You know you are getting old when:

[2jakes]

I morphed from unclean tadpole to shell back in September 2007, crossing from south to north over the equator in the Arabian Sea. I was "initiated" along with about six others. The process started weeks prior.

It's a rather fun initiation, and one of the few still allowed to proceed in these more, um, enlightened times!

http://www.nauticapedia.ca/Articles/Crossing_the_Line.php

The image reminded me of the diary of pilot Charles Bond of the Flying Tigers
when he crossed the equator in early 1940s.

Crossing the equator the "pollywogs" were put through a ritual which consisted in part.
Having head & eyebrows shaved, smeared with spoiled fish & dumped in a make-shift pool and
had to kiss the belly of "King Neptune" which was smeared with all kinds of goop before
being considered "shellbacks".

 

[MisterCairo]

Crossing the equator the "pollywogs" were put through a ritual which consisted in part.
Having head & eyebrows shaved, smeared with spoiled fish & dumped in a make-shift pool and
had to kiss the belly of "King Neptune" which was smeared with all kinds of goop before
being considered "shellbacks".

Quite similar in my case.

We were smeared with goop (peanut butter, jam, mustard - condiments mostly in fact!), no pool so they turned on the fire hoses, and we had to "take a pill" which was some kind of jalapeño pepper wrapped in lord knows what).

Good times...

 

[2jakes]

You know, that you are 30+, when the teenage girls begin to whistle at you.

That's a teasing gesture from teenage girls similar to a "sympathy smile"
for 30+ relics.

The difficulty is explaining to some that are infatuated with me so that
they can understand. I try to explain in a sensitive manner as I think
a father would.
That it's just a passing thing. I tell them that it happened to me with
my high school teacher and someday they will find someone of their
own age.



But man oh man...my teacher was hot looking and when she smiled
at me ...I melted!

 

[Fading Fast]

That's a teasing gesture from teenage girls similar to a "sympathy smile"
for 30+ relics.

I know i've mentioned it before, but it was only in the last ten or so years, in my early 40s, when I started to notice that young women (late teens and 20s) were looking through me - I had become invisible to them. I understand this and have no rancor about it - like having to eat smaller portions or be more careful when lifting heavy things, it's just another marker of getting older.

 

[Zombie_61]

I morphed from unclean tadpole to shell back in September 2007, crossing from south to north over the equator in the Arabian Sea. I was "initiated" along with about six others. The process started weeks prior.

It's a rather fun initiation, and one of the few still allowed to proceed in these more, um, enlightened times!

A former co-worker told me one day about his initiation when he was in the Navy in the late-1950s. He was initially rather nervous about it, especially since his already-initiated shipmates had drastically exaggerated the stories of their initiations, but once it began he quickly realized it was indeed a celebration rather than a hazing and participated happily despite the goop and fire hoses.

 

[2jakes]

A former co-worker told me one day about his initiation when he was in the Navy in the late-1950s. He was initially rather nervous about it, especially since his already-initiated shipmates had drastically exaggerated the stories of their initiations, but once it began he quickly realized it was indeed a celebration rather than a hazing and participated happily despite the goop and fire hoses.

Perhaps there might be some truth in the stories.
I've read of initiating rituals in
earlier times as being harsher.
Where the sailors would use this
rite as a disguise against the
captain's aides as a payback
for the way they were treated
on board.

 

[dnjan]

You know, that you are 30+, when the teenage girls begin to whistle at you.

You know that you are way past that when women in their 80's smile and say that you remind them of their late husband.

 

[green papaya]

you know your getting old when the guys no longer ask a mother & daughter if they are sisters?

some mothers & daughters actually look like sisters if the mother had a child at a young age [17 - 20] then when the daughter is 18 the mother is 35 and some women still look like they are in their 20's at 35, so they could still be mistaken as the older sister.

 

[vitanola]

Quite similar in my case.

We were smeared with goop (peanut butter, jam, mustard - condiments mostly in fact!), no pool so they turned on the fire hoses, and we had to "take a pill" which was some kind of jalapeño pepper wrapped in lord knows what).

Good times...

I Think that I've seen that ceremony before:

 

[Zombie_61]

Perhaps there might be some truth in the stories. I've read of initiating rituals in earlier times as being harsher. Where the sailors would use this
rite as a disguise against the captain's aides as a payback for the way they were treated on board.

That could be, but he told me his shipmates admitted after the fact to exaggerating their stories just to make him think it would be worse than it actually was. Also, he was the gullible sort even when I worked with him, so he was an easy target.

 

[2jakes]

Vitanola's is Keaton slapstick....
This is the "real McCoy"!

 

[Stearmen]

I just remembered another male culture where a pierced ear is the norm, Mountain Men. I never got to far into it, love flintlock rifles, but the rest, no thanks. If you escaped death, you were suppose to get a piercing, some had their entire left ear pierced with no left over real estate! even then I thought, there is no way they faced that much death, even if they were in combat!

 

[Fading Fast]

you know your getting old when the guys no longer ask a mother & daughter if they are sisters?

some mothers & daughters actually look like sisters if the mother had a child at a young age [17 - 20] then when the daughter is 18 the mother is 35 and some women still look like they are in their 20's at 35, so they could still be mistaken as the older sister.

Checking out at the supermarket yesterday, two of the cashiers were talking as one was checking my stuff out and they mentioned their grandkids. I (to myself) did a double take as neither looked to me like they could be forty yet. But I guess, if you have a kid at 17 and your kid does the same - then, there you go, you're 34 with a grandkid. Truly, these two were the youngest looking grandmothers I've ever seen.

 

[2jakes]

When everyone in my family and
most of my friends were born in the last century.
And beginning with the year 2000.
The mention of the years somehow still sounds odd.
Most of my life was spent in the
20th.
I'm ok with it.Perhaps it's just
me and this doesn't make sense.

 

[ChrisB]

When everyone in my family and
most of my friends were born in the last century.
And beginning with the year 2000.
The mention of the years somehow still sounds odd.
Most of my life was spent in the
20th.
I'm ok with it.Perhaps it's just
me and this doesn't make sense.

Me too!

 

[2jakes]

Me too!

I 'm not alone with this.
Thx!

 

[tonyb]

I 'm not alone with this.
Thx!

Fairly common sentiment, I'd guess, among those born prior to, say, the mid-1950s.

 

[2jakes]

I live in a neighborhood where the front of my place is a small island owned by the city.
It has trees and the grass is kept trimmed by the city. Only on rare occasions
do people go their for special events. It's mostly very peaceful and a nice view.

Yesterday a young "artist" built this on that area.

He calls it an "intrapid". Or something that sounded like that.

At night a colorful display of lights come on.
But in the day time, it looks like a "merry-go-round" without the rides.


I had to explain to this kid that at one time in the city was an amusement park
with many different rides. The merry-go-round was one of them.
The more I explained , the more confusing it got.

I finally told him...."ya had to be there"!

 

[Fading Fast]

When everyone in my family and
most of my friends were born in the last century.
And beginning with the year 2000.
The mention of the years somehow still sounds odd.
Most of my life was spent in the
20th.
I'm ok with it.Perhaps it's just
me and this doesn't make sense.

It feels very odd / odder still that we are now seventeen years into it.

Two thoughts:

• Is this how those who split their lives between the 19th and 20th Centuries felt in 1917 (or probably they were just worried about the Great War)?

• As a train fan (I know, I'm not proud of myself either), it's funny that the boldly named 20th Century Limited - named in 1902 to represent the apotheosis of luxury train travel and the hope and confidence of the, then, aborning century - sounds dated today.

 

[2jakes]

It feels very odd / odder still that we are now seventeen years into it.

Two thoughts:

• Is this how those who split their lives between the 19th and 20th Centuries felt in 1917 (or probably they were just worried about the Great War)?

• As a train fan (I know, I'm not proud of myself either), it's funny that the boldly named 20th Century Limited - named in 1902 to represent the apotheosis of luxury train travel and the hope and confidence of the, then, aborning century - sounds dated today.

I always felt that I will be in that category.... "at the turn of the century"
when folks in the future will look back at us and the way we related thoughts,
ideas and such on something known as a "forum".

On another note:
I once found in an antique shop. A Daisy BB gun engraved with "20th Century".
Which was made at the turn of the century.
I paid about $20. The clerk said that the wood stock was missing.
After doing some research, I found that this was all original and complete,
one of the first models made in Plymouth and very valuable to air-gun collectors.