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Things that Remind Me That I’m Getting Older

old man

Yeah, I’m on one of those kicks when things are making me feel old. Maybe it was from going to Disneyland last week and melting my Fit-bit.

Here are a few things that I’ve noticed lately that make me feel older:

• Guys wearing hats or baseball caps inside restaurants.

• Searching through more than 400 channels to realize that nothing is on, instead of 4.

• Clipping toenails. I should have taken up yoga as a younger man.

• Trying to remember the last time I saw a paper with something written in cursive.

• The media once tried to conceal their bias.

• Jack Bauer first saved the country 15 years ago.

• Waking up with bloodshot eyes – just from sleeping.

• Sting is coming out with a new album, and he’s 65.

• The Arizona Diamondbacks won the Word Series 15 years ago.

• Explaining to my adult children how the A-E ticketing system used to work at Disneyland.

• (More Disneyland)  Remembering that it used to be okay for pirates to chase wenches.

• Seeing that Legos now require following a slavish directions to reach a pre-determined result, rather than letting kids learn to be creative.

• My youngest child bumping me off the keyboard to do something faster than I could do it.

• There were once nine planets, and astronauts walked on the moon. (Last moonwalk, 1972)

• Michael Jackson’s first moonwalk was 33 years ago. (link)

• Once everyone smoked cigarettes, but marijuana was frowned upon. Now marijuana is being legalized, and smokers are the devil.

• All-you-can-eat buffets have lost their attraction. Quality is replacing quantity.

• Trying to recall the last time I received a handwritten letter in the mail, or the last time I wrote one.

• I used to know the location of every LDS temple. All 13 of them.

• Hearing girls drop F-bombs in casual conversation.

• The physics of snow skiing used to thrill me. Now they frighten me. (K.E=1/2mv2.  It’s the “m” that is the kicker.)

• My full-time mission ended 34 years ago.

• BYU won its only national football championship 32 years ago. And we still cling to it.

• I remember that when my dad was 55 he seemed really old.

• Lawrence Welk was part of my childhood.

• I now pay attention to life insurance commercials.

• I have been an orphan for 14 years.

• Witnessing, through the power of social media, just how many really dumb people are out there.

• Driving back home from work because I forgot my reading classes.

• I have had grown-ups, with children, refer to me as a “father-figure.”

• I remember when eating eggs was bad for you.

• Abraham Lincoln, Beethoven, Steve Jobs, Iam Fleming and Adolf Hitler all died at 56. I’m 55.

Now you might look at this list and think, “My, that sounds kind of whiny and negative.”

Yes. Yes it does.

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Comments

  1. Aging seems so unfair when the brain still thinks you’re 25 and the body is more than twice that old. “You want to do what?? I don’t think so!”

  2. Huuuuuugs! You’re awesome! And clever. And funny. Thanks for your help at the ANWA Conference last month. 🙂 (We watched the Donny and Marie show every Sunday night…way to keep the Sabbath day holy!)

  3. Lawrence Welk made me feel nauseous every time I heard him. Still does; one comforting indicator that I’m not aging as quickly as I feel.

  4. As I get older, I really like the Dylan Thomas poem: “Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” I know he was talking to his father who was going blind, but I like it for aging in general. Believe me, I fight it with all I’ve got! I have a testimony so I’m not AFRAID to die but I want to live as much as I can.

  5. Me, too. And the sad thing is that it (time) keeps speeding up, but sometimes not fast enough.

  6. Must be getting close to your birthday, eh? There’s little chance of you being assassinated like Lincoln, or eliminated like Hitler who managed to get the whole world against him. Ian drank and smoked himself into a coronary, I doubt you did. That leaves Steve Jobs, and hey, we may all get cancer. In the meantime, keep writing and continue to enjoy the blessings of a family and waking up each day. Any grand-kids yet? That will really change your heart.

  7. Not too late for yoga. If you want to keep being the Grandpa that plays with the kids you should consider it.

  8. Oh my. Imagine how I feel at 61!

    *I work at BYU and when we need students to sign legal documents (banking, gov’t forms, etc), we have to tell them to use cursive. We finally had to put up the elementary school cursive alphabet for them.
    *Sting is old, but Mick Jagger looks like the monster in a Halloween splatter flick.
    *Ah Disneyland. . . we are the same age, so when they celebrate a milestone, I’m reminded of my mortality. I remember when they had Aunt Jemima look-a-likes serving in the French Quarter. (My children are justifiably horrified when I tell them this)
    *As for skiing, if I had that much energy, I’d paint my bathroom. Myself. Instead of hiring someone.
    *My “baby” is over 30. Our oldest will enter middle-age in 2017 (40 years).
    *I can totally see us making it to our 50th anniversary, since we’ve already passed the 41st. Everyone expects some great advice or secret for such a long marriage. . . and we’ve got nothing. It happens before you know it! Forty-plus years sounds like a long time, but it really isn’t!

  9. Just wait, my friend–I’m turning 67 this week and I can assure you that the slippery slope ahead of you is long and well lubricated. More things hurt every month and the number of activities which have to be removed from the To Do list because of inability is growing. I tell my adult children that I’m working on my Geezer merit badge and they don’t laugh…they just nod knowingly. I’d have received it by now but I’m stuck trying to master the portion on Short Term Memory Loss. I seem to have to start over every morning!

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