next to an elderly-ish lady on the plane and she said "would you like to read my paper?" after she'd finished..and I replied "thanks for the kind offer but I've read everything I need to know on my phone in the lounge" and she replied, "yes, I do that but I only bought this for something to read on the plane".

As for getting older and tech - in Torremolinos (yes, I know, but it was winter and cheap) a mother and daughter were trying to get the pics of the mother's family (think grandkids) off her broken phone on to PC. They linked everything up but daughter couldn't fathom out why the PC was accepting the signal but wouldn't download. I chipped in "you have to allow USB transfer" and showed them how to doe it. Bingo! Got a free pint and kudos for being a grey silver techie. *Nope, just got lucky as I had done that before!*

So basically I feel as though I'm getting younger...until "music" gets played wherever you are. Am I the only oldie who hates all the "music" that's played at cricket 20/20 games?? And shops that blast it out, or even have it on in the background? Why oh why *moaning old git alert*??

 

[3141]

When I was a child, and adults referred to some event that had taken place twenty years ago, that seemed almost prehistoric. Then one day I was talking to somebody about something I'd done "twenty years ago", when I was about eighteen, and I thought "It's the first sign of getting old, when you can say that and it refers to a time when you'd become an adult". It's sixty four years since then and I have to admit I am getting somewhat old, especially as almost everybody else looks younger than me.

 

[GusB]

When I was younger, it was common to hear people say that you were getting old when police officers were younger than you. These days, on the odd occasion when they pop into my local pub to check all is well, I've been tempted to ask them for ID!

 

[Dai Corner]

Talking of pubs, I'm usually long gone before the band comes on around 2200.

 

[Howardh]

Waiting expectantly for my bus pass... at that point I'll be able to ditch the car!

 

[gg1]

When I was a child, and adults referred to some event that had taken place twenty years ago, that seemed almost prehistoric. Then one day I was talking to somebody about something I'd done "twenty years ago", when I was about eighteen, and I thought "It's the first sign of getting old, when you can say that and it refers to a time when you'd become an adult".

Being a rail enthusiast is the perfect example of that.

When I became really interested in train in the mid-late 80s, the end of steam on BR seemed like ancient history. Looking back a similar number of years from now takes me back to the end of loco hauled cross country services which in my mind seems pretty recent.

 

[Howardh]

55 years ago - Grandad to me "your hair's too long"
Now - what hair?

 

[WelshBluebird]

For me, though I'm only 32, I am very happy these days if a gig / concert that I am going to is an early finish (often due to a club night being held in the same venue later on).

 

[swt_passenger]

55 years ago - Grandad to me "your hair's too long"
Now - what hair?

You ought to be allowed to average your hair length over your lifetime…

 

[Howardh]

You ought to be allowed to average your hair length over your lifetime…

Life's unfair. You lose your teeth, they regrow. At least once, anyway!

 

[Busaholic]

Life's unfair. You lose your teeth, they regrow. At least once, anyway!

I'd swap some of my hair for a couple of my teeth back!

 

[Howardh]

I'd swap some of my hair for a couple of my teeth back!

I've just enough left to manage!

 

[Killingworth]

As a grandson starts preparing for a 4 year (including placement year) university course in a northern city I look back almost 50 years. To the time I studied for my professional qualifications 3 nights a week for 4 years in the same northern city at what was called the College of Commerce - which became the Polytechnic, which became this very same university. Back then my 'placement' was working 5 and a half full time days a week with two and a half weeks annual holiday - increased to 3 weeks after 4 years.

There is absolutely no doubt, I am getting old - as today's 10 mile walk (after 5 on Sunday and 12 last Thursdsay) is now reminding me!

 

[61653 HTAFC]

You know you're getting old when someone addresses you as "young man" and you ignore them because you think they must be talking to someone else!

 

[D6130]

You know that you're getting older when an attractive woman in her seventies makes a pass at you in the pub. This has happened to me on more than one occasion....sometimes in the presence of my wife!

 

[Howardh]

You know that you're getting older when an attractive woman in her seventies makes a pass at you in the pub. This has happened to me on more than one occasion....sometimes in the presence of my wife!

Never happens in my over 50's badminton club and I'm single.

 

[D6130]

Never happens in my over 50's badminton club and I'm single.

Perhaps you should start going to a pub instead! In my experience such things usually happen when groups of 'mature ladies' - many of them married, I suspect - are out for an evening together and their inhibitions are somewhat loosened by quantities of Prosecco/Chardonnay/Cider, etc. (other drinks are usually available). Either that....or I am far more attractive than I am led to believe. I rather suspect that the former applies!

 

[contrex]

When I was younger, it was common to hear people say that you were getting old when police officers were younger than you. These days, on the odd occasion when they pop into my local pub to check all is well, I've been tempted to ask them for ID!

I know a policeman whose father is younger than me.

 

[317 forever]

I sometimes feel old at work. On the one hand, I am sufficiently experienced and pragmatic to accept evening and Saturday work. In my early working years I absolutely hated Saturday work.

However, I hate Sunday work. This is a throwback to my conditioning of shops etc not opening on Sundays. Yes yes I know they have been open on Sundays for 28 years. I can just about accept limited Sunday work as a human supplement to work on other days, especially I occasionally use shops and/or other amenities on Sundays (but normally days out for bus/train trips). However, having Sunday an ordinary day with the same length shifts is horrendous.

 

[CarltonA]

It seems I am an Oldie for asking for a "99" from an ice cream booth. The girl was totally bewildered by the request so I described what it was. "Oh we do a Whippy with a flake" (for £2.80!). I suspect "Whippy" is a trade mark of Mr Whippy (which the outlet was not part of). I told her that old people like me call them a "99", perhaps that will come in useful in her future career.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

I suspect "Whippy" is a trade mark of Mr Whippy (which the outlet was not part of). I told her that old people like me call them a "99", perhaps that will come in useful in her future career.

Wasn't "99" itself a trade mark (of Cadbury's) who were the suppliers of half-lengthed Cadbury's Flake bars specifically intended for serving with an ice-cream cone? Not been unknown though for some vendors to use flake bars which aren't Cadbury's, in which case they perhaps shouldn't then still be referred to as "99"s.

(P.S. Wasn't necessarily Mr. Whippy ice-cream originally, as the availability of Cadbury's "99" Flakes predates the Mr. Whippy product by the best part of 30 years).

 

[CarltonA]

It seems "Mr Whippy" is now a Generic Trademark in the UK.

Mr. Whippy (United Kingdom) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[PeterC]

Wasn't "99" itself a trade mark (of Cadbury's) who were the suppliers of half-lengthed Cadbury's Flake bars specifically intended for serving with an ice-cream cone? Not been unknown though for some vendors to use flake bars which aren't Cadbury's, in which case they perhaps shouldn't then still be referred to as "99"s.

(P.S. Wasn't necessarily Mr. Whippy ice-cream originally, as the availability of Cadbury's "99" Flakes predates the Mr. Whippy product by the best part of 30 years).

Cadbury's indulge in the occasional sabre rattling over their trademark but I don't know if they have actually prosecuted individual retailers.

 

[philjo]

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.

On a similar theme, remembering when you had to go to the Family Record centre in London to manually search the birth, marriages and deaths registrations index and looking on the microfiche though the whole of the city of Leeds to find ancestors on the 1841-1891 census entries before everything was indexed and searchable online.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Cadbury's indulge in the occasional sabre rattling over their trademark but I don't know if they have actually prosecuted individual retailers.

Think there was some "news" stories only a few years ago suggesting that they might well do so, but probably it was just some PR guff intended to help market the "genuine" product and intended for a slow news day in late July.