When you were a kid, how old was your perception of what it is to be elderly?

40!?... 40!?

65 was it for me.

When I was a kid, everyone looked like they were old. My Dad showed me his junior high class picture. He is 76.

They all looked and dressed like “50 year old’s.”

60+.
I still feel this today, as a 20-year-old.

I always thought about 60–70 cause I remember my nana papa being old like that

I thought 60 was the age of being elderly, but I thought 40 was the age of being too old to be cool. :P

Now I’m 18 and a legal adult and in college and you’d think maybe I’d feel old, but I don’t. I feel quite youthful. :) I’m not sure what age it will be when I decide that I am old.

@ChazMaz Yeah that is a crazily young old guy.In my defence i’m talking about me being around 6 or 7 yrs old at the time.

as i get older, my idea of old get older. when i was in high school my mother turned 40, and i was depressed, i thought that was ancient. now i’m 44 and i feel like 50 is middle age, and 60 is old but not ancient.

When I was younger, I viewed 50 as old. Now that my parents have both turned 50, I feel like 65 is the new old.

@jeffgoldblumsprivatefacilities- How is that? Jeff Goldblum is 58.

You can’t be older then your parents? ;-)

65.

I knew some 40 year olds who were quite hip when I was a kid.

My grandmother lived to be 98…she was already ancient when I was born. lol

I think my demarcation line for pretty damn ‘old’ starts around 75.

50’s.I will have to re-think that someday.

@lucillelucillelucille

Yes, you will! lolololol

40 is the old age of youth and 50 is the youth of old age! hahaha

For my entire life, I have always thought that seventy was where “old” began. Of course, when I was very small I often thought people who were in their forties were seventy, so I don’t know if that really counts for much. XD

I always thought anybody 30 years older than I am was old. I still do.

When I was younger, anyone out of college was old.
When I hit middle school, anyone who was a grandparent was old.
When I hit high school, anyone who could order off the senior citizen menu was old.
Now it’s just anyone who looks old. I’m scared of being old. I really am.
Which is why I am going to join the Lost Boys and never return.

@Coloma -I am right in the middle of that!LOL

I intend to be old like this.

I don’t remember really ever thinking about this. I remember at some point thinking that the age I am now was old. Certainly on the downhill side of life. But maybe that’s how I think now, so I don’t know.

@DominicX If you are smart, you will never decide that you are old. Dr Michael DeBakey was still operating when he was 90.

When I was 34, my wife and I had a friend over for dinner. She was an extremely attractive blonde. During the course of the conversation she mentioned that she was 38 and I almost fell off my chair. I was just overwhelmed with how much older than me she was. My perception was that I was “just a iittle past 30”. But she….she was “almost 40” It’s all in how we perceive ourselves. I have a friend, my old college roommate who talks often about how old he is. But I think back, and he was old at 22. He always seemed old, even though we were the same age. He just acted old.

I have a 93 year old aunt who doesnt seem old at all, and never has. When she was 85, she was still wearing stylish clothes and heels. A cousin of mine (female) went to visit her and when she got back told my mother that she was never going to visit Sarah again. When asked why, she said no woman 85 should have the figure she has. It was in jest, but my 93 year old aunt still doesnt seem old.

It all depends on the person and the attitude.

Who’s old, ....

I just chopped down about 15 feet of my jungle! lol

As a youngster I thought anything over 30 was unimaginably old. Yet my great-grannies were in their nineties, and I thought that was very cool. They were past old.

Even when I was about 35 I looked pityingly on a co-worker who was 48. I’d be thrilled to see 48 again myself now..

20

What a lovely question. As I am going through the “age” of awareness. When I was young (pre teens) I thought 40 was over the hill, and over that, dinosaur material. It seemed in those days there was a strict code for dressing too. Dowdy. When I hit 30 I was devastated. But when I hit 40 I was very OK. I love being in my forties. There are draw backs of course, like I was always the youngest at work, now I am always the oldest. I don’t know if my perception has changed or whether we have really all changed and are not ageing the same way as “the old days”. I have met hot sexy drop dead gorgeous 50 years olds, a 60 year old natural beauty married to a guy of 30, I think age is a beautiful thing, if we just stop mussing it up with our fears and self flagellation.