BS: Who you calling elderly?

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Helen
Date: 23 May 21 - 05:53 PM

Jos, that's pretty much the same mental process I go through. My first response to the enquirer is, "what year is it?" but really that's a delaying tactic to give me time to do the calculations.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 23 May 21 - 12:14 PM

I watched that match on a big black-and-white telly in Victor Value supermarket in Radcliffe, where I was the Saturday lad (fifteen bob for a day's work). The manager, usually a miserable sod, hired the telly for the afternoon from Radio Rentals and actually let us watch the game instead of working...

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 23 May 21 - 11:57 AM

Living in England, I can't forget as it's often mentioned how long since we won the FIFA World Cup - the day I was born in Manchester.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: meself
Date: 23 May 21 - 11:30 AM

I remember how delighted I was once when - many, many years ago - as my birthday was approaching I did the math, and discovered that I was 56 turning 57, and not 57 turning 58 as I had supposed. I couldn't help feeling that I'd gained a year.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Jos
Date: 23 May 21 - 09:50 AM

If people ever ask me how old I am I usually can't remember. It keeps changing.
I do know which year I was born, so I have to remember which year it is now (which also keeps changing), do a bit of mental arithmetic, then take into account the time of year (it keeps changing as well) in order to work out whether I have had a birthday yet.
With luck, I will come up with somewhere near the right answer.

I knew my mother was getting old when she said "I'm eighty-three, you know."

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: rich-joy
Date: 23 May 21 - 09:10 AM

Was it Pete Seeger maybe? who gave the definition that : "Old Age is where the Broad Mind and the Narrow Waist often change places"!!

Cheers,
R-J
(and I confess to shedding a teensy tear, as I say goodbye to my 60s this year :(

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Helen
Date: 23 May 21 - 08:48 AM

No, I haven't hit the septuagenarian stage yet but I only have a few more years of donating plasma before they show me the door.

One thing I have heard about is that people with dementia can remember songs from their youth and listening to those songs can light up their faces with joy.

If you are looking for some elderly humour, try the Aunty Acid cartoons. Do an image search on Google and there are hundreds of images.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 23 May 21 - 08:01 AM

"Old is when you lose your sense of humor" (Jerry)...and I've also enjoyed the humour in this thread.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Donuel
Date: 23 May 21 - 07:42 AM

Long pants and socks are a must in this Lyme disease area but Hawaiian shirts go with everything. It seems Helen, Steve and I are exactly the same age. My one pair of pajamas, should I ever need them, are a crossword puzzle design one can fill in with words.

I now picture steve wearing shorts, sandels and hawaiian shirt sporting a salted beard calling his cat "dinnneeer"

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 23 May 21 - 07:09 AM

I went to a pub in Broadford on Skye in 1974 that had a sign behind the bar saying "Credit is available to over-90s provided they are accompanied by both parents."

All my shirts are short-sleeved Hawaiian-style, I never wear long trousers or socks or a tie (the most ridiculously useless garment ever invented) and my footwear is always sandals. I possess no nightwear and never have (except for a pair in case I have to go into hospital). The most important thing for me in spring is to turn brown as quickly as possible. I'll be three score years and ten in three weeks' time.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 23 May 21 - 06:10 AM

I've enjoyed every comment on here. I've been playing, telling stories, and just plain visiting nursing homes since the seventies. I first started in the sixties. At that time, I sang songs my mother was still singing... Casey Would Waltz With the Strawberry Blond, Shine on Harvest Moon, and Bicycle Built For Two vintage. As time passed, I moved into songs from the forties, then fifties. Now those songs are too old for some of the younger residents. When I have to sing rap. I'll know it's time to quit. :-)

Most of the songs I've written and stories I tell are not nostalgic. Many are about right now, although I throw in a little doo wop and standards. In nursing homes, showing that you care for someone is far more important than a steady diet of "oldies." Folks may be old, but they're living right now, and good stories are timeless.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Helen
Date: 23 May 21 - 05:26 AM

I have it planned for some time in the future when I am forced to listen to a bunch of young'uns playing what they think is old folks music, e.g. the aforementioned "We'll Meet Again" etc. I'll be up the back yelling out, "play Stairway to Heaven" or even "play something by The Sex Pistols".

Back in the mid '80' my workplace was next to a Senior Citizens' Centre. They had regular concerts which we could hear through our back window. It made me wince even then. The way I figure it, the music that older folks probably want to hear was from when they were in their twenties, so in the mid-1980's, if the clientele were in their '60's, '70's or '80's, the repertoire should be from 40, 50 or 60 years ago, i.e. the 1940's, 1930's or 1920's. Daisy Bell, written in the 1890's should not have been on the list, although maybe We'll Meet Again would have appealed to the older people in the room because it was from World War II.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Jos
Date: 23 May 21 - 03:49 AM

I have met young children who are seriously 'middle aged' - like Sandra in Sydney's sister's friend, but about seven years old.

I have also seen people's images of 'the elderly' being exploited in advertising. A leaflet for a retirement home had pictures of an elegant, well-heeled, happy looking couple dressed in clothes from the early 1930s - this is how 'the elderly' would have been thought of by those the advertisement was really aimed at, who grew up in the 1960s, and looked very different.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: BobL
Date: 23 May 21 - 02:35 AM

One delight of being my present age (post-retirement pre-boomer) is that the world seems to be increasingly populated with young and beautiful people.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Helen
Date: 23 May 21 - 01:27 AM

Hey Sandra, yes, come to sunny Nukes. What's the concert? One of those Senior Cits specials featuring We'll Meet Again, and Daisy Bell?

Sorry!! LOL

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Rapparee
Date: 23 May 21 - 12:25 AM

One of the churches here has a "Seasoned Citizens" lunch once a month at a local restaurant. If I get any more seasoned I'll be toxic!

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 23 May 21 - 12:13 AM

Helen, wot a shame we hippy-dressing oldies didn't get the chance to meet up a couple of years ago. We could have checked out each other's wardrobe. Tho I am pondering coming to Newcastle for a Sunday afternoon concert in a few months, I go the same distance to Wollongong for a day trip, why not head north?

In my cartoon collection I have a strip showing 2 mothers of teens/20s - first one is offered the Seniors discount by the cashier & is offended (she is younger than the cashier thinks), the first one is still ranting as they leave, while the second has a thought balloon ("I saved 5%!")

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Helen
Date: 22 May 21 - 11:23 PM

One advantage of being labelled a "senior" in Oz is that we are eligible for the Seniors Card if we're working less than 21 hours per week. There are discounts on public transport and all sorts of other things. I'll accept being an oldie if there is a worthwhile advantage, and reject the title when it suits me.

My attire tends towards the hippie end of the scale as well. In the months after I retired I dyed my hair bright purple to celebrate. It was fun. It's a more sedate (NOT!) mulberry colour now.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: JennieG
Date: 22 May 21 - 10:48 PM

I once read that "old age is ten years older than your current age"......so it keeps getting pushed back.

Sounds good to me.

It does really piss me off, however, when someone on the news is described as "an elderly man/woman aged somewhere between 50 and 60" - age is usually mid-50s. Since when was mid-50s classed as "elderly"?

Sandra is right. Attitude is a big factor in age. When my mother was my current age she had one foot in the grave; the other followed less than 18 months later and in she slid. I hope not to follow suit.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Rapparee
Date: 22 May 21 - 10:18 PM

"Don't trust anyone over 30!"

Bob Dylan turns 80 on Monday. Mick Jagger is turning 78 this year. Joan Baez is 80. Joni Mitchell will be 78 in November. Phil Ochs is dead. Tom Paxton will be 84. Mama Cass and Janice Joplin are dead.

I'm 76.

DON'T TRUST ANYBODY OVER 90!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 22 May 21 - 09:53 PM

Way back in high school I counted forward & realised I'd be 48!!!! in 2000 - I couldn't imagine being that old ...

When I was in my early 40s, my younger sister had a friend/workmate the same age as me & she was OLD. She dressed like our parents, had behaviours & attitudes like our parents or grandparents & made herself OLD.

I'm 25 years older now (70 next year!) & still wear long hippy dresses. They are much more comfortable than many more recent fashions. I was hissed at a few years back by a snarky contemporary that I was stuck in a time-warp & almost broke into Rocky Horror Time Warp but restrained myself as explaining her rudeness in front of our friends was not appropriate - something I might have done in my thoughtless youth!

I won't mention my sore bits ...

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Malcolm Storey
Date: 22 May 21 - 08:45 PM

The one thing about being old is that it is never boring.
You wake up every morning with a different set of aches and pains.

Mind you if I'd known I was going to live this long I would have given up smoking 60 years ago rather than 20.

Time is of the essence - that's why retirement homes smell as they do!

I could go on but that will do for tonight.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Donuel
Date: 22 May 21 - 05:05 PM

Old is when you can no longer think ahead. That makes some old by age 17 and young at 70. My kin generally look 20 years younger than we are.
(we stayed out of the poison yellow sun of yours.)

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 22 May 21 - 01:24 PM

Age, old age, is an ACHIEVEMENT.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 22 May 21 - 01:08 PM

I don't mind being tol that I am old. I am. My response then is, "and so?"

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 22 May 21 - 12:38 PM

I like your rambles, meself.

My body is old. It reminds me all the time. I don't listen to it when it whines. I tell it to get a life, and do the things I can do to keep my body as strong as is possible at my age (which is more than I would believe.)

One thing: You are never so old that you can't lift someone's
spirit. It is light as a feather.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: meself
Date: 22 May 21 - 12:30 PM

When you are in your mid-60s - as I am, by the bye - you are old, as far as young people are concerned - it's just silly to rail against it. Don't you remember being young? I don't want younger people pussyfooting around, wondering how to characterize my stage of life without hurting my tender feelings.

'elderly people say "By Cracky," and slap their knee when they tell an old joke.' I'm looking forward to that being me - time I started practising, I guess.

'" You know you're getting old when you start to say, I don't know what's the matter with these kids today."' Read some comments on on-line forums - not so much on this one, thankfully, but elsewhere you'll find all kinds of complaints about 'millenials', etc., and Boomers going on about how all the music today is nothing but noise ....

Don't take any of this too seriously; I'm just an old man rambling on ... think I'll go take a nap, now; you kids enjoy yourselves ... don't worry about me .......

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 22 May 21 - 12:16 PM

Beats the alternative hollow.

Subject: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 22 May 21 - 11:04 AM

Who you calling elderly?

I saw a news article today about an attack on an elderly man. He is 67. I lookecd up the definition of elderly in my Meriam Webster dictionary and it said "Older than middle-aged." What a cop out. I didn't bother to check their definition of middle-aged. It probably says, "younger than elderly." The internet was no help. They group the elderly, Seniors, and older people into the same category.

In my mind, elderly people say "By Cracky," and slap their knee when they tell an old joke. I wrote a song about being old:
" You know you're getting old when you start to say, I don't know what's the matter with these kids today."

Old is when you lose your sense of humor; when you are fearful of the future and can't remember the past; when you can consider exxercise as going to the refrigerator to get a bottle of beer; when you've lost your curiosity; and when no one remembers your oldies because they weren't born yet.

It is no particular age. It is not a matter of health. It is a mindset.

I have no intention of ever being elderly. Thanks for the offer but I think I'll pass.