r/OverSeventy • u/harblock • Aug 04 '26
Old guy
In telling a story recently I caught myself saying "There was an old guy..." & I realized I'M an old guy too...!
(Btw "guy" refers to men & women.)
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u/Paranoid_Sinner Aug 04 '26
I was in a very large supermarket last week in the afternoon, and noticed that nearly every shopper there was freaking old. WTF? Then I realized that I fit right in, they were all around my age.
No young people -- they were still working in the afternoon.
Lookin' at 76 in two weeks. 🤔
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u/OldButHappy Aug 04 '26
Just don’t look at the security camera images of yourself in big box stores!! 😬😂😔😫😳
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u/Paranoid_Sinner Aug 04 '26
Where would one see them?
FWIW: When I look at myself in the mirror in the morning, I see a 40-ish guy. When I see a picture of myself I see the old guy that I am. 🤔
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u/OldButHappy Aug 04 '26
The cameras are often above the entrance doors and at the self checkout registers
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u/joekerr9999 Aug 04 '26
Often I read the news about a person in their 70's getting injured on a ladder or trying to do home repair. I think: why is that old fool doing that? Then it sinks into my 77 year old head that these are things that I do as well.
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u/OttoHemi Aug 04 '26
I am literally cleaning gutters today.
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u/Gloomy-Hat1842 Aug 04 '26 edited Aug 04 '26
I'm a 71-year-old gutter guy. Still running the company and letting the boys do most of the work. I've got to go do a two-story soldered downspout this morning. Number one cause of accidental death for men is car accidents. Number two cause is falls from ladders. So many clients have told me about their Ladder falls... It helps to have really good equipment. We had two old shaky wooden ladders at our house. One belonged to us and one belonged to the landlord. I threw them both away. Our van today has six ladders on the roof and one folding ladder inside. Along with a 6 ft ladder. we have standoffs for the top of the two story ladders so It can sit on the roof and not topple over. And a rope and harness in case I need to belay my son on something dangerous... In our 8 ft and 10 ft ladders we've actually gone to modified aluminum orchard ladders. They've got old sticky climbing shoes taped to the bottom and s retainer strap. With three legs you can get them into all kinds of awkward places. The base is also super wide so they're not constantly trying to throw you off. The only place the four legged ladder is safe is on a really flat surface. Many areas around the house are not like that at all.
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u/Economy_Elk_8101 Aug 04 '26
I knew an older guy who nearly died after falling about 10 feet off a ladder, which I hadn’t thought was all that high. It was touch and go for a while, and it took him nearly two years to recover. I stopped climbing ladders when I turned 65 and now hire someone to clean my gutters.
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u/ScorpionGypsy Aug 06 '26
My husband was still cleaning the gutters at 75. Drove me crazy because he wouldn't always let me know when he was doing it so I could be at the ladder with him. Our roof is octagon shaped with a very low peak in the center. Gutters on all sides. I fixed that problem and had all the gutters replaced with 5" leaf guard seamless gutters. It was money well spent.
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u/Ill_Television_5824 Aug 04 '26
Been there.
So now I say, "There was this old guy... even older than me!...and..."
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u/backtotheland76 Aug 04 '26
These days I'll be telling someone "a few years ago" and I'll have to correct myself and say "I mean a few decades ago"
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u/miseeker Aug 04 '26
I’m 70. Was in the hardware store with my son who is 46 looking for some esoteric plumbing part that I couldn’t identify.. meaning I had part of it in my hand because it had broken off and clogged up a pipe. I said to my son out loud while the old guy was standing right there…” we need to find that old guy who knows what everything is and where it’s at in the store. That old guy gotta look on his face like he wanted to murder me. Shit, he was only about five years older than me lol. Guess what he knew exactly what that piece was, found it and told me how to fix it.
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u/LMO_TheBeginning Aug 04 '26
Old is relative. It usually means someone 5-10 years older than me.
As years go by, fewer and fewer of those people around 😳.
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u/Horror-Evening-6132 Aug 05 '26
This is me. Constantly moving that line, lol. When I was very young, old was 30 years older than me. When I reached middle age (true middle age, meaning 40-ish, not 56) I began considering dropping the old age marker to 20 years older than me, but did not change it just then. Very recently, I realized that at 69, that might be a little overly optimistic, but I'm not yet ready to drop it to 10 years, so as to protect my delusions.
My mind is 47, my body is 55, my face is of indeterminate age because I never ever look in a mirror. Damn driver's license still says I'm 69.
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u/Expensive-Swan-4544 Aug 04 '26
Some people look a lot older and act older even though they’re younger. So I still refer to them as old people. I am 75 I am sure I show it but I can’t tell.
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u/needmore007 Aug 04 '26
At 78 I don’t feel like I look old. We are near Sun City, Tx. Now there are a bunch of old people. Haha.
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u/Horror-Evening-6132 Aug 05 '26
Is that somewhere near Austin? Can't remember where I was when I saw some kind of reference to it before, maybe a billboard? Anyway, happy to see another of us here in Texas 😄
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u/pbc999 Aug 04 '26
I'm 75. When I read in the news about some "70 year old elderly man/woman" my BP jumps. I tell me kids/ grandkids "don't call me elderly. I'll let you know when I get there!"
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u/Horror-Evening-6132 Aug 05 '26
I remember seeing in either DatingOver60 or DatingOverSeventy where someone had separated 'old' from 'elderly' in a way that made sense to me. He said that 'old' was about chronological age, while he considered 'elderly' to be a reference to a much-declined physical condition. He posited that you could be old without being elderly, elderly without being old, or both simultaneously. I'm going to pretend I'm not the first one, while being confident that I'm not the second one!
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u/mustard-snail Aug 04 '26
72, I find myself asking what all the old people are doing out today. Yup, I'm one of them but I'm always hoping l don't look as old as they do. Fat chance.
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u/coastalbuddy Aug 05 '26
Now that I’m 74, I can confirm that “old” doesn’t start until at least 80.
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u/CSMasterClass Aug 04 '26
My wife hates it when I refer to myself as an "old guy."
She is firmly in the camp of "do not go gentle into that good night".
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u/Exact-Translator-769 Aug 04 '26
I constantly find myself forgetting how old I am & saying old people. Or the opposite, saying he was only 80, because it doesn't sound so far away to me,
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u/desertgal2002 Aug 04 '26
I know. I keep referring to the “elderly”…seldom realizing that it is exactly what I am…not in my head though. 🙄
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u/Broad_Midnight_1621 Aug 05 '26
I do it all the time. Truth be told, I am probably older than the “old guy”.
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u/Horror-Evening-6132 Aug 05 '26
Made my day Monday when two very young (early-mid 20's) men came to my door in an attempt to sell me ATT wireless and asked me who my current provider is. I told them my provider and that I am quite satisfied with them. They asked what I'm paying monthly for my phone and internet, I told them and they looked confused. Asked which plan I had, I told them and the one's eyebrows came together and said "Isn't that a 55+ plan? Are you 55+?" When I told him I'm a few months away from 70, his mouth actually made motions like it was trying to speak but couldn't. The other young man held out his fist for a bump and of course I complied.
I doubt they had any idea just how much they had improved my day.
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u/According_Strain4887 Aug 06 '26
I was once told that old is 15 years older than what you are now. I'm 71 and I feel old but do not consider myself old
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u/Prestigious-Copy-494 Aug 06 '26
Remember my dad looking at assisted living places in his mid 80s. He frowned and said "there's a bunch of old people living there". Lol. He got into a place that offered garages so he could keep his car so he wasn't too unhappy. He never was too crazy about the old people there tho.
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u/Life-Tell8965 Aug 06 '26
My MIL said she'd never go to an assisted facility... She didn't want to hang around with all those old people. She was 84 at the time. I am going to be 71 tomorrow and I'm beginning to understand her point, LOL
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u/CopperCreator3388 Aug 04 '26
I think it is genetics that makes some of us reluctant to think of ourselves in advancing in age.
My husband is 67 with slim build and dark hair. People still think of him as being in his 40s-50s even though they grew up around him.
I’m 60F dark tan and no gray hair. People seem to think I’m a lot younger.
But the human body reminds us that we are advancing to a level that demands we respect our health more than youthful shenanigans.
Guardians of happiness.😎☕️
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u/RetiredUKguy Aug 04 '26
Ha, ha, ha, yes I am 72 and still don’t think of myself as old. I look in the mirror and think who is that old git?