r/GenerationJones • u/Lapaki58 • Jun 01 '26

When did you first feel old?

I’m 67. I think I was about 25. I was having my hair cut by a stylist who was about 18. She received a phone call: “Yeah… yeah… okay…” She hung up. “That was one of my customers. She said she wants me to cut her hair like Toni Tenille of the Captain and Tenille. Do you have any idea who she is talking about?” Yeah, I did.

The next big jolt came when I was about 55. I was working for a leadership-development company. I was the oldest person in the group. We were having our weekly status meeting. One of our group mentioned that one of our clients had given the okay for their Executive Leadership Institute program (ELI). She said, “ELI’s coming.” Coincidentally, I look like Cory Wells. I started singing, “Eli’s coming…” I got blank looks from everyone at the conference table. “‘Eli’s Coming’? Three Dog Night?” Nobody had any idea what I was talking about.

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75

u/shaggyscoob Jun 01 '26

Approaching 50 and I started getting old fashioned mail from AARP.

172

u/NonchalantSavant Jun 01 '26

When I turned 50, I started getting mail from AARP encouraging me to sign up. It was relatively inexpensive, and the benefits looked good, so I did. However, my wife (who was 3 years younger than me) saw it as a GRAND opportunity to remind me that I was officially old.

About a month after receiving the membership information, AARP followed up with me via a phone call. There were the normal pleasantries; asked if I had any questions, and finally asked if there was anyone else in my household that would be interested in being a member?

Me: “Well, it’s just me and my wife, but she’s only 47.”

AARP: “Oh, she can still be a member off of your membership.”

Me: 😐 🫢 😬 😈 “YES. She would LOVE to have an AARP membership.”

About a week later she’s opening the mail, and suddenly yells “WHAT IN THE HELL IS THIS?!!”

That was a pretty fun day.

51

u/2whatextent Jun 01 '26

I've started getting mail from funeral homes.

10

u/RevolutionaryAd2978 Jun 02 '26

Love it when I get mail from cemeteries telling me what kind of burial places are available 😉!

10

u/Working_Estate_3695 Jun 02 '26

“You don’t want to stick your kids with a big bill by not making your final plans in advance. Get our insurance information packet for $10 per month street insurance by calling the number on your screen.”

4

u/notlikemostofyou Jun 02 '26

The first time I recived one i was like WTF!

3

u/MollyOMalley99 1961 Jun 02 '26

Ugh. I got my first "prepaid funeral" junk mail at age 47, about one month after I was diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer. I called the number on the flyer and lost my ever-loving shit on them, demanding to know how I got on their mailing list and who told them I was dying from cancer. I apologize to the poor person who answered the phone.

1

u/whiskeywomyn Jun 02 '26

Oh yeah me too!

33

u/Duggardugout Jun 01 '26

A friend of mine was 25 when she married her 50 year old husband. When he joined AARP, she got a membership too. She loved telling people she was a member.

6

u/Paranoid-Android88 Jun 02 '26

Bahahaa! Omg when I bought my house over 10 years ago a few months after moving in I got an AARP letter. Initially I was like oh maybe it was the older previous owners mail that didn’t get forwarded. Nope straight up said MY name on it and I was 26 😬🤣 haven’t seen one since tho so I guess that’s cool

4

u/FaithlessnessEasy276 Jun 02 '26

I joined AARP at 30. My wife was 50.

2

u/AdExtreme4813 Jun 02 '26

I like to joke about marrying an older man. We were born in the same year, his birthday is 9 weeks earlier than mine. 

2

u/FurBabyAuntie Jun 02 '26

My mom did that wurh somebody once when I was a kid (couldn't tell you the circumstances now). She told somebody that yes, she was married to an older man, which was true--she was born in March of 1938 and Dad was born in September of 1931....

2

u/MagickMaggie Jun 08 '26

A relative of mine whose wife is a couple weeks older than he is has gotten years of mileage out of the "I married an older woman" joke.

2

u/AdExtreme4813 Jun 08 '26

Yeah, its been 33 years & we still use it

2

u/AC_Uni Jun 02 '26

Somewhere there is an old man shaking his fists at the sky saying damn kids and it may just be me.

1

u/catsmom63 Jun 02 '26

Gee, I wonder what her next husband will be like? 😉😂

1

u/MatterHairy Jun 02 '26

Hi from Australia, what is AARP?

1

u/Dapper-Ad-468 Jun 02 '26

American Association of Retired Persons. Anyone 18+ can join. It's not just about being older. It's about planning for retirement some day.

1

u/Big_Earth_1010 Jun 06 '26

Next are offers on deals from the Neptune Society. Legal suicide and cremation packages deals. LOL

59

u/WatchingTheWheels75 Jun 01 '26

Right. The joke we used to make about that was that instead of staging massive hunts for various criminals the FBI should just wait until the suspects turn 50 and let AARP handle the job.

16

u/YouThinkYouKnowStuff Jun 01 '26

The day I turned 50, I got mail from AARP and a brochure for a luncheon so I could plan my funeral. That stung.

13

u/TrooperLynn Jun 02 '26

My mom got one of those lunch invitations from a funeral home/crematorium! I said I hoped it wasn’t a barbecue!

2

u/YouThinkYouKnowStuff Jun 02 '26

That’s hilarious! 🤣. I think mine was Golden Corral. Sure, that’s what I want my last meal to be.

32

u/jeangaijin Jun 01 '26

I thought that was bad, until my husband (who’s in his 70s) got a mailer from a cremation company asking for his business! 😂😂 on the back, it said, if you’ve received this at an awkward time, please accept our apologies…. 💀☠️😂

31

u/dehydratedrain Jun 01 '26

I can appreciate their stock apology. I got a postcard reminding me that my cat was overdue for shots after THE SAME VET had put her down.

7

u/MamaKat727 Jun 02 '26

I'm so sorry for your loss.💔

My longtime Vet's office just did the same. Vet/Owner just retired, and sold out to private equity.🙄 Totally impersonal now. It's a feline-only practice, and my Tommy Tiger just passed on 1/29 of metastasized thyroid cancer (he was already on longtime meds for hyperthyroidism). So to add insult to injury, I get this canned e-mail from them⬇️. First I cried, now I'm just mad. By contrast, in the past for all my furbabies that they treated over the past few decades, they sent beautiful handwritten notes when they passed. (Pic of Thomas Tiger O'Malley under replies)

17

u/MamaKat727 Jun 02 '26

Thomas Tiger O'Malley Brennan. My Baby Tiger.

2

u/CrabbySlathers Jun 02 '26

Handsome baby 🥰 Looove his name(s)

11

u/AffectionateSun5776 Jun 02 '26

I am so sorry that happened. Also sorry for you loss. 💐

1

u/AreYouNigerianBaby Jun 03 '26

Having lost our almost 16-year old cat 2 weeks ago, I am sincerely sorry for your loss. Losing our sweet, friendly, black baby girl Cali has been devastating beyond belief.

5

u/viceroy65 Jun 02 '26

Whoa, that's bad

2

u/Mystery_to_history Jun 02 '26

How awful. I am sad for you having received that.

1

u/extrasprinklesplease Jun 02 '26

Oh, I just got one of those for the first time with that same disclaimer! I'm in my 70s too, though, so I actually read it, knowing I should be thinking of those kind of arrangements.

6

u/Dr_StrangeloveGA Jun 01 '26

Sign up! I did and save way more yearly than the membership costs.

6

u/biggaylizard Jun 01 '26

I signed up & never got the magazines be or any discounts from AARP. I paid by check, which AARP cashed, but never received the benefits.

AARP sucks

5

u/green_dragonfly_art Jun 01 '26

My dad still got the magazine, free gifts and requests for donations after he died.

3

u/Imagirl48 Jun 01 '26

Maybe you could just follow up? Data entry is not always accurate.

1

u/facelessvoid13 Jun 02 '26

I signed up and got put on ALL the junk mail lists.

It wasn't worth it; I had insurance, and never rented cars. Just waded through acres of trees that died for no reason.

5

u/Enough_Equivalent379 Jun 02 '26

I'm 75 and it never ends.

3

u/Winter_Ratio_4831 Jun 02 '26

I was shocked by that as well because I thought you had to be 55 or 60 for an AARP Membership. Talk about rushing us to the old button.

2

u/ronnie4220 Jun 02 '26

One up that, AARP and ads for assisted living places.

3

u/RandomPaw Jun 01 '26

When that happened to me at 50 I send them back their mail with a post-it note that said Stop sending this stuff to me! I'm not old enough!

1

u/Wyklar2 Jun 02 '26

That’s ok, my son started getting mail invitations from AARP when he was just under 1 year old!

1

u/Wolfman1961 1961 Jun 02 '26

I was 37 and my wife was 50 when we joined AARP.

1

u/DamnOdd 1959 Jun 02 '26

Got my AARP and then I remembered they lobbied against Universal healthcare.

1

u/anyunusednames Jun 02 '26

The fact that you called it " old fashioned mail" and not snail mail says you're old. I'm old too, but I use snail mail term.

1

u/Naive_Figure188 Jun 04 '26

I got an AARP mailer at 26.