What Has Made You Feel Old?

[Sparkle Neely]

I’m about to turn 40, and as I get older I am experiencing situations that make me feel like an old maid. I was getting my hair did recently, and made a Pretty Woman reference. The 20-something hairdresser had no clue what I was talking about.

A while back I went to a local store to pick up the new Streisand CD. The young employee had no idea who I was talking about. Not even a passing knowledge.

Getting coffee, a young, gay barista asked about my Anyone Can Whistle shirt. He didn’t know who Sondheim or Angela Lansbury were. And I wasn’t about to condense her career to the teapot on Beauty and the Beast for him.

I keep trying to convince myself I’m not that old, but these children aren’t helping matters! It constantly baffles me that with information more accessible than ever, people seem to know less and less about things that happened before they were born.

What’s happened to you that’s made you feel older than dirt?

[javero]

When I received an early retirement offer from my employer last Fall.

[Someone in a Tree2]

There's so few folks I know with whom I can share my Broadway show-going memories from the 70's.

Frankly every pop culture conversation I have with ANYONE these days makes me feel old. 

She's not even 40, and the OP has already gotten a taste of what her life will be like for the next several decades. Your only choice is to embrace the specialness of all your years of knowledge. It might make you feel old, but it should also make you feel lucky!

[sabrelady]

Our next door's neighbor's daughter got married, latter I baby sat her infant  daughter ( even bottle fed her)

When I heard she( the baby) got married I felt old. When she had her first child I felt ancient but now THAT child has had her first baby and I think I need to check out nursing homes while I can still distinguish them from the post office. 

 

As for references  I figure I don't know who all the Kardashians are or the names of the Real Housewives of ___________.  or Cardi B ( OK she was on SNL but I won't remember in a day or two) so I jess shrug and call it even.

Imma gonna lie down in my Trunk now with my Memories.

[yankeefan7]

My body tells me every day especially after playing tennis - lol. 

[Marianne2]

On my birthday 1 year, some coworkers who were born in the 90's were baffled that I was born in the 80's. Like it seemed like a foreign concept to them. Then again, I think they thought I was around their age and not over 10 years older.

I also feel old knowing that come June, I will have had my drivers license for 17 years. It just doesn't feel like it was that long ago when I got it.

[dramamama611]

Reading this thread!    

[Someone in a Tree2]

I feel old when I read a script for a period movie-- set in the 90's.

Born in the 50's here-- my milk glass as a kid was a Howdy Doody jelly jar (google it-- it was a 50's TV show with puppets.) Yes, there was a time when kids grew up watching TV pre-Sesame Street. Anyone else out there remember Romper Room?

[dramamama611]

Too young for Howdy Doody (but I know of it) but definitely remember Miss Nancy in Romper Room!

[madbrian]

My own birthdays don’t bother me at all, but today is my oldest’s 31st birthday, and that makes me feel ancient.

[sabrelady]

Miss Nancy and Her Magic Mirror " and I see Danny and Lucy and Mary..." 

B!tch nevah called MY name!

[haterobics]

Sparkle Neely said: "I keep trying to convince myself I’m not that old, but these children aren’t helping matters! It constantly baffles me that with information more accessible than ever, people seem to know less and less about things that happened before they were born.

What’s happened to you that’s made you feel older than dirt?"

To be fair, most of the references you cite are a bit dated for a 40 y/o. I mean, Pretty Woman was in theaters in 1990, when you were 12. Anything Can Whistle was 1964, before you were born. Sondheim's heyday, arguably, was in the 70s and 80s.

[nmartin]

When I went to see Grey Gardens at the Ahmanson in Los Angeles with Betty Buckley, I gave away an extra ticket to a total stranger and told her that I was excited to see Betty Buckley for the first time since The Mystery of Edwin Drood. She informed me that Buckley wasn't in that; Stephanie J. Block and Chita Rivera were. 

[amaklo]

Many years ago I was browsing in a record store and two teenage girls were across from me.  One pulled an album out of the rack and said to the other one:  "Hey did you know Paul McCartney was in another group before Wings?"

[Sparkle Neely]

Haterobics - Pretty Woman was still very much in the public consciousness when I was a teenager and in my 20’s. It’s on television enough and so associated with Julia Roberts that I would assume most adults these days would know it.

As for Whistle, I don’t expect anyone outside of musical theatre lovers to know the show, but I’m sure most people my age know who Lansbury is, and at least have a bit of familiarity with Sondheim.

[egnarotsew]

I was on an episode of romper room in 84 but by that time it was Miss Molly.  I still have a copy of it but when I show it to people just a few years younger than me they have no memory of the show.

[lotiloti]

All those on here who believe Disney, has been good for musical theatre

[n2nbaby]

I’m only 27 but I get these all of the time. Most recently, a bunch of people I just hired didn’t know what Roseanne was. What?

Yesterday I was listen to Alanis Morissette after we closed and one of the employees had no idea who she was and hasn’t heard any of her music. WHAT?

[Cat Guy]

In my 71st year on Planet Earth, there really is not much that makes me feel "old".  I will admit, however, that I was none too pleased recently when my young primary care doctor called me "elderly".  I quickly corrected him.  He knows now that the proper term is "Super Citizen".

[haterobics]

Sparkle Neely said: "Haterobics - Pretty Woman was still very much in the public consciousness when I was a teenager and in my 20’s. It’s on television enough and so associated with Julia Roberts that I would assume most adults these days would know it.

Exactly. It was mainly in the public consciousness when the people you think should know about it now were in diapers...

[South Florida]

Wheel of Fortune

[MrsSallyAdams]

I recently saw the play "Now That We're Men" by Katie Cappiello. She work shopped the piece with the five high school boys who star in it. They're meeting before the prom to discuss things like fetish porn, sexual assault and the ethics of trading their girlfriends nude photos on their phones. My high school experience was unpleasant enough without these problems and the show reminded me how out of touch I was, and am, with straight male youth culture.