I can tell from a number of things that I'm over the hill. Sometimes it is a bit unexpected, though. A man is doing his weekly shopping including his favourite beer since there's no-one else doing it for him. "Hi, my name is Doe. I'm gonna shop here." I usually buy two beer cases at a time especially when the brand is on special offer helping me save 10 bucks. Looking for my beer I went right to the corner of the drinks cash 'n' carry where I can usually find it but the familiar label was not smiling at me. There were other types of beer of the same brand but just my type was missing. Damn, I mumbled to myself. I'm running out of supplies at home. What am I gonna do then? I blamed it all on the heat wave leading to a shortage of empties. I was being reminded of the old days behind the iron curtain when replies like "That's out and we won't get it in again." were very common. OK. I bought some sparkling water (not my brand either) and asked the lady at the checkout: When will you be getting my beer in again? She replied: "We're expecting delivery today." So there was hope. Then she went on: "What kind of beer are you looking for?" I told her the brand and the type. "But there's a pile of that over there. Didn't you see it?" What? That can't be true. I took a look but did not recognise it as my type of beer. The color of the bottle was right, yeah, but the label was completely blank. No brand, no type, no logo was printed on it. That's why I had passed by. Now I finally needed to take out my glasses because the lady had said it was the beer I wanted. The glasses did help. I managed to identify a tiny sentence on the edge of the blank label: Create your own. And on the back of the bottle on top of the ingredients there was the word "Pilsner". Slowly it dawned on me. There was probably a marketing campaign encouraging consumers to take part in a competition by coming up with ideas for a new, i.e., their "own" label and sending them in. Well, is that what can rightly be expected from retirees? What seems to be normal for younger folks, who are curious, have good eyesight, want to be creative and express themselves, was non-existent for retirees like me. I had never heard of the campaign also because I only watch commercial-free TV-channels. Bottom line is that those ad campaigns may be counter-productive because while probably winning younger customers over they are losing those who are getting on a bit. Is that what they want? There's no doubt, I'm definitely waving goodbye to the days when I was younger. A famous politician won the election with the slogan: "No experiments". I couldn't agree more. Well, I eventually bought my two cases of beer and heard the cashier say: There we go. The thing is that now I can't see what beer I'm drinking but at least I can taste it. Cheers.
I have become a firm believer that Rome was built in a day! Every day, of our life, we wake up to a new world. One where something old is gone and something new has been added. It's only as we get older, do we have the time to pay attention to it and notice it.
The sign that tells me I am getting older is the calendar and that is all. Maybe With my added knowledge I think differently.
Nothing is more poignant than being so used to the present image in the mirror that a cruse through old pictures finds you unable to recognize an earlier you.
Lack of the high energetic way I've always been known for...the osteoarthritis in my hands...the pain in my back.. the pain in my hip... better not go on or I'll depress myself...
Not being able to do fairly simple physical things like unscrewing a cap, taking a walk without my walker.getting out of bed. getting up from a chair after sitting down, golf is just a memory and so is Racquet Ball & Squash.
I can think of many ways- but try to ignore them, and trudge on anyway. As long as I can move,on my own- intend to keep moving,regardless how slow I become.
Our 10 grandkids are signs to me that I am getting older....everytime they get a year older...so do I!
Feel the 'old' in me everytime the stupid part of me says " Yea, your're still 30, go ahead and pick up that 50 lb. pump motor". If I could just control that voice, life would be better.