To be so fascinated by old people

[Missu2]

Hi everyone I'm a long time lurker

Today I was at the shops waiting for my child to pick a sweet, when this old lady walks in now, when I say old I mean hunched back can hardly walk sort of old maybe nearly 90! And I was so amazed and I don't know why! I just had this thought "I hope I can reach that age"I tried so hard not to stare at her! but this is not the first time. And I have always had this urge to ask these old people about their lives and a childhood, so long ago it would be history.

My friends think I'm strange and to be that old would be horrible and so near death but I beg to differ, by that age I would have most likely lost most of my loved ones,mum, hubby etc. that dying would no more be scary to me, you have to really think about this lol.

I suffer from pnd my best friend thinks this is why I have an obsession of my interest in very old oaps but it is not, I have always found them inspiring to live life to the fullest and I just can't explain why!

Please someone feel the same way as me?! Or have I always been mad?!

Scared of responses but I'm honest and just want to know I'm not alone in this. oaps phobia is so strange to me, I can only hope to live so long!!

"That's probably because 40 year olds aren't fascinating"

What- none of them?

Nobody tried swapping "black" for "old", then?

Well my 92 year old father is a one off type. Sadly he has terminal cancer and has not got long to go. He is still running a farm from his armchair and has a young shepherdess lambing his ewes as we speak. He picked himself up from the tragic death of my brother and started to breed racehorses at the age of 80 (money eating useless feckers). Up until recently he went round the farm on his quad bike. He had a small stroke once and managed to clamber back on said bike and get home. He has always been interested in all sorts of people and consequently has never been short of company. However he is no saint and his views on black and gay people are unprintable. He is an old bugger but I will miss him when he's gone and so will many others. His generation lived a completely different type of life and I genuinely believe had more strength of character. It is silly to lump all old people together though. Just because you're old it doesn't make you fascinating.

I didn't say 40 year olds aren't interesting, I say they aren't particularly fascinating. There's a difference. I'm sure there might be a few but I haven't met any yet. However I have met a few fascinating old people. I've also met a few boring contankerous ones. Can't see what all the fuss is about. I find them interesting because, because of their age they have many interesting stories to tell (sometimes) not because they are like a different species.

I don't think its so much actually fascinated by them being old, rather than fascinated by the lives they have lived and the stories they can tell. I'd rather that than indifference.

I think you sound lovely OP

Exactly, Roseforarose - some people on here get too tied up in the way somebody has written something, rather than reading what they are trying to say.
The reason that talking to a lot of older people is so interesting, is because they can remember things / have lived through things that we haven't. Unless you are only 20, then that doesn't apply in quite the same way for 40 yr olds.

I once had the most interesting conversation of my entire life (ok, well I'm 24, so something may top it) with an elderly gentleman on a bus a couple of years ago.

He was a long-since retired submarine engineer. He designed actual fucking submarines.