Observations on getting old(er)

jonnyburgo

The kids at work call me "old man" or "grey beard" I'm only 44 ffs.

ennspek

There are pros and cons I think.
I'm 44 and find women much more interested in me now than when I was in my teens. I suspect it's being comfortable in one's own skin and confident.
The downsides are the physical ones. I play Tennis and I make a louder grunt picking all ball up off the court than when I serve these days. My back is a wreck and my memory is definitely on the way out.

Snap

47. Age? Don't care, genuinely I meant that. You can't change your number, it just is, and will only get bigger. All I am interested in is my family being well, having good friends and being well for as long as I can.

@Alnico - that is a heck of a post matey, everyone should have a copy of that printed out and above their monitor. Wishing you a speedy recovery, sounds nasty.

crunchman

Some of it is state of mind.  I don't normally watch Strictly Come Dancing but I was in the room while my wife was watching it the other day.  Leslie Joseph is 71.  My mum is 71.  There is a massive difference in shape, energy levels and what they are doing.

Leslie Joseph is filming 10 hours days on location and doing 3 hours of dance training in the evenings.  My mum walks around at a snails pace and complains about getting old.

I know some people have health issues but where you are healthy a lot of it is down to attitude.

fields5069

Some of it is down to circumstance though, but yes attitude gets you through the rough patches. My mum is 70, her ankles have collapsed inwards, feet are a mess and she's had one knee replaced. You could argue that attitude could get over a lot of this but she has had some pretty shitty luck.

boogieman

I'm 62. In some respects yes of course I'd like to be younger: mainly the physical stuff like not having an aching back after digging the garden or having arthritic knuckle joints that mean I can't play as well as I used to. On the other hand, my wife and I retired a few years ago so there's no work to stress us out now. We've got savings, reasonable work pensions and no mortgage, so we can afford stuff we want, a nice car and decent trips abroad a couple of times a year. We've also both been through crappy marriages in the past and are both much happier now. Overall, being old isn't that bad. 

snakemanStoo

One of the guys who teaches judo is 75 and he moves around really smoothly, better than I do aged 39 and a bit.  He also throws me around like I'm a ragdoll.

He's an example to me of why I don't judge people by their age but more by what they do.

Also I agree that arseholes are young, and are old.

HAL9000

Less hair to comb, more face to wash...

ESBlonde

Yes people can be arseholes, age is no barrier to that.

Also some people have great genes and are blessed with good health, others also have good genes but fuck themselves with anlack of care anyway.
There is a chap on out allotments that worked as a road digger and is now retired. Got 10 years on me and still digs like crazy on his own plot and others. Other people are forced out of that line of work in thier 40s because they cant cut it anymore.
Self confidence is important, not arrogance just self worth which is quite different. It gives you an air of confidence. ever noticed how some people walk into a room and everyone wants to talk to them even if they never met before, others can sit in that same room all day and nobody will talk to them!

Drew_TNBD

breakstuff said:

I find dressing like this helps with the anonymity.

http://i1352.photobucket.com/albums/q659/breakstuff42/a-JASON-YARMONKSY-640x468_zpsgzjqxalr.jpg

Hillary from the future?

ennspek

At my local tennis club the Pros father helps out with all the kids training sessions. All day he is faced with 20-30 kids ranging from 6-14. He runs them ragged. He's late 70's at least.

57Deluxe

yes - aches and lesser hearing/sight/hair (except from eyebrows, ears, nose) and lack of head-turning of pretty things in the street aside - the one thing that I am really struggling with now older, is when I get a phone call from my Mum or partner saying that the laptop/PC/iPad has gone and done such and such, or they can't make it do something - my head just bursts trying to work out all the permutations blind and then relate them back to them when they immediately mentally switch off and tell me back that the button/page/option is not there when I know for fucking well it is cos I am staring at it on my exact replicated system from which theirs was taken!

Does my freakin head right in!

Bucket

i am 12 and what is this

menamestom

 

I'm 39, so generally still knocking old people over for a laugh.  But I'm 40 next week, so I better watch out.  The knocker may become the knockee

ennspek

I also did go through a stage where I had to get up in the middle of the night to go to the toilet. That was very annoying but seems to have stopped now (since I got the special undersheet).
I also seem to have shifted time zones, up earlier bed earlier.

boogieman

ennspek said:

I also seem to have shifted time zones, up earlier bed earlier.

That's happened to me too. I'd always had to get up round 6am for work. I was looking forward to having a lay in when I retired but I'm still always wide awake by 6 and up by 7 latest. Feel knackered by 11pm these days too. 

57Deluxe

pint milk cartons have also taken on a double role...

guitarcookie1

ICBM said:

I definitely appear to be invisible to young women now. It's quite puzzling because everyone else still seems to be able to see me.

I must have always been "old"...

Rocker

I do not want to start a young -v- old slagging session.  A bit like the urban -v- rural debate.  The classic divide and conquer that politicians have used to devastating effect down through time.  Such debates generate lots of heat and bluster but get no results.  They can't get results.  Just the way it is.

No, it is a fact that one becomes less considered (invisible) when you are in the over 60s brigade.  As regards standing tall, wearing a suit etc,, this describes me to a nicety.  In fact I am better equipped to take care of myself than most people of my age.  I wear a prosthetic leg, this has 'taken out' quite a number of careless people over the years.  If I meet someone who I can see is going to brush into me, I set my prosthesis at the attack angle and wait for the collision.  The look on peoples faces is worth the slight inconvenience.  But of course, this only works for head on situations, people can hit me from this side as happened in town recently.

As regards getting out and gigging with my guitar, well I did all that years ago.  It no longer appeals to me.  Been there, did that and the tee shirt is now being used to clean the floor.  But I do enjoy impromptu sessions in our and friends houses.

The point I made, one that most seem to have missed, is that one becomes considered irrelevant and unimportant the older one gets.  It happens to everyone at some stage.  Including yourself.  I gave a simple example, there are dozens of similar happenings that could be listed, of how people tend to treat their elders.  Someday in the distant future, when www.thefretboard.co.uk is long gone as happened to MusicRadar Forum, you might begin to understand something of what I am trying to say when similar happenings happen to you.  When you are no longer in the first flush of youth.  And events force you to feel that you are invisible.

chrispy108

But those people you're complaining about would do the same to other young people.

You're confusing their age with their rudeness. They didn't bump into you because they're young and you're old, they did it because they're rude.

You've also just admitted to assaulting people. Why don't you just avoid the collision if you can see it coming?