You Know You are Old When

[jodie]

I loved everyone's replies!  So true!  Some others I thought of:

When the home telephone was located on the kitchen wall.  And when it rang, you answered it.  No caller ID, no answering machines.  And of course no cell phones.  I remember when my parents got another phone put into their bedroom, an 'extension.'  Boy, that was exciting for back then!

A slice of pizza and a small soda - 35 cents.  A bottle of coke from the vending machine - 10 cents. 

You could smoke absolutely anywhere. 

Forty+ years ago, if you worked a cash register, you actually had to look at the price, take the money and figure out the change.  No scanning, no people swiping credit cards, and no, the cash register did not tell you the change to give.  Wow!

Back then, if I was looking for a job, I responded to a newspaper ad or just walked into the place.  I was either hired on the spot, or not.  None of this applying online, competing against a million other people i.e. Walmart, K Mart, Target etc., with a 10 page application that requires you to answer the most inane questions that somehow have something to do with working a cash register at their store...'Do you think politicians tell the truth?'  An actual question!!

I remember when you got on a city bus, you did not need exact change.  The bus driver actually made change for you!

Watching the 'Million Dollar Movie' on channel 9, which was repeated over and over. A choice of about 6 stations complete with bad reception (tho who knew bad from good back then!) Far cry from today's 200+ TV channels.

You know you're getting old when you say things like 'In my head, I am still 16.  But my body feels like I'm 87.'

Buying clothes, shoes etc revolves around comfort.  Hair styles need to be easy and never time-consuming or complicated.

If you divide your life into thirds i.e. 0-30, 30-60, 60-90 and realize that 2/3 of your life is over.

As a kid I was always getting stuff in my eyes...early Sjogren's dryness?  Anyway, my mother would take me to the corner drugstore and the pharmacist would actually take it out!

I love reading these replies - keep them coming!

[quilt4fun]

...you bend over to tie your shoes and wonder what else you can do while you're down there.


...tie shoes?  let's try velcro!

[WildThing]

You take afternoon naps

When taking a walk you 'stop to admire the view'

[Katybarstool]

Today my young neighbour came to bring an Easter card, and stopped for a coffee. She is in her late 20's and from the Philipines. She has only been married a couple of years, and has a toddler. We talked about weddings and I brought out my wedding album. I was 18 when I got married, and am 55 now, so it's old:). However, the thing I noticed the most is th quality of photographs - they seem so small now, nothing at all like the clear pictures produced by digital cameras. Nor as romantic as the ones from my grandparent's days.

Today, I felt old!

Kathyx

[Pisces24]

Don't know if you ever heard the phrase "her looks could stop traffic" meaning that a gal was very good looking.

Back when I my mom was living, I remember taking the garbage out one summer day in a tank top and shorts.  A couple guys in a car slowed down and were checking me out.
When I went in the house I told my mom, well I can't stop traffic but I can at least slow it down! 

[eye2dry]

Rabbit ears on top of the TV set. Every so often my dad would have to "adjust them" to get reception. Of course  Black and White TV picture.

Telephone party lines! Originally there were 5 homes on one party line. Then we really felt we were living it up when it went down to 2 familys on a party line. By 1976 we  had our own phone line, No sharing, we felt rich.

Chewing gum on the school bue, or not staying in your seat while the bus was moving.....the bus driver turned around and went back to  the school and you got kicked off----straight to the office. Then instead of your parents chewing out the school district for keeping order....you got some more discipline from your parents when you got home (if you know what I mean)

eye2dry

[WildThing]

LOL I used to stop traffic as well, also got honks on the horn in my youth and wolf whistles but now...not so much as a glance 

[gold55]

yea, when those "double-takes" stop happening.....you can pretty much figure it's NOT your out of style clothes.....I'm just plain OLD!

[smallfry]

       When your children start to look old.

       When your Children call you OLD GREY MARE.

       
       But its my grandchildren that make me feel younger, because I can act a goat and get away with it, and       they laugh and say thats just Grandma.


    Cheryl

[Joe S.]

One of your Boy Scouts knocks on your door to introduce his wife and three kids.

[MissyLouWho?]

One of your Boy Scouts knocks on your door to introduce his wife and three kids.

That was a shock, wasn't it, Joe??  I remember thinking  few years ago about some of my preschoolers (I used to teach) that I was especially fond of and wondering what they were doing right about now.  After I calculated their ages, I was absolutely beside myself when I realized they probably had preschoolers of their own 

[Joe S.]

The shock was that that happend over 30 years ago!

[WildThing]

You're old school friends don't even remember having ever known you

[Pisces24]

AS a kid, few in my neighborhood had a telephone. We did not.

Odd how two blocks away you could be playing with the other kids, scrape your knee or elbow, walk home and be met right at the door by your mother with a wet cloth, antiseptic and a bandage. Mother-Radar??? 

[Meld256]

Pisces, you are so right about the Mother-Radar!  How did they know things with few telephones and such? 

One of the few times my mother was really upset with me was because of the "radar" I suppose.  We lived on a side street of a busier one.  All the side streets had narrow alleys between them, and a few cars zoomed down them.  The family rule was to NEVER, ever, EVER ride my bike in the alley (even though some of my other 8-10 yr, old friends did.) 

One afternoon I felt daring, and rode down one of the alleys just a bit.  I felt such freedom! I thought Mom would never find out. 

Sure enough, minutes later when I got home, she knew!    Wow, was she mad and waiting with a rolled-up newspaper for a spanking.  I never figured out how she found out.