Old and Cranky?

Jim was offered a seat on the train by a schoolboy last week. A polite young man brought up to respect his elders. Considering Jim cycles 100 kms a week in record time, I hardly think his thigh muscles were being put under strain by standing for two stops but it got me thinking about getting old.

The poet Ogden Nash once wrote:

Senescence begins
And middle age ends
The day your descendants
Outnumber your friends.

I always found that quite cheering because I have no direct descendants and a helluva lotta friends. Therefore, I reasoned, I can surely never get old. Not true. I felt very old yesterday when a bloke offered to carry my shopping bags back to the car for me. No, this was not some sleazy type who was looking for the chance to make off with half a ton of chocolate biscuits (I was buying for the tea fund, honest) nor was it some no-hoper looking for a handout. He certainly wasn't trying to chat me up. He was just a nice bloke, well brought up by a loving mother to assist elderly ladies with their shopping. I could have turned on him, mentioned my weight training classes and given him a feminist perspective that would have had him shaking in his boots but I merely smiled politely and said I didn't have far to go, thanks anyway.

I shuffled off just another fat old lady with her shopping bags on her way home to watch the telly. Next time, I might just load him up and offer him a humbug for his trouble. Staying young takes a lot of time, money and effort. And let's face, most of us are fighting a losing battle. Getting old, on the other hand, seems to happen fairly effortlessly and can be exploited in ways that are only now beginning to reveal themselves to me.

When did you notice you were becoming old?