General Chat

Seeing that Leonard Cohen has died and that he had reached the age of eighty-two (when did that happen?!) made me wonder how the young must perceive old age now.

Hitler never really became an old man,he died at fifty-six and it is a pity he ever became a young man even but, when we were young, old men were Churchill, Somerset Maugham, Harold McMillan, proper old men.

Old men now are Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.

Old age is just something you grow into at a maximum rate of 60 minutes per hour. Getting older need not be a frightening experience. Now you have the experience of making mistakes, learning from them, and moving on.

Old age has given me a thick skin & I'm a bit deaf when it suits me plus my mind wanders. My memory goes back to at least half past eight this morning. My brain is on unpaid holiday much of the time but the rest of my body is still here. Who do you think is typing this piece of gibberish?

In my eyes age is only a number :-D :-D :-D. I feel like an 18 year old, but B******d if I can catch one :-D :-D :-D :-D

Ladies rarely admit to growing old except when applying for their pension & free bus pass.

you don't need to be old to get a pension and free bus pass - keep up Dermot lad

I'm not old I am just matured :-D :-D :-D

Imagining Dermie running behind the bus, trying to keep up. :-0 :-S :-D

JoyLouise - the irregular supposed hourly bus around here tends to travel a lot faster when I'm running to catch it than when I am sitting uncomfortably in it on a hot day with no windows open.

Insanely flashing my bus pass makes no impression on the smirking bad-tempered driver.

That’s life!

I think old people used to be more 'distant' than many are now.

They'd gone through a war, no NHS, and were alive when workhouses were in existence, and to me, this was a totally different world to the one I lived in.

However, even now, some people may be younger than me, but appear older.
It could be their clothes, attitude or general demeanour.

I have to admit to 'grasping' older age by the horns and making the most of it.
If a double decker bus comes, yes, I've feigned age/infirmity to be let on first - then ran up the stairs to the seat at the front :-D
I've also pointed out to schoolchildren that 'Others were here before you - show some respect!'......and then proceeded to elbow them out of the way....

You're right about it being a different world when we were young Maggie. My grandmother was about my age when she died but she had seemed an old lady forever. I've recently been given a photo of her when she was in her 40s and she looks nearer 80!

More worrying is the fact that policemen, teachers, nurses and even the new male weatherman on local TV all look about 15 to me :-D

Doctors were old men who told you what you had to do and what to take, they were not lads who should be getting on with their colouring who ask you your opinion.

Anyway, just to avoid confusion, I'm nearly as old as my tongue but a tad younger than a few of my teeth.

But begorrah! I intend to enjoy every day as best I can till the day I die - assuming I live that long.

You just keep on walking with your feet close to the ground and you will get there.

When I was young, I would also never ask personal questions, either of my mum, or grandmothers. Neither would any adult/grandmother instigate an atmosphere to do such a thing. They also wore totally different clothes to us.

I have filched a pair of shoes off my grand daughter, 'B' (when she'd outgrown them) and have my eye on my 8 year old grandsons boots - yes, at 8 he wears size 4's!
I know one shouldn't wear others' footwear, but, at my age, it's hardly going to cause me foot problems 'when I grow up' is it?
Grand daughter 'B' (aged 14) also occasionally borrows my clothes, and has asked for things I've 'outgrown' - she's so polite, I've put on weight - apart from those 'granny jumpers' she doesn't like - they'll be the woollen jumpers!
We've had some jolly good conversations about menstruation and menopause, I keep a supply of 'necessities' in my bathroom for her, and my daughters when they visit, (my gran's never did, neither did my mum) she's also asked me about drugs - and it's not as if she couldn't ask her mum about any of the above (apart, I suppose, from the menopause).
My daughter is quite open about her work, which is in Maternity Care, and B and her younger brothers know all the correct names for bodily bits!
She could ask her mum, but prefers to ask me.

As it has always been, the young usually think they 'started it', so the neighbours sons were gobsmacked when I suggested they changed their clothes before going to the shop, as they 'Stunk of Skunk'. They'd been smoking skunk in their shed. :-S

I'm also more adept at using the internet/computer systems than both my daughters and grandchildren, and can direct my grandsons to the best 'gaming' sites (not those 'take over your life' games, just quick half hour maximum ones.)