Mostly because I assume when I’m old I’ll more or less look like I do now, just richer.
If my elderly knees would only allow me to run away fast, or really at all, I would print this out and give it to all the youngsters who annoy me. Thank you so much for writing this. I turned 50 last year and I was honey'd and sweetie'd nearly to death at my last doctor's appt, but I had neither your wit or words so I just endured it. And the woman was clearly late 30s/early 40s, which made it even more mind boggling. I could only think, fuck off, I'm not your grandma.
I remember a young woman turning to me at the museum to compliment (but really, from her tone, congratulate) me for having my hair in pigtails — implication: I’m old so it’s remarkable and worthy of notice and appraisal, in this case, a positive appraisal from a younger woman who thinks I’m daring to do something she obviously thinks it took some courage on my part to do. If I had been her age I doubt she’d have batted an eye. So yeah, brave old ladies in pigtails. My eyes are tired of rolling. To be fair, when I was her age I saw someone probably ten years older than I am now walking through the park in heavy kohl eyeliner (arm in arm with a rather conservative looking old gent) to the point it was all over the place because of her eye wrinkles and I thought, yeah, I wanna boldly defy the admonishments not to keep wearing kohl if I feel like it when I’m too old to keep it from spreading like a raccoon mask someday, too. Why the hell not. It had a cool, silent movie esthetic. But I kept it to myself for the last twenty years!
"Mostly because I assume when I’m old I’ll more or less look like I do now, just richer." (Cackles, freaks out neighbors)
As a 44 year old lady with coworkers in their 20's I take my hat off and bow to you for this perfect summation.
Mostly because I assume when I’m old I’ll more or less look like I do now, just richer.
If my elderly knees would only allow me to run away fast, or really at all, I would print this out and give it to all the youngsters who annoy me. Thank you so much for writing this. I turned 50 last year and I was honey'd and sweetie'd nearly to death at my last doctor's appt, but I had neither your wit or words so I just endured it. And the woman was clearly late 30s/early 40s, which made it even more mind boggling. I could only think, fuck off, I'm not your grandma.
I remember a young woman turning to me at the museum to compliment (but really, from her tone, congratulate) me for having my hair in pigtails — implication: I’m old so it’s remarkable and worthy of notice and appraisal, in this case, a positive appraisal from a younger woman who thinks I’m daring to do something she obviously thinks it took some courage on my part to do. If I had been her age I doubt she’d have batted an eye. So yeah, brave old ladies in pigtails. My eyes are tired of rolling. To be fair, when I was her age I saw someone probably ten years older than I am now walking through the park in heavy kohl eyeliner (arm in arm with a rather conservative looking old gent) to the point it was all over the place because of her eye wrinkles and I thought, yeah, I wanna boldly defy the admonishments not to keep wearing kohl if I feel like it when I’m too old to keep it from spreading like a raccoon mask someday, too. Why the hell not. It had a cool, silent movie esthetic. But I kept it to myself for the last twenty years!
Ha, at 46 I'm approaching 'brave' age. Bring on the yellow claws! Great post x