Thursday, January 13, 2005
You're getting old when...
There are a lot of lists and other sayings that follow this, but it struck me pretty forcibly the other day. I was walking in one of the local megastores looking for cereal and began to hum along with the background music. I decided that now that one of my favorite songs was being played as background music I was officially old. It was by the way, the Eurythmics.
I was also looking for a bran cereal and ignoring all the big brand titles, like Cheerios and Kellogs Corn Flakes for the generic equivalents. I know when I was young that Lucky Charms was much better tasting than the Meijer's magic symbol stuff and that all that sugar was so much better than plain stuff. Of course now I buy Kroger's or Meijer's corn flakes or "toasted oat circles" and enjoy them just fine.
My CDs all seem to be copyrighted sometime before the late 90s and my mailbox is full of magazines with back page ads that sell velcro sneakers and elastic pants "just like those brand name ones" at 3 for $30.
The Salvation Army routinely takes off their 15% senior's discount and Macdonalds usually offers me a cheap cup of coffee when I occasionally stop for my late breakfast. A few years ago, my glasses got that nasty streak across the middle called a bifocal and now I'm wearing "progressive" lenses - not only did I have to get bifocals, I'm now wearing trifocals.
Another right of passing last week was a colonoscopy - thankfully everything came out OK - and yes that was a pun. I'm not totally over the hill yet however.
I'm not wearing a white belt and my pants haven't been pulled up over my belly button. My VCR isn't blinking 12:00 and I am writing this on an operating computer of which I understand a great deal. My first computer came with 16K and cost $900 and I still have my first slide rule. I do know the difference between MP3, DVD, WiFi and AARP. I don't drive a blue Buick, but I do drive a New Beetle, which is probably close. On the other hand, while I do own a cell phone, I pretty much hate using the damn thing - and really hate listening to others use it. Rap is something I do with my knuckles and a reality show is Nova on PBS.
2fers: The "Good" old days (not really) and The "Good" old days 2 - (don't believe it)
