There are 45 comments.

1. Coolidge
   JosePluma, Local Man of Mystery

   @JosePluma

   5:55 PM EDT ⋅ Jun 16, 2022

   In my A&P class, one young lady complemented me on my knowledge of the subject.  I told her that I already taken the class for my first degree “but that was in 1978, so they made me retake it.”  “That was the year I was born,” she replied.  I was 44.

   I threw an errant tennis ball back onto the court; one of the players shouted to the other, who was going out to retrieve it, “Hey, that old guy threw it back.”  I was 46.

   Last year, my wife was at a concert while I was at work.  She texted me that an old guy had collapsed and she had done CPR on him until EMS arrived.  I showed the text to the nurse I was working with and she said “Oh my god, my parents are at that concert.”  Her parents were ten years younger than me.  (They were fine, by the way, other than being awakened at 1:30 AM by a frantic call from their daughter.)

2. Member
   MarciN

   @MarciN

   6:34 PM EDT ⋅ Jun 16, 2022

   My mother-in-law’s mother (Mama Nonna) and her mother’s sister (Aunt Concietta), together with their husbands and children, emigrated from Italy to Boston. Of Mama Nonna’s seven children, my mother-in-law was the only one born in the United States. Aunt Concietta had only two, or possibly three, children. Aunt Concietta ran a candy store on Beacon Hill. Her oldest son was a priest–lovingly called Father Mike–who died very young, at about 45 years old. The two sisters and their families lived on the back of a hill on which sat Mass General Hospital. Mama Nonna used to embroider the button holes for Brooks Brothers. No one else was allowed to do this work for them. :) And whenever an Italian mother was giving birth, the doctors would send for Mama Nonna to translate and put the mother at ease. Mama Nonna died before I had a chance to meet her. I think I would have loved her very much.

   When she was about sixty-five, my mother-in-law, as is true of all of us, began to worry constantly about getting older. She missed lot of people who had passed away, and that always makes people sad. She really felt old and tired. My husband and I were a bit worried. So we arranged somehow–there was some relative involved at some point–for Aunt Concietta to come to our house and visit with my mother-in-law.

   It was one of the best afternoons of my life. For one thing, the first thing my mother-in-law said was, “Oh, Auntie, it is so good to see you.” My mother-in-law had instantly become the vibrant young woman she had always been in the presence of her beloved aunt.

   The lasting message I got out of that afternoon was that age is relative. :-) And some of what we think of as “age” is all in our imagination.

3. Member
   aardo vozz

   @aardovozz

   4:30 AM EDT ⋅ Jun 17, 2022

   If your grandchildren’s hair is beginning to turn gray…🤔🤔🤔

4. Member
   She

   @She

   

   Post author

   5:57 AM EDT ⋅ Jun 17, 2022

   RightAngles (View Comment):

   Oh cry me a river, I still haven’t recovered from learning the high schools are teaching Vietnam as a unit in history class.

   Oh, gosh, yes.  Current events becoming fodder for history classes, some of which bear no resemblance to what was actually going on at the time [smacks young whippersnappers upside the head with her cane and mumbles, through her remaining teeth, “Don’t contradict me.  Remember, I was there.”]

   My ex-husband is 8 years younger than I, and we never noticed it at all most of the time. But once we were in the car and the radio was playing Rare Earth’s version of the Temptations song “Get Ready,” and I said the Temptations one was better, and he’d never even heard of it. He actually thought the Rare Earth version was the original. I mean really.

   LOL

    

5. Member
   She

   @She

   

   Post author

   6:00 AM EDT ⋅ Jun 17, 2022

   Django (View Comment):

   RightAngles (View Comment):

   Oh cry me a river, I still haven’t recovered from learning the high schools are teaching Vietnam as a unit in history class. My ex-husband is 8 years younger than I, and we never noticed it at all most of the time. But once we were in the car and the radio was playing Rare Earth’s version of the Temptations song “Get Ready,” and I said the Temptations one was better, and he’d never even heard of it. He actually thought the Rare Earth version was the original. I mean really.

   When I was hired back in the Second Age of Middle Earth, they called us The Mushrooms. We were all waiting for our first security clearances so they kept us in the dark, covered us with manure, and eventually canned a few of us. The system we eventually did was for a couple of the three-letters and now you can see it in the Smithsonian. That made all of us feel old even though a couple of us weren’t.

   I fell, quite accidentally, into a career in technology somewhere about 1978.  Looking back at where we were then, and where we are now, over just the course of 45 years, reallyd does make me feel old.

6. Member
   She

   @She

   

   Post author

   6:05 AM EDT ⋅ Jun 17, 2022

   MarciN (View Comment):

   My mother-in-law’s mother (Mama Nonna) and her mother’s sister (Aunt Concietta), together with their husbands and children, emigrated from Italy to Boston. Of Mama Nonna’s seven children, my mother-in-law was the only one born in the United States. Aunt Concietta had only two, or possibly three, children. Aunt Concietta ran a candy store on Beacon Hill. Her oldest son was priest–lovingly called Father Mike–who died very young, at about 45 years old. The two sisters and their families lived on the back of hill on which sat Mass General Hospital. Mama Nonna used to embroider the button holes for Brooks Brothers. No one else was allowed to do this work for them. :) And whenever an Italian mother was giving birth, the doctors would send for Mama Nonna to translate and put the mother in labor at ease. Mama Nonna died before I had a chance to meet her. I think I would have loved her very much.

   When she was about sixty-five, my mother-in-law, as is true of all of us, began to worry constantly about getting older. She missed lot of people who had passed away, and that always makes people sad. She really felt old and tired. My husband and I were a bit worried. So we arranged somehow–there was some relative involved at some point–for Aunt Concietta to come to our house and visit with my mother-in-law.

   It was one of the best afternoons of my life. For one thing, the first thing my mother-in-law said was, “Oh, Auntie, it is so good to see you.” My mother-in-law had instantly become the vibrant young woman she had always been in the presence of her beloved aunt.

   The lasting message I got out of that afternoon was that age is relative. :-) And some of what we think of as “age” is all in our imagination.

   Beautiful comment.

   MarciN (View Comment):
   Mama Nonna used to embroider the button holes for Brooks Brothers.

   And a lovely detail.  There’s a hat-maker in my past, two-or-three-great grandmothers hence.  Widowed at 47, she went into business for herself, and her card said “Maker of Hats for Ladies of Quality.” 

7. Coolidge
   Stad

   @Stad

   6:15 AM EDT ⋅ Jun 17, 2022

   She: my darling Auntie Pat. (Ninety-nine next month

   Wow!  Tell her “Happy Birthday!” from us . . .

8. Member
   Western Chauvinist

   @WesternChauvinist

   

   6:20 AM EDT ⋅ Jun 17, 2022

   I was tempted to say “every morning when I try to get out of bed.” But, really it struck me when they started asking “have you fallen in the last three months” at my doctor’s visits!

   But, then I went back to work after 25 years of domestic engineering at nearly age (and now) 60 and found that I’m still useful. So screw that aging shtuff. As long as the spirit is willing. . .

9. Thatcher
   Percival

   @Percival

   

   8:24 AM EDT ⋅ Jun 17, 2022

   She (View Comment):

   RightAngles (View Comment):

   Oh cry me a river, I still haven’t recovered from learning the high schools are teaching Vietnam as a unit in history class.

   Oh, gosh, yes. Current events becoming fodder for history classes, some of which bear no resemblance to what was actually going on at the time [smacks young whippersnappers upside the head with her cane and mumbles, through her remaining teeth, “Don’t contradict me. Remember, I was there.”]

   My ex-husband is 8 years younger than I, and we never noticed it at all most of the time. But once we were in the car and the radio was playing Rare Earth’s version of the Temptations song “Get Ready,” and I said the Temptations one was better, and he’d never even heard of it. He actually thought the Rare Earth version was the original. I mean really.

   LOL

    

    

10. Member
    Annefy

    @Annefy

    8:59 AM EDT ⋅ Jun 17, 2022

    My dearest friend’s youngest child got married a few weeks ago in Ventura (local for us, cross country for her family)

    As the groom’s godmother, I was given a small corsage to wear. 

    At the reception, I was in line at the bar, and turned to an older woman behind me.  She looked at my face, glanced at the corsage, back to my face and said “are you Danny’s (the groom) grandmother?” I am four years older than my best friend, and this woman thought I was her mother. 
    
    I actually found the story hilarious, while my friend was horrified. I told her I would happily take the L if she would take the win.

    What makes the story worse is that it was a wedding and I was all dressed up – it’s not like I’d run to Home Depot in a sweatshirt (a guarantee to run into someone you know)

    (I’m right in the middle, standing next to the old man with grey hair (JY). Mary is on JY’s left standing with the old man with no hair)

     

     

     

     

11. Member
    carcat74

    @carcat74

    9:10 AM EDT ⋅ Jun 17, 2022

    Well, when my classmates started having Grand children, I have a great grand niece, and I have to remind myself 1990s cars are NOT “just a few years old”. I put an antique tag on my 1984 Dodge Rampage–that gave me pause. But the kicker? I look in the mirror now, and my inner 18 year old is jumping up and down saying, “What in the h*ll happened?!?”

12. Coolidge
    The Other Diane

    @TheOtherDiane

    

    10:40 AM EDT ⋅ Jun 17, 2022

    I will turn 60 this summer and besides handling my usual (admittedly significant) caregiver stresses I’ve been cruising along, line dancing with a bunch of retirees at the gym, gradually getting back into shape and ready to rock those retirement years with my wonderful husband.  Until my digestive system went completely insane last month and an ER physician did tests and diagnosed me with diverticulitis, that is.  Ay yay yay, I know exactly how old I really am right now!  

    It may turn out to be a blessing in some ways, as I really really do NOT want lots of future flare ups or complications and am willing to do the work to make that happen.  I have decided to stop decades of trying to change the world around me (which I was pretty darned good at doing, actually) and just take care of what needs to be handled for myself and my family for the foreseeable future.  My resting heart rate has already dropped 10 points, my blood pressure is lower, and I’m sleeping better.  I’m definitely much more aware that I’m getting old, though, as I veeeeerrrry carefully add one solid food at a time every other day while my digestive system slowly recovers.  

13. Member
    Django

    @Django

    11:43 AM EDT ⋅ Jun 17, 2022

    Percival (View Comment):

    

    Can’t remember where I heard it, but one guy about my age said that he remembered when they warned him back in his early twenties that using drugs had a permanent effect, that there would be “flashbacks”. He said he always thought of that as a good thing, sort of like a drug IRA. He was disappointed at first that they didn’t happen, but learned he could get the same feeling by standing up too fast. 

14. Member
    carcat74

    @carcat74

    12:49 PM EDT ⋅ Jun 17, 2022

    Saying “Get off my lawn!”, and REALLY meaning it!!!!

15. Member
    WillowSpring

    @WillowSpring

    

    6:39 AM EDT ⋅ Jun 19, 2022

    When in the same week, your grandson graduates from High School and gets his private pilot license.

    My car is his age!