Over the past couple of years, I have come to accept the fact that I am getting older.
Older….not OLD.
My age is just past middle age. I have nearly as many years to go as years completed. That’s the middle, right?
So when did other people begin to see me as old? What is it about me that has garnered the label “senior”?
We had dinner in a “family restaurant” tonight. Husband and I go there once in a while. There are not a lot of choices in our little part of the world.
We ordered. Both of us requested a choice we’ve had many times in the past. The food arrived. I noticed that the serving seemed different from past orders. We checked the receipt, which had been left at the table when the food was served (a pet peeve, but irrelevant to this).
The waitress automatically provided us with the “Over 55, Senior Citizen” selection. We did not request it. She had not asked.
Of course she would know that Husband qualified for the discount. She must have decided that his young wife should be given the discount as well.
Right.
Just My Life 
This is funny! Of course your husband is the reason you got the discount 😉
I bought my hubby wine a few years ago (I think I was thirty five at the time.) The sign at the register said they carded anyone who looked under forty. The cashier bypassed the message, so I asked if she needed to see my ID. She looked up at me and said, “no.” That’s when I knew I’d gone farther down the road to older than I realized.
If you or your husband have gray hair, that could explain the discounts. My uncle grayed early – around age 45, so businesses started giving him senior discounts. He finally quit turning them down.
By: jannatwrites on November 15, 2011
at 12:30 am
Thanks for the funny story. I am always thrilled when I am in those places where the policy is to card everyone!
By: chlost on November 17, 2011
at 2:47 pm
I will take any and all senior discounts when they are offered. I do not care anymore. Also, I’m pretty close to their being legitimate.
The only thing I hate about getting old is that closer-to-death thing. I object to that.
By: murr brewster on November 15, 2011
at 2:34 am
Man … that seems like an insult doesn’t it? I’m with you hun, I’d be more than a bit miffed Not sure what your age is, but I’m looking at 50 in just over a year and I’m going “Huh? How did that sneak up on me? I sure as hell don’t feel almost 50!” I say we embrace the inner children and act 16 … 😉
By: dragonfae on November 15, 2011
at 4:15 am
My inner child has been in hiding. Perhaps I will have to coax her out. But I think I’ll look for the 10 year old. At 16 I was too cool to have fun.
By: chlost on November 17, 2011
at 2:49 pm
10 works … I think I’m currently indulging my 9 or 10 year old self with odd nail polish colors. 🙄 That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it. 😆
By: dragonfae on November 17, 2011
at 5:47 pm
That undeserved first senior discount is a bit of a shock. Kind of like when AARP automatically puts you on their mailing list. Lucky you to start getting it in your middle years. Consider the bad eyesight of the waitress and enjoy the extra money.
By: Arkansas Patti on November 15, 2011
at 10:14 am
Yes, the AARP card was a shock. But Husband received his first. So I was prepared for the mistake they made in sending one to me.
By: chlost on November 17, 2011
at 2:50 pm
Oh, rats, Always! It’s enough to put a gal right off her chow!
There are new delimitations to the age brackets, I believe, and I reject them. Whoever reset them is in on the conspiracy to make us all seem younger than we are, the better to sell us stuff. Dress sizes went through the same marketing disfigurement, but my dimensions did not change. As far as I’m concerned, old starts at sixty because the non-accidental death rate picks up right about there. Just because we know of someone who lived well into their nineties, doesn’t mean that’s the new life expectancy.
If you can realistically expect as many more years as you’ve lived, then you’re what we old people like to call a “spring chicken,” dearie. If you happen to go on a vengeful jag (and I don’t recommend it, for it ages a woman), I’m sure the restaurant’s manager would love to know that you’ve been the subject of age discrimination.
By: Nance on November 15, 2011
at 1:45 pm
HMMMMM-you caught me out, Nance…..can I “realistically” expect as many more years as I’ve lived….I think that 120 or so is realistic, isn’t it?
By: chlost on November 17, 2011
at 2:53 pm
Just another thing for me to look forward to – hopefully not for a little while!
By: Rose on November 15, 2011
at 11:40 pm
It happens so much more quickly than you would ever imagine! Just enjoy being young!!
By: chlost on November 17, 2011
at 2:54 pm
I was discussing an idea for a funny scetch yesterday, where folks in their early 50’s are making fake I.D.s to get discounts on coffee and movie tickets the same way a kid in high school makes a fake I.D. to buy beer. I am sure they were just extending the same courtesy to his pretty young wife 🙂
By: Simon on November 18, 2011
at 10:55 am
Hmmm-perhaps that is his other wife you are referring to? I think that sounds like a good sketch!
By: chlost on November 20, 2011
at 11:53 am
Giving you a dsicount is one thing – giving you a different serving based on a presumption about your age and what you ought to be eating is appalling!
By: secret agent woman on November 27, 2011
at 2:26 pm
I think that she assumed, but was trying to be helpful.
By: chlost on November 28, 2011
at 6:12 pm