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Original poster

To Hope that when I get old I will never..........

124 replies

balotelli · 25/08/2012 21:05

Put on a collar and tie to do the shopping at Tesco....

Think that beige socks and brown sandals is acceptable footwear at any time of year....

Eat Werthers Originals......

Think that taking 12 strands of 5 inch long hair from one ear to the other then plastering to my shiny pate with god knows what takes 20 years off me and actually looks anything other than ridiculous....

Wear a Polo shirt three sizes too small and tuck it into my jeans with the brown leather belt pulled three inches too tight, cutting off the circulation to both legs (my DF's favourite dress code for every outing)

Think that a trip to a garden centre is a 'really lovely day out'

Become a racist, homophobic git......

Any one with any more fears for old age??

OP posts:
nankypeevy · 26/08/2012 00:18

Whilst I'm feeling slightly tipsy evangelical about what people can achieve, despite their physical and mental limitations...

The Diving Bell adn the Butterfly, a book written one blink at a time by a man who had locked in syndrome. People say "oh, kill me off if I can't x,y,z"

Well, here's a bloke who has, by his own admission, been a bit of a Lothario. Has a massive stroke, no one knows that he's stuck inside his body for years. Then, he gets a talented speech therapist, they work out communication, and he writes this book. Lived long enough to see it published, and declared it a legacy for his kids who would only have memories of him as a profoundly disabled man.

It's the best book I've ever read though, to be fair, I have not read "50 shades of chafing"

a book that should be compulsory reading for everyone

squoosh · 26/08/2012 00:30

Yes nanky the book and film are completely inspiring.

However I think it's patronising for an able bodied person to tell someone like Tony Nicklinson who had years of being trapped inside his own body that he could have achieved so much if only he'd put his mind to it. He decided his life wasn't worth living a long time ago, frankly he'd had time to do little else except consider his standard of living. Who are we to contradict him?

ladymariner · 26/08/2012 00:34

My darling father is 88 and always wears a collar and tie to go shopping, or to go to the garden centre where he and my mother potter round and have a lovely time when he's feeling up to it which, unfortunately, is getting less and less these days......

That's because he's a true gentleman and always tries to look smart and behave with manners and decorum. Which is a fucking sight more than the OP of this horrible thread has done. You should be ashamed of yourself, how bloody nasty and judgemental.

nankypeevy · 26/08/2012 00:47

suoosh - oh, I did not mean for that to sound like I was contradicting or critisising that case. Tony Nicklinson was in the flip side of the situation, because he found it intolerable.

Msr Bauby wanted to live. Which he tells us was a surprise, given his champagne lifestyle up to the point of his stroke.

So, my clumsy point is - you don't know how you will react to a situation until you are in it. You might think your life will be unbearable at 80 or, if you can't walk, or if your hair goes grey - but, you can't possibly know unless that is your reality.

Though, as all the people campaigning for euthanasia show - once it is your reality, it's not that easy to choose "I've had enough now"

So, fair point, and well put.

LadyDianaSpencer · 26/08/2012 00:54

I have enjoyed the poems on this thread.

NCForNow · 26/08/2012 00:56

My best friend and I plan to live together as old ladies, we both love cats and will sleep in one bed with a counterpane of moggies on top of us. (We're not lovers we're just fond of one another) Grin

We've planned this out.

seeker · 26/08/2012 00:59

You don't become a racist, homophobic git when you get old. You just stay being the same racist homophobic git you were when you were young.

seeker · 26/08/2012 01:00

But as usual, old people are fair game.

CheerfulYank · 26/08/2012 01:01

When I'm old I am just going to not give a shit . I am going to drink morning til night, take up smoking, and get monstrously fat.

And drive a golf cart with a pea shooter and wait for teenagers to be rude to me. :o

ladymariner · 26/08/2012 01:02

Quite, seeker

squoosh · 26/08/2012 01:06

nanky Ah yes I see, apologies. We don't know how we would react to living such a physically restricted lifestyle. Someone like Stephen Hawking obviously still has an enormously fulfilling and productive life but my imagination just cannot begin to process what it must be like to only exist as a mind and not as a body.

I remember reading about a 23 year old rugby player who was paralysed during a match. He chose to end his life at Dignitas a year after being injured, I did think 'maybe give it a little more time'.

Still, I do believe very strongly that when you decide that your life has become intolerable and that you wish to die you should be allowed to do so in the comfort of your own home and not in a clinic in Switzerland.

squoosh · 26/08/2012 01:09

CheerfulYank drunk in charge of a golf cart, with a non lethal weapon? Sounds like a perfect way to spend a Monday morning.

CheerfulYank · 26/08/2012 01:20

Squoosh you can come! :) My golf cart will have big glittery rims on the wheels, and there will be snacks.

Oh, and I'm going to lay in the sun all the time . And smoke lots of pot.

Signet2012 · 26/08/2012 01:42

When I am old I will never

  1. Look back on my life with regret (I hope)
  2. Live to be the last one standing.
  3. Say "thats not music its just noise"
  4. Leave my teeth in a glass above the sink frightening my grandchildren to death.
  5. Watch my p's and q's
  6. Eat PEK as a meat in a roast.
  7. Go to church to "hedge my bets"

:)

squoosh · 26/08/2012 01:43

What's PEK?

Signet2012 · 26/08/2012 02:29

It's like pink wierd looking corned beef with jelly on.

My nan has it in place of actual meat with her Sunday lunch. That or bacon grill which looks the same.

No idea what animal(s) it's from Smile

ILiveInAPineapple · 26/08/2012 08:39

Well I like old people, in my previous career I spent a lot of time with them and they are pretty fabulous people, with amazing stories to tell if only you take the time to listen.

Grumpy/ racist/ homophobic old people were grumpy/ racist/ homophobic young people - that isn't something that just happens to you when you get old!

My grandparents are in their 80s now, and my granda still walks miles every day, despite hip problems, and pleural plaques from his days as an engineer. My gran was a nurse, and although she can't get out much now without someone taking her in a wheelchair, she has such a zest for life. She still feels she is 29 she tells me, and then she sees an old lady looking back at her in the mirror. She is so wise, and always knows the right thing to say or do, which is something that can only come from living so long. All my family are "long livers", having traced my family tree, nobody (except a great grandfather who fell into a vat of molten metal, and a great aunt who died of scepticemia) has died in the last 150 years before they were 80!

So I have high hopes that I will make it to a ripe old age, and my only wish is that I am as wise and respected a member of the family as my grandparents are in my family.

People are too quick to write old people off. They forget that they have seen it all and lived through it to tell the tale. If only you would listen, they can teach you so much. (it is telling that my two careers have been with mainly older people and children, respectively!) They should be highly valued members of society, and a lot that is wrong with this country is to do with the way we treat our old people.

Original poster
balotelli · 26/08/2012 08:51

I am not being judgemental or disrespectful.

there are a number of things that the older generation seem to do with alarming regularity that I dont understand. Maybe I will as I get older but at the moment I'm only 50. My DF has a poster in his lounge which says... Growing old is compulsory, Growing up is optional. I love my DF. despite his awful fashion sense.

I have a client wh is recoving from a broken hip. He was doing karaoke on stage ,dancing with some ladys on a cruise ship in the carribean when he fell off the stage and broke his hip. He was 91. Thats how I want to be when I'm 91.

OP posts:
lljkk · 26/08/2012 08:54

No to
Beige. In any item of clothing
Blue rinse

I want to be the sort of old lady who enters triathlons & comes in 30 min behind everyone else in time trials :).

Maat · 26/08/2012 09:09

I wonder how many posters on this thread who are saying "I'd like to do X when I am old" are making the most of their lives now.

I know I'm not.

I spend far too much time on MN for a start.

sashh · 26/08/2012 09:11

Wear 15 layers of underwear and a crimpolene dress in summer.

And in winter to never wear a taupe coat, shes and tights with a tartan skirt.

Say 'in my day............' but I think I just might say that one.

BulldogDrummond · 26/08/2012 09:11

Please explain - what is the age when one is 'old'? Did you kow that the older you are yourself, the older 'old' becomes?

BulldogDrummond · 26/08/2012 09:12

*know

hobnobsaremyfavourite · 26/08/2012 09:17

Like seeker said old people are seen as fair game, makes me sad and angry. Can you Imagine if any other group in society were labelled this negatively , there would be uproar. Old people are not one homogenous group. OP you should be ashamed but you will be old one day and letshope for your sake that attitudes have changed.

lljkk · 26/08/2012 09:18

My mother decided to be "old" as soon as she turned 50. I'm quite happy to look my age (mid 40s), but I'm not doing things my mother's way, either.

Last night, We were sneering last night at Joan Collins prancing around on a TV advert pretending to be a 19yo. And to be honest, I think she does a massive disservice to ordinary old folk (of which my family are many).