I wanted to share this with you today since I found it particularly touching and really puts thins in perspective.

Today we gave my Honey's 93 year old grandma her final farewell, and had a little celebration of her life! During her eulogy and sharing stories of her life I picked up a few interesting things.

-She's been a member of the same church for 40 years - since she was 50 years old.

• Her husband passed away at 77 years of age (relatively old age) - 25 years ago.

• Her son is 74 years old, and her youngest grandson, my honey is 49 years old - and she was a great great great grandma (Her grandchildren are grandparents themselves)

• 63 years ago when the WW2 ended she was 30, having already been married for 12 years with two children.

• She was married for 57 years

• She retired at the age of 45, about 47 years ago, in 1960, and I think she told us at that time teacher pay was two dollars an hour.

-When the first man walked on the moon she had already been retired for nine years.

• At her service we had a surprise visitor, a 95 year old 'youngster' read her obituary and showed up at the service. It was her highschool sweetheart, or maybe one of them ;). Back from around 1932. He told us a story how she snuck out and without him knowing took his brand new model T ford out for a ride around the block. This was some 80 years ago.

• My honey will be celebrating his 50th birthday later this year and he thinks he's 'getting old'. I think Grandma would just give him "The Look" that has been known to stop everyone in their tracks.

That's a great age she lived to. I hope I make it that long!

Your man may be nearing 50, but from what I gather of how times are changing, 50 is still relatively young. Maybe I'm just trying to convince myself though, I'm 36 but still feel 18!

One point, you mention man walking on the moon. This is news to me. I didn't think we did it after all those fake landings. :ohmy:

Just thinking, maybe I am getting old. It's 6-30 on a Sunday morning here. I got up at 5-40 thinking it was 8-30, got my clock fingers mixed up! That's tireness for you, I've only had three hours sleep!

If life begins at 40 I figure middle age is somewhere around 85.....

I feel like I am getting old when I say things like:
What is that kid wearing ???
They call that music ???

and I listen to NPR.....

But with some perspective like you gave....33 doesn't seem that old...it just can feel it sometimes. 

Hell, I grew up in the 80's...I thought that we would all be dead now from a Nuclear Holocaust.

Sounds like your Grandmother (in-law) had a very full life.....kinda sad that her husband passed so long ago though.

Great OT post.

--Rebekah--

Bless your grandma-in-law.

I was lucky enough to remember my great-grandfather, who was about 90 years
older than me.  He actually lied about his age and marital status -twice- to enlist in
the army for WWI.  He was in his mid-thirties in 1917, with two children.

He enjoyed the show Star Trek but didn't like having a telephone, the ringing annoyed him.

Quote - the ringing annoyed him.

Oh boy, this is one of my biggest gripes. Don't you just hate the intrusion of a telephone ring!

Your telephones ring? Mine has a beep beep

You're really old... :lol:

Ringing, beeping, silly tunes, vibrating. I hate phones!!!

There, I feel better now I got that off my chest.

My grandfather lived to age 93 too.

What a wonderful age to live to.  I do hope I live a long time, and in good health just to be able to sit back and watch.  I am now 52, you always still feel so young.  Tell  your Honey not to worry about 50, it really is just like turning 40.  Sharen

And you told me last month that he was only 40 years old...boy you age them fast, eh? Little cougar needs to slow down a little.

All kidding aside, If one can grow old with their facilities still intact...that's awesome.

Quote - If one can grow old with their facilities still intact...that's awesome.

Nah, it's probably better to get old crazy & care free! :lol:

Old is remembering music recorded on vinyl and having record albums.
Old is remembering how to use a rotary dial telephone.
Old is remembering full service gas stations where the dude
wore a uniform and cleaned your windshield, checked under the
hood and pumped the gas.
Old is remembering life before video games, home computers,
ipods, cable TV and remote control for the TV set.
Old is thinking that your rack audio system was buck.
Hehehehehehehehe!

Actually I never really ever thought of myself as old until my son saw some of my
old LP albums and asked me what they were. I told him they were "Un-compact"
disks lol!

To live to 95 wow imagine the stories she had and the changes she witnessed in her time!

Quote - Old is remembering music recorded on vinyl and having record albums.
Old is remembering how to use a rotary dial telephone.
Old is remembering full service gas stations where the dude
wore a uniform and cleaned your windshield, checked under the
hood and pumped the gas.
Old is remembering life before video games, home computers,
ipods, cable TV and remote control for the TV set.
Old is thinking that your rack audio system was buck.
Hehehehehehehehe!

Actually I never really ever thought of myself as old until my son saw some of my
old LP albums and asked me what they were. I told him they were "Un-compact"
disks lol!

To live to 95 wow imagine the stories she had and the changes she witnessed in her time!

OMG!  All of the above!  (Sneaks off to hide under a table until the next century)

I'm 42. Next august 43. I'm a kid :tt2:

Old is seeing your favourite transistor radio on eBay for $75 as a "collectible".

Old is hearing music on Sirius Classic Gold and remembering you were in tenth grade when it came out.

Old is remembering seeing the very first moon walk on a little black and white TV that someone brought to the school library.

Old is looking at LIFE magazine from the late 60s and thinking at the time that fashion would never evolve past that point.

Old is still knowing how to use a slide ruler.

old is when the toys you had as a kid are listed in a collector catalogue with 3-digit prices

well, this puts all the McCain ads in perspective...;)

so ConnieKat8, your hubby's only a year younger than me. Don't let him know that his 'introductory' (everyone's) magazine from the AARP will show up then...;)

Holy crap ain't that so!!!! I remember me and my friends getting baseball cards with the bubble gum in them and flipping threw the players. The player's cards we thought were going to be losers and tossed into the can are worth big bucks now!

I saw a series of toys I used to have by Mattel called "Major Matt Mason" go for a bundle! He was an astronaut with all kinds of cool moon gear and moon vehicles now worth some bucks!

old is also getting reminders from your university to leave something in your Will for them.
-- is getting sales pitches from morturaries
-- lusting after Patty Paige when one was four
--remembering getting one's first TV set and the two available channels
--Looking at Roy Rogers, the Lone Ranger, Captain Midnight, Rocky Jones Space Ranger etc
---opening the hood of your car and knowing what everything is
--remembering th $.28/gallon price wars
--remembering the 442
--one's computer was a slide rule and fingers
--buying a brand new Cadie for $5000 (couldn't afford that either)
--remember how days just dragged by (sure don't now).  Jan 

Thank you Conniekat8.  You made me think of my great Aunt Laura.   She was always my favorite aunt.  I remember she always had either hot chocolate and cookies, or lemonade and cookies for us kids when we went to see her.  I loved hearing her stories about her brother(my grandfather) when he was a kid. 

She passed away several years ago at the ripe old age of 101.   Her mind was still sharp as a tack.   
At her final farewell,  my hubby asked me who that strange man was sitting with the family.  He thought he knew all of my family.  But that wasn't a stranger,  he was Aunt Laura's boyfriend.  He was a younger man of 96.  

I always thought this was a good example of how you're never too old for love.

Quote - What a wonderful age to live to.  I do hope I live a long time, and in good health just to be able to sit back and watch.  I am now 52, you always still feel so young.  Tell  your Honey not to worry about 50, it really is just like turning 40.  Sharen

Ha, next year I'm turning forty. Aside from some health issues, mentally I'm nowhere near 40 - at least as I remember it to be. I'll be busy planing a big birthday party for my honey.

Great grandma was great. I wish I had known her longer - I'm a relatively recent addition to the family.

Up untill just last few months of he life when her nervous system gave in from old age, she was very lively and active. Full life indeed. She even had 80-some year old gentlemen chasing her. One time when we visited her and took her to dinner, she forgot to tell her 87-year old 'boyfriend' whom has also know her for some 70 years that she was going to be out for the evening, and he got all upset for being ignored.  (Not seriously upset, just enough to let out a little complaint about it - and for her to tell him, OMG, I have my own life too you know!).  I found their minor little spat just too adorable.

To me she's the epitome of the 'little old lady from Pasadena'. Very remarkable!

Nice story, conniekat. Sounds like she had a full life. Unfortunately my family members have no been so long-lived. I don't expect to live to a ripe old age, so I've gotta live it up now while I can.

I would ove to live till that age if i would still be able to enjoy it!
I guess i have to reach that age to feel like 'an adult' lol

I'm 31, from the exterior, but i really feel like a teen! ^^
I've always been sort of imature, i guess it's my way...

our sincere condolences on the loss of your husband's grandma.

Growing old is inevitable.  Growing up is optional.  ;-)

My Grandmother - who insisted she was going to live until she danced at my wedding - passed away in February, a month and a half before her 100th birthday.

She had stories to tell, and last time I saw her, she told me about the time she grew up. How she used to do the washing (by hand) and how she used to like going to school (on foot, 4km walk) and how amazing the first "talkies" were.
She used to say we had it so easy now -- and she's right. We do. However, she also said some things were much better when she grew up. There was no crime. Everyone knew each other. Everyone helped each other. Families sat around a table to have dinner together. People had better manners and were more mindful of others feelings, more polite.
She told me how WWI wasn't too bad, but that WWII had everyone live in fear of saying the wrong thing. How people you knew just disappeared. How afraid she was when the bombs fell. She said we had no idea what fear for your life really is -- and aside from soldiers today, she's right. We tend to not know that feeling.
She said that seeing the changes happen didn't faze her, the world always changed, old ideas gave way to new ones and usually it was better. She told me her greatest memory was going on a plane for the first time, and see the world from above -- something we take for granted now.
She also said she never felt older than 18, even at her age. She had a hard time getting her head around it that others saw her as an old woman, when really, she wasn't. She said her body might have aged, but her mind had not. That she was still as interested in new things as she'd been as a kid. She said that just because your body ages doesn't mean you're old. Age is in the mind, not the body. If you keep fit there, you'll always be young. :)

Yeah, she was pretty smart. :) I miss her.

To answer the threads original question:
No, I'm not old.

Still space enough for new scars.

heh. Turning forty next year and like the idea that life is just getting started. Tho' my bod seems to have other ideas. lol

Im 20, havent even been working for a year and i already feel that time flies way to fast :/
I guess it will only be moving fast and faster as well.
Also as you said it really puts things into perspective, especially for me since i have lived just slightly over 1/5 of her life.

Quote - Old is remembering music recorded on vinyl and having record albums.
Old is remembering how to use a rotary dial telephone.
Old is remembering full service gas stations where the dude
wore a uniform and cleaned your windshield, checked under the
hood and pumped the gas.
Old is remembering life before video games, home computers,
ipods, cable TV and remote control for the TV set.
Old is thinking that your rack audio system was buck.
Hehehehehehehehe!

wtf?!
i remember all that and im only 31!! :)
we had rotary dial phones, a vinyl collection, they still checked under the hood (ok it wasnt my car's hood) and wore uniforms at gas stations, i was around 10ish before i saved up enough money to buy my own Commodore 64(C) (complete with tape drive, daisy wheel printer, and i even had a couple of game carts for it), and i was 19-20 before i actually had access to the internet (which kids take for granted these days, i had to rush the library with 30 other students all looking for the same 2-3 books on the same topic - sometimes id have to take the bus all the way downtown to the central library just to get a book to finish a project. nowadays you just type a few keywords into google... lucky little shits) .
the TV set had no remote, just some giant brown box on top of the TV you had to click these beige rectangular buttons down on. and that was massive technological progress! -- before that i remember UHF/VHF and frikken rabbit-ear antennas w/aluminum foil just to get 3 channels on a TV set that weighed more than my car.

and hey - whats wrong with rack audio systems? i still use an old harman kardon, and yes it has a turntable :)

and btw im not saying thats 'old' -- just that rotary dial phones and no remotes and uniformed attendants who checked under your hood in gas stations and actually washed your windows wasnt that long ago.

i consider 'old' having had to hand crank the engine on your car to start it, or fetch a block of ice for the refrigerator :)

Yeah, having to get up to turn the TV over, I remember that one. When I was a kid we only had three channels, BBC1, BBC2 & ITV.
Crikey, flick through the cable channels now & there's like hundreds! Still nothing of interest on though!

LOL, yeah!
Having taken a joy-ride in a Brand New Model T Ford is old!
By the 60's or 70's or so, during the rotary phones the Model T was a vintage item!

I searched through Wikipedia her birth year, 1916 - sometimes they're a good glimpse at what the world was like back then.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1916

Quote - Crikey, flick through the cable channels now & there's like hundreds! Still nothing of interest on though!

i havent had cable for going on 9-10 years or so.
IMO 99.9999% of the stuff on TV these days is utter crap. i get my news from the BBC (preferably) or CNN online, and any TV series that interest me -- like Rome, Deadwood,  Dexter, BBC's Planet Earth, etc i just pick up on DVD with no commercials and Rio and i usually sit down with some pizza and popcorn and just watch an entire season at once :)

but cable TV used to be good. i remember always having to decide what to watch among a half dozen really good shows or movies that were on at one time. now? i go to my mom's place, she has satellite w/ several hundred channels, and i cant find a single thing that interests me - at primetime :(

BTW - something for people with aging grandparents/parents to think about:
ive been spending a lot of time with family members just getting them on video - telling stories about their childhoods, WWII, cooking family recipes, or just chatting with friends. not just for myself, but for my kids and grandkids.

For all the perspective we gain as we watch the years go by.....and all it may benefit the youngsters. They wouldnt listen tho.
 When I was 40 I was a manager at Target. One day this really cute young lady came in and asked help with buying music from the 60s and 70s. We chatted for a bit as i helped her pick out a few CDs. And being a guy I didnt mind when she flirted a bit. Then when she was done she said....I just love retro music! I heard the coffin door slam shut and the nails being driven into it. perspective i guess. 
 

The older I get (and at 39 I'm not all that old) the more I understand the phrase "Youth is wasted on the young"

Blackhearted, that's awesome advice about videotaping!!! 
I have some audiotapes that my mom did with my grandma about 10 years ago. My own grandma passed away two years after that, at 84. Unfortunately, my grandma moved to the US when I was two years old, and I was raised 'back home' in Croatia till I was 18, so I never got to spend much time with my grandparents.
My other grandparents, on my dad's side of the family, whom had to flee to argentina during the WWII, I never met. All I have are family stories about whom they were.

Ha, it just dawned on me that my grandma and my honey's grandma were only a year or two apart.

Heres an idea too, if ya parents or grandparents are still around start asking about the family history. Im 50 and me Mom is in her 80s. She never until the past 2 years talked about alot of the family history. Like how they came down the mississippi river in 1830s on a flat barge. And how her father ran off when she was a kid and her mom worked in another city so she stayed with grandma and grandpa. So the lady I had met at age4 or 5 wasnt her mom but grandma. I never met me real grandma, she passed.  And i heard stories about her childhood id never heard before. We have a pretty close family but that was very very special.

wtf?!
i remember all that and im only 31!! :)
we had rotary dial phones, a vinyl collection, they still checked under the hood (ok it wasnt my car's hood) and wore uniforms at gas stations, i was around 10ish before i saved up enough money to buy my own Commodore 64(C) (complete with tape drive, daisy wheel printer, and i even had a couple of game carts for it), and i was 19-20 before i actually had access to the internet (which kids take for granted these days, i had to rush the library with 30 other students all looking for the same 2-3 books on the same topic - sometimes id have to take the bus all the way downtown to the central library just to get a book to finish a project. nowadays you just type a few keywords into google... lucky little shits) .
the TV set had no remote, just some giant brown box on top of the TV you had to click these beige rectangular buttons down on. and that was massive technological progress! -- before that i remember UHF/VHF and frikken rabbit-ear antennas w/aluminum foil just to get 3 channels on a TV set that weighed more than my car.

That doesn't count.
That's Canada.

:closedeyes:

 Used to have an aunt....when TVs first came out she sat right up on the screen. She figured that the lower she kept the volume the less electricity she used.
:)
 I remember when we first moved down to Ft Worth in the 60s. There wasnt much there yet. Not much on tv...but we could get the bullfights on the station from Mexico.

If he reaches 90, he may live to see men walk on Mars.

ah... for the good old days when life was simple

• no mass confusion about which cell phone with what features and what plans to get, and then worry about a massive bill... all the phones came from Ma Bell, and you had a choice of colors, as long as black was ok. 
• Phone numbers started with letters identifying what part of town you lived in... no area codes, international codes, just tell the actual live operator what city, state or country you wanted. The farther away the city you called, the louder you had to talk. ;)
• If the car broke, you could actually fix it yourself, and it ran even if you couldn't get quite all of the parts back into it. All you needed was a few wrenches, a timing light, a hammer and the right swear words.
• You couldn't work 7 days a week, because everything was closed on Sundays. 
• TV's could actually be repaired... by people who actually came to your house! 3 networks and PBS, and they "signed off" at midnight or 1AM. And there were no infomercials! 
• Movies were seen at theaters only. Kids could not play their favorite film repeatedly, sending their parents into twitching fits. 
• Mail was something written on nice paper and sent with a 4¢ stamp. I can't recall any of that mail containing a virus. 
• People drank water that came out of their kitchen tap. Who would actually buy water at the store to drink?!! Perrier was around, but only models and movie stars drank that.

All that being said, I can't wait for compressed-air driven cars, TV "screens" that are an entire wall, computers with no moving parts, and an all-in-one device that is computer,/phone/ banking interface/camera that folds up and is worn like a bracelet. 

Old is:
getting into the movies, seeing cartoons, the news a serial and the main feature all for "2 bits"
using the term "2 bits" -it's a quarter
listening to your shows on the radio
having a tv set that was "furiture"- a console tv that was 3 feet wide but only had a 15 inch screen
drive in restaurants rather than drive thru ones (I know there are a few of these still around)

I'm not old enough to remember any of these. I'm only 36. I've heard my folks talk about them though 

of course there's nothing like getting an AARP (American Association for Retired People) application at the age of 32.

Kill me now.
I can't take this s*** .

Old, sure, but what about the mind?

I'm 81 and have been painting for many years. Got into computers in 1983  after a heart attack slowed me down and then got into digital art about five years ago with PainterX and Photoshop. My learning curve was slow and interspersed with bursts of expressive language of the sort you can only find in the movies these days. Still, I persevered.

Then I discovered Manga Ex and finally Poser7. Oh my god! Perhaps by the time I'm 90 I'll have learned what nodes are and that Python is not a poisonous reptile even though trying to unravel its secrets is killing me!

Anyway I guess all these new  (for me) endeavors are helping keep an active mind in an ageing body.

Now, if only they would let me get around to producing some art .. even a bit of grafitti or maybe a naughty picture or two.

I remember when my grandfather (98 in 1991) told me when him and his Dad saw the Wright Brothers in 1905, he then said he'd never thought that we would be sending men (and women) into space. Now we are looking for life on other planets.

Quote -
That doesn't count.
That's Canada.
:closedeyes:

wtf, are you slagging canadian technology?
where would the world be without epic Canadian inventions like the Abdominizer, 5 pin bowling, the Andromonon, the tuck-away handle beer carton, instant mashed potatoes, poutine, ginger-ale or the Jolly Jumper?

At least your country didn't make a Yugo - like my old country did!
[Kitty slinks away and crawls under a rock]

Quote - Old, sure, but what about the mind?

I'm 81 and have been painting for many years. Got into computers in 1983  after a heart attack slowed me down and then got into digital art about five years ago with PainterX and Photoshop. My learning curve was slow and interspersed with bursts of expressive language of the sort you can only find in the movies these days. Still, I persevered.

Then I discovered Manga Ex and finally Poser7. Oh my god! Perhaps by the time I'm 90 I'll have learned what nodes are and that Python is not a poisonous reptile even though trying to unravel its secrets is killing me!

Anyway I guess all these new  (for me) endeavors are helping keep an active mind in an ageing body.

Now, if only they would let me get around to producing some art .. even a bit of grafitti or maybe a naughty picture or two.

That's absolutely wonderful!
My grandpa, whon passed away at a young age of 77 was like that. Always doing something - I think I get that from him.

Honey's grandma was like that too... at 90 she was keeping in tyough with her church friends via email, and showing us a DVD slideshow from her cruise to Alaska - which she went to at 90.  However, cooking and eating were her biggest passion. I have no idea how this 5'5" little lady stayed so skinny, cause she could cook up and eat up a storm.  Untill she was about 87 or 88 and was still very mobile, she would chase any helpers out of the kitchen, and would insist on doing it all herself.

I think it's great when we break the age-stereotyping mold!

What were we talking about again? I forgot!