I used to think that age equated to percentage of life lived, thus I thought that most people live to close around 100.
But it also made me think that people only get old when they’re like 80.
I mean like actually “old”. The “old” adults were referring to. At that age I considered those 14/15 year old 9th graders old, just a bit different “old”.
It’s well known in my house that “old” means “4 or more years older than my mum”. Whenever my mum gets a year older, the definition of “old” moves one year up.
Also, my dad is 5 years older than her.
I thought my grandparents were old, but old has legitimately changed a lot. In the 80s my maternal grandparents (then in their late 40s or early 50s - about the age I am now) looked like today’s late 60-somethings. Neither had any of their own teeth as it was somewhat common for dentists to recommend full replacement at the first signs of trouble for their generation. I don’t think either had ever worn sunscreen before I was a kid. My grandfather’s appearance was affected by diseases I never had to deal with like Scarlett and Rheumatic fevers. My grandmother got her hair set with nasty chemicals on a weekly for 30 years (I don’t know how it wasn’t so damaged it disintegrated).
My grandfather became the breadwinner for his siblings at 13 too, that’s gotta age a person. FYI: In those days you just had to mail in a form to get your Illinois driver’s license and the state never checked the details.
Damn.
I also heard that dentists used to recommend hard toothbrushes and “If your gums don’t bleed you’re not brushing hard enough.”
Although that may depend on region.
I remember my grandfather’s 50th birthday party and all the balloons and such saying “over the hill”, and I took that to mean that 50 was when you turn old. Had no idea how long most people lived, but I probably would have guessed somewhere in their 60s (fairly accurate for the time).
I remember as a child having more than one family member who were in their 90s. So old to me was 70s+
A couple of my favorite aging quotes.
“A man has three ages; childhood; young adult; don’t worry you look fine.” No idea who said it.
“A man isn’t old until there are no women his own age he finds exciting. A woman is old the first time she looks for a dress to make her look younger.” Xaviera_Hollander
“Old” was always x number of years older than me. So at 8, my 13 year old sister was old. The limit has widened to now I see us as effectively at the same phase in life and “old” is now my relatives who are a life phase or two ahead of me, planning retirements or having grandchildren.
When I was in grade school in the 60s, we had a math problem… “how old will you be in the year 2000?” I calculated 42 and thought “OMG, I’ll be nearly dead by then”…
As a child, I came to consider 40 to be basically dead and pointless, a withered husk clinging to life and a sense of relevance like the flagpole of a sinking ship.
As someone about to hit that mark, I still haven’t seen any new information that changes my opinion on that.
Our cognitive ability peaks around our late 20s. We humans love to delude ourselves about our mortality with comforting thoughts like “well my experience makes up for it, herp derp,” but that’s just something to help us sleep at night as we degrade at an ever accelerating rate.
I don’t disagree. But between experience, resources amassed, and relationships built by the time you turn 40, it’s often possible to have a greater actual capability despite your slightly reduced theoretical capability.
Basically when you’re in your 20s you might have a bit more cognitive horsepower, but you typically lack some emotional and financial tools to leverage that horsepower more efficiently.
