Tell me about a time when you felt old

Conversation with v nice and helpful younger neighbour when I lived in that area about the dearth of filling stations in the area. He said " there's one near that statue" (of Winston Churchill in Woodford Green, once MP for the area.) He didn't know who the statue was of, but I suppose Churchill is just a historical figure now.

……as mince !!

Oh and another one! One day in work me and a young colleague got talking about history and the shock on his face when I said I knew someone who had fought in the battle of the somme!

Recently at a pub quiz where only adults were present (ie no under 18s). Im 41 for context. One question was loony tunes related. A man in the pub shouted … ‘I used to watch that on one of those fat things you used to put in dvd players’ ie a vhs. I felt like an antique.

Someone talking about Jeff Ep, I had no idea whom he meant until he said Jeffrey Epstein. Took way too long to get it.

Also, having to get on my knees in the bath to then stand up and get out.

I'm only early 40's.

University admissions tutor here. I'm reading applications from people born in 2008!!
I told a student she was wearing a t shirt of one of my favourite bands, the Ramones. It depressed me that she'd never heard of them and just liked the design.

I knew I was officially ancient when I bent down to pick up the cat’s dish and inadvertently let out a loud and resonant old-lady fart just like my grandma used to do. Very disconcerting, luckily only the cat was around to hear me.

Finding grey hair at 27 just after my youngest child was born 😂

and

Not as light hearted as it should be but I feel old now at 39. My lovely father in law is dying from dementia and have been told
it won’t be long now (although not imminent). 😭

My teens regularly tell me they wish they'd lived through the 80s/90s. They've been brought up on 80s and 90s music and films, and wish they'd known those days of no mobile phones and more freedom 😔

I think they’re often used as more secure!

I struggle standing at gigs too... At two different gigs last week, there were unexpected seats round the side - absolute bonus! However, went to a day rave/club (3pm til 11pm) in a warehouse last weekend and I couldn't stand up by the end of the night 😭 I'm 47 and have a fairly hardcore gym habit FFS! 🤷🏻‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️🤣 It's not fitness linked apparently....

Love this thread. I was offended recently when someone asked if I was thinking about retirement. I’m 54 !!

To be honest I don't get a lot of this. I can understand not being able to imagine living a certain way or thinking things are easier now. But I grew up with mobiles and the internet (not from being a baby but from quite a young age ). I also know that before then people (shock ! ) did things differently and don't faint in astonishment when they mention phone boxes, type writers, record players and pre decimal currency. I know about events and music from before I was born too. I don't think this can be just put down to me getting older and more experienced because I've known since I was at least a teen. Do Gen Z really spend all their time going "wow there was a time before 2005 ? Who knew ?" And not having any curiosity ? Surely they can't all have such narrow horizons ?

When the 22 year old in the office asked me how my Christmas was and if I cooked Christmas dinner. I’m 39 and have an 8 year old but it suddenly hit me that people see me as a grown up 🤣 in my eyes it’s still something my mum does (she’s the real grown up haha).

I got asked if I’d ever had balloons and thought they meant like the inflatable type for a kids party rather than the inhaling type (I still don’t know what they are)

I was watching the autumn rugby tests on the TV in 2024. England v Australia. Feeling old went something like this:

England try - Sleightholme. Lovely. Hammers down the left wing, smash, try.

Sleightholme. Hmmm. Oh, is Jon Sleightholme still playing? Remember watching him at Bath some years ago.

No.

It was his son Ollie, then aged 24.

Oh.

Sigh.

When I got call Ma’am in America. Surely I should be a Miss?!

I was trying on new glasses frames and the assistant said they made
me look younger. That’s just another way of saying you look old!

Also I went for a coffee with a new young 20-something colleague and we got to know each other. On hearing I did natural sciences at uni she said “I thought there was something school-teacher-ish about you”! (I was in a sweaty betty dress that I didn’t think look conservative at all.)

😱😱😱 I feel like it was only on last year ….

Ages ago,I bought a dress

Pink with cream spots

I tried it on and 'd'p told me i looked like mr blobbys nan

If that wasn't bad enough,I repeated this at work

A sea of blank faces''who's mr blobby?'

They where all too young to remember noels house party

To make it worse,ive managed to break a toe and dp has pulled a muscle so we are both hobbling around the house like we're in our 90's

When I was 29 I had housemates who were 23 and 24, they were very old souls so it luckily worked fine. One night we were watching a film and I said 'doesn't she look like Jackie Kennedy' about someone on screen. They both said 'who?!' so I said 'oh sorry, Jackie O' which again was met with 'who's that?!'. When I said 'oh she was John F Kennedy's wife'...you've guessed it, they didn't know who he was either. I felt really old and was only a few years older than them!

was talking at work about Game of Thrones and asked a woman what she made of it, she said she’d never watched it as it was on past her bedtime and her parents would never stay up,that late, God I felt old!

I was at a work conference, with people in the wider team who don’t know me personally. I have worked at the company over 20 years and a lot of the team are under 30, I am over 50. We were doing a team building exercise and asked to get into groups, everyone avoided my eye until an ex colleague came to my aide. I felt like nobody wanted to be in a group with the old woman. It was a bit of a wake up call as I thought I was the same as everyone else.

I’d have told her ‘no we haven’t and we won’t be choosing anything here’ and then left, never to return.