Not young

dynamicbrick

I'm 37 in April. I suspect like most chaps, I don't really have any perception of not being young - in my head I'm still 17; svelte of frame, hairy of scalp, and devoid of the sleep-deprived vacant stare that comes only with repeatedly inflicting fatherhood on oneself.

Recently though, I've noticed things starting to impinge upon this bubble of self-image - not the forget me keys, who are you again?, christ there's hair growing out my ears, type moments - something more immeasurably difficult to avoid; when other people see you as not-young.

Scene 1. January this year, in the office. The graduate trainees are wittering on about the Ministry of Sound - apparently it was closing to make way for Crossrail or something. They absolutely must go there, part of London's club landscape, etc. I'm not part of the conversation, but decide to chip in anyway;
"I went there when it opened"
"Really? Wow! When was that?"
"ooh, erm... hang on...1991"
"Blimey... I wasn't even born then" says one
"I was, but can't even remember as I was only one, hahaha!" says another
then I get;
"So what was it like, clubbing in the olden days?"

Scene 2; Conference call today. Lots of people from about the business, most I've never met and probably never will. The call is because things are going very wrong with a client. Being the account manager I have the unenviable task of getting shot at from both sides in trying to smooth out the issues caused by titanic jobsworthiness on both sides. 10 minutes into the call;
".you're doing a good job of keeping this under control" says someone to me
"thanks, I'm changing my name to Red Adair"
A silence of truly biblical proportions gate-crashes the call.
"who?" someone eventually asks
"doesn't matter... right, next item is"
"Oh, I've found him on wikipedia... you're showing your age there"
"yeah, thanks"

I'm now beginning to appreciate why my Grandfather used to take great delight in annoying the hell out of people by pretending he was deaf or senile whenever he was in the post office, library, or similar.

fevmeister

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herb71

I know exactly where you are coming from. I am 41 and when I get a pile of CV's on my desk with D.O.B. in the 90's I have to double check. '1990, that can't be right, they will only be....oh hang on, they are in their 20's'

It's not all bad. I have 2 teenaged kids, and while my daughter is pretty much a lost cause musically, I enjoy spending time in the car with my lad exploring the old tracks on my Ipod and have introduced him to some great stuff. I enjoy being the old Sage.....'London Calling.....you are gonna love this'

mitchell_inman

I'm off to the optician this morning.

This is nothing new, as I've been short sighted since I was 10. But now I've started to have a teensy weensy bit of trouble with close up stuff and small print. I might not need them just yet, but the prospect of reading glasses/varifocals is making me feel ancient :shock:

thegreatdivide

1988-1993 was a blur.

dynamicbrick

The rest of the conversation with the grads was basically me explaining how your memory works by the time you're in your 30s, as they couldn't accept that I could remember 21 years back.

Anything up to 1992 is sometime ago
93 up to 2000 feels like a while back
2000-2008 is basically last month
The last four years was last week, or was it the week before... I forget.

Headhuunter

I'm 40 in a couple of weeks... I remember the 1st time I started to feel "old", I was actually about 29 or something but we had a girl in as a temp PA at work and she was 17 or something so was born in something like 1983 and for the fist time I realised a had clear, cohesive memories of the year someone at work was born in....

These days I find it faintly amusing that what my dad always said has come true. He used to joke in the early 80s that he would keep hold of his flares as they would "come back in" sometime and they did, in the indy years of the late 80s and early 90s... Over the past few years we've seen the rise of the skinny jean which I remember trying to squeeze into when I was about 10 or 11 years old in a first attempt at fashion in the early 80s and now I see students at my local uni, Goldmsiths in new Cross, walking around in clothes reminscent of stuff I used to wear at uni in the early 90s - you know, coloured jeans, Doc Martens etc and slightly grungey stuff.... Never throw any clothes away, it all works on a cycle...

daviesee

Ha!
I was clubbing in '81!

Yes. I am old. :oops:

But I have had a full and fun life with plenty still to look forward to! :P

random man

Dynamicbrick - look on the bright side, you will always (well nearly always) be young to someone eg me, I'm 20 years older than you

capt_slog

I'm 53.

My eldest son, Chip, was commenting on the demise of Comet last night. It was mentioned on the news that they were going under after 79yrs, he wanted to know what the could have been selling then. I witheringly explained that electricity had been invented at that time.

I was trying to explain to the youngest son last night regarding something silmilar which happened before he was born, but to my shame I can't remember what the F it was. Not the best of anecdotes I realise, but germane to the thread as it shows the state of my memory these days, and for the fact that because it was outside his lifeline he didn't give a toss anyway.

finchy

random man wrote:

Dynamicbrick - look on the bright side, you will always (well nearly always) be young to someone eg me, I'm 20 years older than you

There's something I've always wanted to ask people of your age... what colour were the dinosaurs?

finchy

I'm going to feel young until September 2014 - the 20th anniversary of Oasis' debut album. :shock:

bompington

I remember going to see hot new bands like Dire Straits and U2, and one of the funny things about growing old is that bands of this era are stuck that way for ever more in my mind, whereas bands that were big just a few years before - e.g. Beatles - are forever dinosaurs that belong to a bygone age.

sadlybiggins

johnfinch wrote:

There's something I've always wanted to ask people of your age... what colour were the dinosaurs?

Black and white of course

y33stu

I just turned 30. I manage two guys who have just graduated, and they see me as old. Which is odd as I feel like I only graduated last week. Saying that, I used to listen to radio 1, religiously, every day as course of habit. (I know I know) But In the last 2 years I've come to despise it for all the awful manufactured pop music Sh**e they spout. That says to me I'm getting old. So I've moved to radio 2. But I think I'm too young for radio 2. So what do us 30 somethings listen to in the office?

pb21

y33stu wrote:

But I think I'm too young for radio 2. So what do us 30 somethings listen to in the office?

Radio 4 or 6, definitely not 2 at all costs, it will rot your brain!

daviesee

y33stu wrote:

I just turned 30. I manage two guys who have just graduated, and they see me as old. Which is odd as I feel like I only graduated last week. Saying that, I used to listen to radio 1, religiously, every day as course of habit. (I know I know) But In the last 2 years I've come to despise it for all the awful manufactured pop music Sh**e they spout. That says to me I'm getting old. So I've moved to radio 2. But I think I'm too young for radio 2. So what do us 30 somethings listen to in the office?

6 Music. Sorted.

CiB

See I was 50 last birthday (not momentous, just another one ticked off), but for me anything that happened before the 1960s has always been old history, only happened in books, was from a different world. And now when references to things crop up that I still think of as quite recent, like The Falklands war, the 1978 (or 1974 & 1970) World Cup, or Thatcher being elected in 79, or Live Aid, Blair winning his first term etc, these are all modern almost contemporary happenings. But when I mention them to my kids they see those events with as much distance - pre-historic in their world - as I see things from the 50s.

I recall quite clearly watching the 1969 moon landings on a 'portable' tv at school, stopping off on the way home for an early doors beer when Argentina tried to take Port Stanley and the whole pub listening attentively to the news on the radio, watching Lineker score his hat-trick against Poland in 86 etc etc, and these are as fresh as the last time I changed job, only 6 years ago. To younger people who have no direct memory of them, they're another world. That's the difference. We have people working here who were born in the mid-90s. That's only 10 minutes ago for some of us.

Rambles on for a while as everyone leaves...

CiB

y33stu wrote:

I think I'm too young for radio 2. So what do us 30 somethings listen to in the office?

You're not. Radio 2 is for everyone these days - crooners, Vera Lynne & The Kings Singers are a long distant memory on there. It's good, and they don't cling to what's in the hit parade as the driving force for what they play.

Give it a go: Ken Bruce - young pup. J Vine - Daily Mail on stilts but fun; Steve Wright - doing what he's done for 30 years without changing gear once. Simon Mayo - best of the lot.

Avoid Nigel Ogden with The Organist Entertains though - there are limits.

greasedscotsman

It's when you are watching a ad break on the TV and you can't remember what programme you were watching. That's when you realise your getting on a bit...

ManOfKent

y33stu wrote:

I think I'm too young for radio 2. So what do us 30 somethings listen to in the office?

+1 for 6Music (although I rarely listen to the radio). It has enough variety and novelty to challenge my hardened view that 1989 was the peak of musical creativity in the entire world, without imposing an endless diet of One Direction, Nicky Minge and the like.

An alternative is to adopt Dara O'Briain's stated position, which is that there is enough music out there that you already love, so why bother looking for more?

dynamicbrick

I'm on the road a lot, and can confirm that Radio 4 is what all the skill kids listen to. Even, I'll admit, Woman's Hour isn't too bad depending on the subject.

Jesus, listen to me... I used to kick about with the Prodigy in the early 90s (a mate was mates with Keith Flint) and here I am admitting that I don't immediately turn off when Woman's Hour comes on the wireless.

I give up.

pb21

CiB wrote:

You're not. Radio 2 is for everyone these days

IMO only for people who like banal, vacuous, trivial dirge, presented by overly jovial shallow jocks. I cant stand it!

CiB

pb21 wrote:

CiB wrote:

You're not. Radio 2 is for everyone these days

IMO only for people who like banal, vacuous, trivial dirge, presented by overly jovial shallow jocks. I cant stand it!

I don't listen to it, except for first thing when we have to get up and Simon Mayo doing his confession when I'm going home. R4 is my default thanks. Point was that R2 isn't aimed at pensioners & war veterans any more.

Carry on.

crescent

I like Radio 2. Took me a few years of 'closet' listening before I was happy to admit it in company :oops: Still can't really tolerate Steve Wright for any length of time though.
I'm 45 and remember turning 40 and having a few beers with my mate who is, crucially, two weeks older than me. We decided collectively that with age comes wisdom and a realisation that, within reason, you don't have to justify yourself to anyone or anything. Your outlook and opinion is based on your life experience and that is all you need. It's one of the reasons I loathe newspapers, I don't need someone else forcing their opinion down my throat. If I need to know about something then I will find out in the fullness of time, in my own terms.
Anyone else notice a trend developing here? We start off responding to a post and then ramble off into a rant.
Now, where did I put my Werther's originals?

mitchell_inman

Thought I'd better post again while I can still see - optician has recommended varifocals, and this unquestionably trivial thing has made me feel really old.

I've got grey hair - I'm fatter and less fit than I was - all of which I can cope with and try and do something about (not the grey hair - no grecian 2000 for me).

But glasses for reading FFS :shock: :shock:

pb21

Crescent wrote:

It's one of the reasons I loathe newspapers, I don't need someone else forcing their opinion down my throat.

I never get this argument against newspapers, that you don’t need someone else's opinion forced down your throat. If you read something you don’t have to accept it as gospel. I have, heaven forbid, read the Daily Mail before, it didn’t turn me into a rabid racist sexist homophobe. In fact, if anything, it allowed me to come up with my own opinions and justifications why that kind of thinking and viewpoint is not what I agree with. Being more left wing orientated I normally read the Grauniad but I don’t read it and assume whatever it says is correct. Also I have read parts of the bible before, from a position of someone who doesn’t believe in a Christian God, and it didn’t turn me into a born again Christian.

As long as what ever you read or see you take in critical manner and you are able to think for yourself in a independent way, reading and listening to people’s opinions, both those you agree with and those you don’t is good thing.

grizedaleforest

I'm 53. The way I look at it, I should make it to 80 or so (what with all that healthy cycling). But I don't remember anything much about being a child so I reckon that life begins when you're 18 or so => my relative age is 35. I then can't remember a fair chunk of time in my twenties for one reason or another (I forget) - say 5 years => relative age is down to 30. I therefore believe I am still relatively young and won't worry until I am, relatively, 50.

kieranb

42 now, I don't feel too old as I have maintained my weight since late teens and am fitter than I was in my 20's. Gone a bit thin on top but this started in late teens so I don't associate it with old age. My wife and I still sometimes look at each other in shock when we once again realise we now have 2 children in secondary school. Aging has its

We recently went to visit some relatives of my wife, one of them was turning 82 and was still as sharp as ever and pretty active, so I don't worry too much. My Dad is also nearly 80 and still drives, swims, walks and lives by himself.

seanoconn

I started to feel old the moment Phil Neville made his England debut. I was no longer younger than anyone in the England football team Watching entire football careers from start to finish also makes me feel old. I'm 37 next month and while still being attractive, I'm wondering when pretty young girls (not too young) will say **** off you old pervert. That will HURT!!

My laughter lines don't disappear when I'm not laughing anymore

pauldavid

pb21 wrote:

CiB wrote:

You're not. Radio 2 is for everyone these days

IMO only for people who like banal, vacuous, trivial dirge, presented by overly jovial shallow jocks. I cant stand it!

Oooooooooooooooooooh! Get Grumpy over there.

That's told me, I don't mind radio 2 but that's just banal, vacuous, trivial old me