Picture by jdurham on Morguefile
Everyone eventually starts to feel old. Even I get glimpses of my age and I’m just in my 30s. I don’t recognize the names of any newer movie celebrities, but I recognize a few new pop singers. I do have a few gray hairs, but I blame my life-long habit of twisting my hair around my fingers. Accidentally pulling so many hairs out to an untimely death must have made an impact on my hair follicles.
Eventually, some people have a big realization. For one of my coworkers, it was when she opened a newspaper and found that a man the age of her daughter had won the mayoral race. He was in his late 20s and to be fair, it was a small town, but it still made her feel like she had finally joined the ranks of the old.
I have yet to see someone I know become a mayor, but I now live in a bigger town and I don’t keep track of things happening in my birth town.
Have you had any jarring reminders of your age lately?
Any funny things you said that dated you?
More about this later as I’m sure I’ll find a few in my own life.
The Phoenix Series 
Someone caught me today saying “VCR” instead of “DVR”. Hey, I got the “VR” right!
That is a mistake I could have made. VCRs were around when I was young. At least you don’t say 8 track tape or wireless.
“Growing old isn’t so bad when you consider the alternative.”
That’s the first version of the ironic aphorism that’s reported by the Quote Investigator website, which traces it to a 1952 newspaper article. The article’s author had quoted it and described it as an “old adage”, indicating that he’d found it in an earlier publication, but QI hadn’t traced it to an earlier time. Personally, I think variations of this sentiment have been spoken since humans have had language.
Ageing is the inevitable process; death is the inevitable event. We all have to face both.