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Original poster

Tell me about a time when you felt old

283 replies

Newbie8918 · 15/02/2026 13:11

This is absolutely ‘just for fun’ on a wet Sunday, so please take this in the spirit that it’s intended!

I was at an 18th birthday party a few weeks ago. I went to the buffet and there was hot and cold food (think curry and sandwiches) so I had a plate of both. A lovely young man behind me, asked where I was sitting and whether I needed help, carrying one of the plates back.

Im able bodied and 44 😆 but appreciated the sentiment

Your turn!

OP posts:
DotAndCarryOne2 · 15/02/2026 17:12

When recently driving through the neighbourhood I moved away from, for the first time in some twenty five years. The landscape had naturally changed somewhat, but I felt really old when I realised that in most cases I actually couldn’t remember what was there before.

pinkyredrose · 15/02/2026 17:09

olderbutwiser · 15/02/2026 14:37

In the Apple Store, buying a top of the range Apple Watch with money I had earned from my own consultancy, where my day rate was probably 10x that of the teenager serving me.

She turned away from me to my dd and said "have we chosen which colour strap we want yet?" with a tilty head and a smile. I was We.

I was INCANDESCENT with rage.

Ooh that would make me murderous! Did you say anything? I don't think I'd be able to stop myself!

Carryitjoyfully · 15/02/2026 17:07

One of my pupils asked what it was like being a teacher in Victorian times. 😳🤣

EwwSprouts · 15/02/2026 17:06

I was out shopping with DS, then a toddler in a buggy. A lady in the shoe shop said to him 'ooh is granny looking after you today?' I was 41.

GrumpyButOk · 15/02/2026 17:06

The bewilderment on a young colleague's face when I explained about needing to know whether your car took 2, 3 or 4 star petrol.

Also, having to remember to carry two pence and ten pence coins when going out just in case you needed to use the phone. I guess the question "Have you got any change for the phone?" is never asked now 😁

Asuitablecat · 15/02/2026 17:05

I teach teenagers, so pretty much every day!
But also, young teachers, when I talk about how excited we'd get if we had a room with a white board instead of a chalk board. How you could totally bollocks up the photocopier by printing on oht incorrectly. And how once, because I was once the young one, I learned how to do a ppt then showed everyone else😆

DotAndCarryOne2 · 15/02/2026 17:05

Newbie8918 · 15/02/2026 13:28

Wait until you tell them that we used to block the landline whilst we used the internet!

Show quote history

Or that there was once something called a party line on landlines, which meant that if the neighbour you shared your line with was on the phone you couldn’t use yours and vice versa - not to mention that the conversations could be listened in on !!

Blushingm · 15/02/2026 17:04

When I realised I was old enough to be my student at works nan

ChocolateCinderToffee · 15/02/2026 17:03

Two small boys outside the sweet shop:

'Ey, she's give me two foreign coins in me change!'

'No she 'asn't! Them are two-and-a-half pences.'

This would have been half a century ago. I was 16 at the time, but old enough to know what a sixpence looked like!

ABeerInTheSunshineMakesMeHappy · 15/02/2026 16:59

Mags1001 · 15/02/2026 15:24

I've just asked the woman in the SPAR for mints.
She looked at me blankly
Extra Strong Mints?
Huh?
MINTS! Murry mints polo mints, Everton mints, spearmints, extra strong mints.

Not MINCE.
She had no idea
Apparently if id said Trebor she might have had a clue.

Like a lot of these- that’s not on you being old but on the sales assistant being totally thick.

StormInaDcup99 · 15/02/2026 16:59

Buying a new fridge and buying it on 0 percent finance at Curries

Young lady serving me asked me my date of birth......i said 19/6/67

Her response....oh is that 1967 ?

I was dumbstruck.....i know I'm no spring chicken but do I look like I'm over 157 years old lol

TigerRag · 15/02/2026 16:58

Someone on Reddit "I was born in 2010'

My cousin becoming a dad. I remember him being a toddler

thenightsky · 15/02/2026 16:51

Daygloboo · 15/02/2026 14:29

Walking along a high street in london. Woman handing out flyers for a nightclub. Took one look at me and pulled in her arm and turned away.

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Oh yes, I've had that happen too. I'd actually put my hand out to take the flyer and the young lad just pulled his arm in and turned his back on me. Sad

December2025 · 15/02/2026 16:46

I have never felt so old as the day after my mum died and I didn't have parents anymore I was only 37 but felt a good 20 years older.

ABeerInTheSunshineMakesMeHappy · 15/02/2026 16:42

GlasgowGal2014 · 15/02/2026 13:51

My mind was boggled recently when I found out that some organisations that I work with still use fax machines!

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NHS?

Nolongera · 15/02/2026 16:41

Talking to my nephew and his mates about how pubs used to close in the afternoon and at 10 30pm, they didn't believe me.

As far as they are concerned pubs have always been open when you want them.

ABeerInTheSunshineMakesMeHappy · 15/02/2026 16:39

Imicola · 15/02/2026 13:36

When a couple of my younger colleagues were discussing music and had no idea who Oasis were. I felt so old!

I think that’s on them being unaware of music and culture beyond their small bubble. My son and his friends (early/mid 20s) are all well aware and paid a fortune to see them last year.

TroysMammy · 15/02/2026 16:39

I was a Brown Owl in 2003 and I was aged 35. For an end of term party I told the Brownies they could bring their cassette tapes so they could listen to music they liked. One Brownie said "Brown Owl, what's a cassette tape?" .

Isometimeswonder · 15/02/2026 16:34

Explaining to my uni-aged nephew that we had a go to a laundrette when I was in student accommodation.

OnARainyDay2012 · 15/02/2026 16:32

Watching stranger things! And realising you're not Nancy or Eleven anymore - you're the mom😱

NetZeroZealot · 15/02/2026 16:29

When I realised the man who was firing me from my job had not been born when I graduated from Uni.

Dontcallmescarface · 15/02/2026 16:27

At a gig recently. I know the band quite well and was standing in the area reserved for guestlist when I got asked " are you the singer's mum?"...the singer is 12 years younger than me.

Mapletree1985 · 15/02/2026 16:25

Basquervill · 15/02/2026 13:23

I don’t feel old, actually, but I increasingly feel that people younger than me have a very limited scope compared to me… they just have less experience, and that looks like a disadvantage.

I know exactly what you mean. I often feel the same.

TheBogPeople · 15/02/2026 16:18

Mags1001 · 15/02/2026 15:24

I've just asked the woman in the SPAR for mints.
She looked at me blankly
Extra Strong Mints?
Huh?
MINTS! Murry mints polo mints, Everton mints, spearmints, extra strong mints.

Not MINCE.
She had no idea
Apparently if id said Trebor she might have had a clue.

not an ‘old’ moment but this reminded me of going into our local Co-OP just before Christmas and asking the young sales assistant for bay leaves. She beamed, turned to the shelf behind her and handed me a bottle of Baileys.

They didn’t have any bay leaves as it turned out and my bolognese went without.

SparklyGlitterballs · 15/02/2026 16:14

maddiemookins16mum · 15/02/2026 13:30

I’m 61, two weeks ago I was training some new starts at work, none of them were born before 2005.

I had a similar situation. Doing a presentation to a new starter group and each presenter had to open by saying what their role was and when they joined the company. When I said I'd started in 1987, one of the grads said out loud "I wasn't even born then". I felt ancient.

A funnier incident was when my DD was in junior school and begging for her first mobile phone. I was resisting. "How old was you when you got your first mobile?" I had to admit I was 35, when mobiles became more accessible to the public. She was horrified I'd not had my own phone for my teenage years. Her mind was blown when I told her all about dial up internet, and having to use the library or a set of encyclopaedias to do homework 🤣