How to tell you're getting old
 

Signs that you are getting old

1 ) Ear hair

I'd say when you realise you need to shave your ears this is a sure sign that you're past your prime.

I think it's because until pretty recently the average life expectancy was 30. Once you get past this point your body runs out of ideas on how to improve itself. It's like "I don't know, I thought you'd be dead by now... how about ear hair?"

One needs to be very careful with inferences like that from statistical data. While true that mean life expectancy was incredibly short, that was primarily the result of incredibly high infant and childhood mortality rates. If (admittedly a big if) someone survived into young adulthood, even in those times, a large fraction lived well into their 50s, 60s, and 70s.

Nevertheless, an interesting observation.

I particularly like this one about aging:

As they say, memory is the second thing to go, but I can't remember what the first thing is.;)

It is certainly true about infant mortality skewing the data, but one thing preventing people reaching old age, which we take for granted these days, was the lack of antibiotics.

I wonder how much the obesity epidemic will reduce life expectancy, along with drug resistant germs caused by overusing antibiotics!

Also remember that the mortality rate fluctuates. During the early years of the industrial revolution it plummeted because of horrid living and working conditions, lack of access to food, close proximity promoting disease and general civil unrest because it was such a difficult adjustment to make.

But, despite all of this, I think the point still stands. The body must get board at some point, and ear hair is the natural result ;).

Im not even 15 yet, so i don't really have to worry about getting old any time soon, but I know my dad who's in his (very) late 30's and he's electro-nuclear engineer or something of that sort, is starting to forget stuff, like the year I was born (:() or when he married my mom or... how our car looks like...
I've even seen he's starting to have white hair down the middle of his head..
Don't even wanna think about getting old...

At 70, I can tell you that that is only the first of many symptoms - most more annoying than that one.

On average life expectancy, I have read that in stone age times the life expectancy of someone surviving to adulthood is thought to have been mid-40's, with a standard deviation of 10 or 15 years, so some made it to old age. In primitive societies older folks are generally toothless, have poor sight, and are not much good at hunting or gathering, so need the support of a younger generation to survive.

Well, I don't know about Canada, but the US Social Security system is a classic Ponzi scheme, so that applies to the current situation here, as well. :mad::(

On the other hand, younger generations relied on the knowledge and wisdom of the elders. It has only been relatively recently that parents have replaced grandparents as the primary caregivers of children. I'm not convinced it was such a great change, either.

When people are physically able to be parents, they all too often lack the emotional maturity for the job. When people are emotionally mature enough to be great parents, they are past their physical prime for procreating.

Our "retirees" are a huge, valuable, and largely wasted resource in today's society, at least in the US. Most parents just aren't well suited for the job of raising kids, because it takes more than two or three decades to "grow up." Four or five would be more accurate, I think.

To make matters worse, the responsibility of feeding, clothing and sheltering a family keeps many young adults from reaching their potential in terms of careers and productivity. How many people miss out on higher education due to financial obligations of raising a family?

Here in Asia, the grandparents are still the primary caregivers. It does seem to work, releasing the actual parents to go out and earn some cash.

Older parents? Yeah, well, I just passed 44, two weeks ago and I have a 14 month old and another due in the New Year. I am definitely a much better parent now than I was 15 years ago when my firstborn came along. More time, more interest and more patience.... That said, my older children have all turned out very well, so a degree in parenting is not necessary, eh? :rolleyes: Now, I am done having children and will be off for the snip the moment the new guy is here; but I enjoy having the wee ones around now.

I'll be 60 by the time I can take these guys out for a beer! Oh my Buddha!:D

Very true. In "olden" times, families stayed together. Children could appeal to grandparents and several sets of aunts and uncles for help. The eyes of the family were upon them.

I was raised in New York City (Queens, to be exact), but spent every summer of my first 20 years in a cottage community on the North Shore of Nova Scotia where I had two grandmothers, 5 aunt/uncle pairs, and a whack of cousins living in 5 cottages there. Even though I went to MIT and taught at SUNYB then MIT for nearly 20 years, I always regarded NS as "home"; where my roots were. My own kids (3 with 7 of their own) rarely all get in one place at one time, alas, though my brother and I are trying to nurture 2-week rentals at the same cottage community for my kids and his. He retired from 20 odd years in Toronto to a cottage that he and I built there in 1959 -- extensively renovated, of course. That shore is home, and we'd like to engender some of that feeling among my 7 grandkids and his 5 -- a sense of belonging to an extended family.

I love the "(very)":D

While some people do suffer cognitive impairment later in life (generally well after their "(very) late thirties" ;)) forgetfulness itself is not a sign of advanced age.

Have you forgotten what your father does for a living? ;)

Young people are forgetful, too, but tend to lack the self awareness to notice.

My 14 year old nephew visited recently. After he dressed himself one morning, I asked if he remembered to change his underwear. He hadn't. I have also had to send him back into the shower because he forgot to use soap.

And I can tell my 5 year old daughter to do something, watch her take two steps, then veer off to do whatever just flitted into her precious little mind, having completely forgotten what I just said.

As for growing older myself, I'm 41 and the years have been (and hopefully will continue to be) good to me. I'm not going bald, or even gray (although the first sprouts of ear hair start sooner than I expected). But I occasonally catch myself sounding like my parents - or worse, my grandparents:

"When I was your age, that would buy a whole bag of candy!"

"What do you mean you lost your shoes? They were just on you feet!"

"I don't care who started it!"

"Because I said so!"

It's not really that I forgot, but he's been doing so many stuff over his life, that I don't know what to call him.:)
First off, he has a Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering and a Doctorate in Nuclear Engineering. When we were in Romania, he was a big shot at the (only) Romanian nuclear power-plant. He was a engineer/programmer there. From what I know, he was the guy designing, testing, and repairing nuclear reactors for the power-plant. ;)
When he came to US, he worked as an electrical engineer, repairing and installing small stuff like security cameras or what-not. Now he works at the Pentagon for the government, and I'm not really supposed to talk about it. All I pretty much know is that he's in charge of a security update of some sort.
That job is pretty much done, and my dad is being transfered to somewhere in southern Virginia and will do something like he was doing in Romania. So that means I'm going to be moving sometimes this month, probably around Thanksgiving. I say too much stuff off topic :D

Wow, that never happened to me before, as far as I can remember;), but last year I did forget to put shoes on before going out to school. I only realized once I was on the school bus, so I kinda walked in my sox all day...
Good thing my gf didn't notice:rolleyes:

That does sound kinda more like my grandparents, but a little like my parents too. Especially the "Because I said so!". That's the lamest excuse parents can find, and my mother uses it everyday.:(
Sometimes when my dad wants to get my mother angry, he says "You sound like your mother". :p

Weird thing though, my grandfather, who worked in a brick factory and served in the Romanian army several times throughout his life, and he's in his very late 60's, and he doesn't have a single grey hair in his head.:eek: He's pretty healthy and muscular, though he has high blood pressure.

In Romania, families live close together in the same or neighboring cities or villages. Until I came to US, I've spent every single summer at my grandparents' house in a relatively large village in Northern Romania. That's still my favorite pace in the world. While my grandfather worked in the factory (in the old days), my grandmother took care of the household, and what Americans would call "farm". They had two cows, one horse, several rabbits, chicken, pigs, a dog, about 5 cats, and a huge garden. (In Romania, in the countryside we grow vegetables in gardens, not flowers:D)
My grandfather also owned (and still does) several acres of land outside the village that he plows every spring and harvests every autumn. I remember when I was little my mother would send me and my sister from the city with the bus to my grandparents', to help my grandfather plant corn, or wheat or beans. It used to be lots of fun, or so did my grandfather make it seem.
Sincerely, before I came to US, I used to see more of my grandfather, than of my father. He was always at work, or in college, or something else.
This summer, my family took a trip to Romania for about to months, and we stayed most of the time at my grandparents. I helped my grandfather cop wood for the winter;)

Your dad has an impressive resumé. Mine has been divorced three times and once sold potatoes door to door.
I keenly remember feeling the same way, which is why I rarely say that. But sometimes I just don't feel like explaining the obvious for the umpteenth time. You'll understand when your older. ;) :D How's that for an annoying thing to hear from an adult?

I have made the mistake of saying that to my wife. :eek:

Of course, the flip side is: But why? — or why not?
It's most annoying when you know that they know the answer, but they keep asking anyway. ;)

That's one of the tricks we youngsters to get our way. We want to annoy our parents, but you don't wanna go too far ;p

I'm looking forward, in the not so distant future, to when I can braid together the hair growing from my ears, and my nostrils.

Quite the fashion statement, eh?

Perhaps I can braid in small flowers. Or trinkets.

Beads would be nice.

I used to say you're not old until the music you gre up on and still listen to is being sold on a <appropriate decade> memorial album on late-night TV. As I've seen those ads now, I don't say that much anymore :rolleyes:

Since shaving earhair just makes it grow faster, I gave up.

Another sign of age - when I turned 60, I started driving stockcars (as in "there's nothin' stock about a stock car")...

Oh boy, this is starting to come up for me. I feel quite the same way, frankly. I still remember when a lot of my favorite bands from my teenage years started to retire, or perhaps just became 'uncool'. (my teenage years, for reference, were a whole 5 to 11 years ago, I'm 24)

But what was even worse than that was I had my first "todays music just isn't what it used to be" moment. Geez! I hated hearing that from my parents when I was growing up! I'd be like, 'dude, Nirvana would totally take the Beatles to the mat," or "Dave Mattews writes way better songs than Led Zeppelin", etc. Granted, since then I've seen the error of my ways and now listen to all four bands, but still...

I don't understand why I don't understand some of todays music! So I've had to make a conscious effort to "get into it", if you will. So far it's working... I like Keane, are they young and hip?

I think music and odors are perhaps the most evocative reminders of our past and hence of our present age. Having graduated from high school in 1955, I'll let you figure out where I fit in.

Well, a couple years ago, I was on my way to a meeting in the Hyatt Erawan, here in Bangkok, and I was in the lift. The piped music took a while to penetrate my conciousness, but the very memorable tune drilled through my meetig preparations and I realised that I was listening to Anarchy in the UK by the Sex Pistols, no less.

30 years ago,they were banned by Aunty Beeb and here I was getting it piped to me in the lift of a top hotel.:eek:

Time flies... You can't. They fly too fast.;)

Love it when you mention places I've been, Gavin. Even though I was only in BKK for a week, I loved it (but didn't stay in the Hyatt).

Ah yes, we baby boomers who thought we'd always be 'hip'.

Now we're needing hip replacements.

Er...where did you stay?

Or is that not for public consumption?:D:D:D

Just kidding. Interesting talking about age/time going by. The first time I went to Saigon, in 1990, I met this Vietnamese lass who was a "tad" older than I. She claimed to have been a junior clerk on Westmoreland's staff. My face probably read: "yeah, sure...", so then she took me (in the best context, naturally) back to her place and got the pic albums out. I was completely blown away by this. There she was at various "do's" and functions and at the "office" (MACV), sometimes with Westmoreland in the pic too. Vietnam was something I saw on TV when I was about 7-11 years old (still remember the last day clearly), and here I was sitting with someone who was not only there, but there at the higher end of the game. She did 8 years in a "re-education" camp. Unreal.

I was about 26 then, but I felt like I was about 12 after meeting her.

I honestly don't recall -- It was a hotel owned by a subcontinental asian; I had stayed in one like it in Karachi with the same portrait on the wall. Wasn't far from a river bus stop about 3 stops up from the Hyatt. My main business had been at Suranaree U of T in Ko Rat, but I also had business at Chulalongkorn, Thaksin, and the Asian Institute of Technology. Great time, but hotter than hell.

Don't talk to me about getting old! Just yesterday I opened the envelope from the Government that contained my Age Pension Card. Since I have a private pension plan and invested my severance package when I was retrenched 15 years ago, rather than blowing it on a world tour etc, my means-tested Government pension is A$56 a month.
Still, it comes as a great surprise to me that I'm still here.
I plan to live forever; so far, so good.

Ummmm, yeah - gov't pension - mine started about a year and a half ago and it ain't gonna pay for any world tour either.

Gov't pension - getting paid for not dying.... Not sure I see how that's in their best interest!! :rolleyes:

Well, now that you mentioned it, it is people.. err.. over a "certain age" that vote the most and have a greater effect on who gets elected.. see a connection;)?

Wise beyond your years.

I just pay attention in class... We learn this stuff in Civics :D
Who knows, maybe there's a reason they're teaching us that.. ;)

In my younger days the popular wisdom was that if voting changed anything we wouldn't be allowed to do it. :D
Oh, and it's election day today (Saturday). Just voted. Even though the parties are at each other's throats the people handing out the "How to Vote' cards for them were socialising between customers. Very civilised.

That's the main reason behind the "electoral college" here in the US, which actually determines the outcome of the Presidential election. However, I enjoy deluding myself into to thinking that my vote counts. Probably another symptom of ageing.

The US system of government was never intended to be a democracy, either in the Articles of Confederation or the Constitution.

Winston Churchill once said "The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter." (from memory, so wording may not be precise)

Another way to tell you're getting old. When you've got no idea how to fr4g a n00b.

As a n00b in many areas, I often feel fr4g'd.

Is this the thread where we figure out who's way older than we thought? ;)

Had a patient tell me many years ago, and I've now adopted his line:

"Sonny, I'm so old, when I fart...
dust comes out."

I'm getting a kick out of what I guess to be the age of the posters to this thread -- unless I miss my guesses, most are younger than my eldest (45) and many are younger than my youngest (39), which makes me twice as old as most of you.

Hey NS,
How does it feel to have your kid turn 40?
My eldest comes up for the big "Four Oh" in 2009 and I'm not looking forward to it.
Bad enough being "old" without feeling it as well.

I no how it feels to have dad turn 40...
Mine's taking the 'four oh' in the spring... My mom still has two years left before she hits it too..:o
Im turning 'one five' at the really, really, really end of this month... ;):D

My wife said (when our eldest turned 40): "I can't believe I've got a 40-year old daughter". My reply: "How do you think your mother feels?" (89 and going strong). My kids are now 39, 41, & 45; my big seven-O has come and gone.

We had once gotten a birthday card for my mother which said,

"A little gray hair doesn't mean you're getting older..."

[open card]


"Unless it's on your children!"

NovaScotian, perhaps you can create a card for your mother-in-law, but substitute "grandchildren!"

It would be appropriate too -- my son is getting grey at the temples - who can tell with a female of the species?

As if today's posts here weren't enough, tonight I received this link from a friend of 40 years, also a baby boomer.

When clicking on this link, make sure your speakers are on.

http://weblogs.newsday.com/news/opin...y_boomers.html

This one is good enough to also post in the 'favorite joke' thread.

Getting old (or, rather more serious) is when you start thinking that the majority of the younger generation are dumber, less flexible, more computer-dependent, of no values, soulless, less sportive, unable to go without their parents' control...
I don't thinks so often, but sometimes I start to get the thought that those who are younger lack some features that we have and vice versa

Too true specter. Many of the posts here are humorous, but what you've pointed out is true. When we start feeling somewhat as you've described, that truly is a sign of getting older.

specter, your post caused me to think of something else. Sadly, I've been noticing folks of 'my generation' are exhibiting more frequently, a tendency to not want to learn new things. I notice it most regarding technology, but also in my profession of physical therapy.

That explains why my dad doesn't want to switch to a Mac... It's not like he can't afford one, but I guess it's because he's been using PC's since highschool and college and even at his first job...

Games for when we are older
 

From a patient this morning:

Games for when we are older
• Sag, you’re it.
• Pin the toupee on the bald guy.
• 20 questions shouted into your good ear.
• Kick the bucket.
• Red Rover, Red Rover, the nurse says, “Bend over.”
• Doc Doc Goose.
• Simon says something incoherent.
• Hide and go pee.
• Spin the bottle of Mylanta.
• Musical recliners.

If you remember where the dimmer switch for your headlights used to be before they moved it to the steering column......... you just might be an old guy.

If you've ever sailed an 78 rpm vinyl record (the original frisbee)... you just might be an old guy.

What does it mean when you remember where the starter was on a 1934 Ford Coupe?

I should perhaps mention that the car was 20 years old when I drove it.

Think that means you just might be a REAL old guy.

Cool ride, man. I remember some older cars with a starter button on the dash or even on the floorboard... or was that the tractor? Sure eliminated breaking off the key in the switch!

.
Some people spent their youth wishing they looked more like Marlon Brando or Elizabeth Taylor.

...then spent their middle age years ... praying that they wouldn’t end up looking like Marlon Brando or Liz Taylor...
.

.
And I suppose being in your 40s and 50s means complaining about how contemporary music lacks decent guitar solos. And even though it’s got a beat, doesn’t have a human being manning the drums... (sic)
.

Ouch!
:(:(:(

I believe NovaScotian reigns at emeritus status. :)

Hey... I said "MIGHT"

:rolleyes:
Quid vos conferunt senes?:D

conferunt?
What are we conferring/debating/calling old?

Ok, so maybe it was misunderstood a bit.. :o
Quid mean what
vos means you in plural
conferunt has many meanings. The one I intended was discuss or talk about
senes doesn't mean necessarily old. Senes is also the plural form of the noun senex, meaning old man
So literally I meant "What are you old men talking about? :)
Since this is a question, it doesn't follow the traditional word order and the person Im talking to/about, goes at the end instead of the begging. Same with the verb, it goes in the middle as opposed to the traditional middle... :D
Hope that made sense... ;) I'm still a latin II student... still learning.. :)

Obviously, we old men have no idea what we're talking about! :D

As my last Latin was in 8th grade, which would be about 1965, I was forced to scramble, searching google for definitions! :rolleyes:

I finally found help at version tracker, and downloaded a free app, interpres 1.3, which is somewhat limited, but gave me an idea of conferunt, but only vaguely.

quid and vos were pretty easy, and senes is related to the same base as senile, meaning old.

But conferunt was pretty confusionis! :)

Might is right! At 70, I'm probably not the oldest member, but I've got to be in the top 10! Not too many of our regulars here graduated from high school in 1955.

Often, when at the cashier, and I'm told that the price of something will be something under $20 USD, I'll say, "Why that's the year I got out of high school!"

The looks I get are quite quizzical, especially when the price would be let's say, $17.38. Sometimes I get looks of true belief when the price is $19.38, or so.

And every blue moon, I'll get a great response from the person along the lines of, "My, you look so good for your age!"

I think that's another sign of age that you start accumulating songs that you just can't listen to due to the painful memories they invoke.

Been there, done that.....

Im only 25 now, but I always feel that Im getting old, as I threw my back out this morning again :(

You're really going to love old age, Jane55. Get that back fixed. The usual prescription is exercise. Strengthen the muscles.
As we oldies say, "if it still works, it hurts". I have posture-related pains that I've left too long. Now Voltaren and Ibuprofen are my friends.
There are other indications of hanging around too long, though.
Just bought a 1Terabyte HD in an enclosure for A$69. I'm the bunny who bought a Rodime 100Meg SCSI HD in an enclosure for $800 in the early '90's and thought it a bargain. At the computer club I was challenged to justify having all that storage on my IIgs.

I graduated from high school in 1953. NovaScotian and fazstp are right. I have a whole playlist of songs I can't listen to without a lump in my throat. And the smell of wood smoke brings the memory of me getting off the school bus one cold, winter day and walking up the driveway to the house.
"The echoes of faded music down the halls of time bring flashes of memories of other times and other places. Times when anything was possible and a surety inside me that I could do anything. My youth, with the indomitable spirit that exists in the untried, untested and as yet undefeated.
But, upon reflection of my life, having been defeated more than once or twice, my destiny may be more aptly compared to a piece of driftwood cast upon the ocean of life, without even the ability to comprehend, much less understand or alter the tides, the waves and the undercurrents of life."

Good stuff, W.

Or to put it a little more succinctly;

"S**t happens" :D

Or to put it a bit more elegantly in Latin: stercus accidit

Into each life, some stercus must fall, eh?

:)

I turn 30 next week :eek::eek::eek:

and I got gray hairs now:eek::eek::eek:


getting old I guess

Given that the youngest of my three kids is 42, TL..........

"whole playlist of songs I can't listen to without a lump in my throat." Top of the list: American Trilogy by Elvis, and Unchained Melody by most anyone.

Well, at least 42 is the answer to life the universe and everything, right?

"How old are you? All my friends say you're 42"
kj52 - adventures of tweezyman

Saw a birthday card long ago, on the front it said, "A little gray hair doesn't mean you're getting older..."

On the inside, it said, "... unless it's on your children!"

Ahh... and my 44-year old son is just beginning to show grey at the temples. One can't tell with daughters.

I discovered yesterday that I can hide my own Easter eggs...




:eek:

The Bathtub Test

During a visit to my doctor, I asked him, "How do you determine whether or not an older person should be put in an old age home?"

"Well," he said, "we fill up a bathtub, then we offer a teaspoon, a teacup and a bucket to the person to empty the bathtub."

"Oh, I understand," I said. "A normal person would use the
Bucket because it is bigger than the spoon or the teacup."

"No" he said. "A normal person would pull the plug. Do you want a bed near the window?"

:D snort! :D

Not being able to remember where you left your shoes is not any particular problem, but if you find them on the second shelf of the fridge, you just might be getting old.

Or if you find the milk carton on the counter and your coffee mug in the fridge, ditto..

:D

We have a winner.

I have two very good friends who are twins. They've just reached 45 . I suppose that we look mildly alike .
I was walking down the road with them the other day & an old Indian man, whom they know , came up to them & said - " ah finally - i get to meet your father !! "

We all laughed & i thought - must be getting old.

A few days ago I sneezed, tried to supress it as to not wake my grand daughter, and threw out my back. :)

LOL. Yeah I had a getting up out of bed injury.