You know you are getting old when:

[dnjan]

I remember when people spent more time talking to each other (in person!) than they spent talking to their pets.

 

[EngProf]

I have been in department stores, though not recently by a long shot, that did not use cash registers. The sales person wrote up the sale and put the sales slip and the cash in either a basket or a tube (like at the drive-in window at the bank) and it was whisked away to the upstairs office. I doubt that was ever common, though. I also remember one "corner store" that had a little box on the side of the cash register where she put the sales tax when there was a sale. None of the sales were very big but the store had a big candy counter.

I also remember when they would put dust covers over the merchandise on the counters at nighttime. Relatively few things were packaged the way they are now. Likewise, I remember sweeping compound being spread on what I believe were oiled wood floors, which was in turned swept up and reused again the next day. Even as a little boy, that didn't seem to make a lot of sense to me, not that it worried me or anything.

There was also an abundance everywhere of small specialty shops, although some would be found more in smaller towns and others in larger towns, curiously. There were men's shops and lady's shops and in college towns there were the same sorts of shops that catered to the university set. There were hat shops, too, probably more for women than for men and I believe they were found more in larger towns. There were none in my home town, although there were two or three men's shops and probably as many lady's shops. I was never in any of them.

Lest we imagine that on-line shopping is something really new and different, there was also mail-order from three or four well-known companies which also had big department stores but never in a small town. There were sometimes so-called catalog stores, however, and there was one of those in my hometown. I don't remember if it was a Sears or a Montgomery Wards. Spiegel was another one and it's still around. I used to think you could buy anything imaginable from Sears.

I thought that the janitors were trying to fool the principal into thinking they were doing more work than they actually were by putting down fake dirt and then sweeping it up. I couldn't think of any other reason for doing it.

"I used to think you could buy anything imaginable from Sears." As a sign of how much things have changed, as kids we used to look at the Sears catalog and debate whether we'd prefer to have the Colts or Smith & Wessons as illustrated there.

 

[GHT]

I remember when people spent more time talking to each other (in person!) than they spent talking to their pets.

“The more I learn about people, the more I like my dog.”
Mark Twain.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

I remember when people spent more time talking to each other (in person!) than they spent talking to their pets.

Maybe that's because people have become even less interesting than they used to be.

 

[Edward]

Did other countries have those cellophane sun guards?

I only ever saw one. When I was young, our village had a now long-gone clothes shop that had one. The buyer knew everyone, and she actually boight with specific customers in mind (she was never wrong). That guard was a bright ambery colour, gave it a look like no other shopfront I ever remember.

The shop changed hands around 1985, but it didn't last then, not without its original buyer. Until recent years, no other venture ever lasted in that unit.

I remember when people spent more time talking to each other (in person!) than they spent talking to their pets.

I find my cat a better conversationslist than most humans.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Cats are refreshingly candid in expressing their views.

 

[BlueTrain]

Although Sears did not sell everything, they were close enough for me. It's always funny the things you remember from a long time ago. Two things in particular I remember were mechanical card shufflers and horse-drawn vehicles and that was in the 1950s. Sears isn't what it used to be but then, what is?

Although the Sears catalogues were really amazing, general interest magazines that used flourish when I was little, like Life, Look and the Saturday Evening Post were chock full of advertising. For some reason, there were regular advertisements for files (Nicholson's?) in a lot of them. It must have taken a lot of advertising to sell something that would, in my mind, never wear out.

 

[GHT]

Cats are refreshingly candid in expressing their views.

They can be extremely deceitful too.

 

[2jakes]

Cats are refreshingly candid in expressing their views.

 

[BlueTrain]

You know you're getting old when the only reason something doesn't hurt is because it's numb. And everything itches!

 

[Fading Fast]

You know you're getting old when the only reason something doesn't hurt is because it's numb. And everything itches!

If "everything" includes "one thing," you might want to have a doctor look at that.

Kidding aside, middle age brought on dry skin and itching. Which led to the girlfriend explaining about skin moisturizers - which, up until then, where just "another thing women buy to slather on themselves." Now, humbly, I either moisturizer or I itch and flake (not pretty).

 

[BlueTrain]

No, everything includes everything. No reading between the lines. Some days even my hair hurts when I get up in the morning. That's even what I tell my dentist but I don't think he really understands (he has thin hair). But I also tell him that I dread getting a haircut as much as I dread going to the dentist. I think it must be the chair. And that's why I have bad teeth and bad haircuts.

By the way, I happen to notice that the barber's chair has an ashtray in the right hand armrest. The dentist's chair doesn't have that amenity for some reason.

 

[Fading Fast]

^^^ I am not doctor, but if you are dead serious, it sounds as if you have some type of nerve issue that you should discuss with a qualified physician (hard to find, I know). Good luck.

 

[BlueTrain]

You're reading too much into my post and are not qualified to do a diagnosis via internet, though some are. And if you are as old as I am, you'd understand what I mean. But if nothing else, aches and pains prove you're still alive. I'm serious but not dead. And good luck is essential to every human endeavor.

 

[GHT]

I'm serious but not dead. And good luck is essential to every human endeavor.

That's true, when asked the secret of the longevity of their sixty year marriage, the husband replied: "Simple, you've got to keep breathing."

 

[Trenchfriend]

“The more I learn about people, the more I like my dog.”
Mark Twain.

I stopped thinking about humanity, when I was 26, in 2010. Since them, I'm relaxed.

There was suddenly a point, when I realized, that the behaviour-patters around me are only repeating again and again. And now, I can trust people only very difficult. I got my aquaintances and my real friends (two).

I think, it has got no sence, to extend your circle of friends to more than a handful. Otherwise, you got deceived, anyway.

And since I comprehended, what's the real problem with histrionics ("energy-vampires"/nags), I'm extremely carefully with other people.
My warning-system against such people is active.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

and are not qualified to do a diagnosis via internet,

I'm qualified & it doesn't look good.

 

[BlueTrain]

You're taking this whole thing much too seriously and probably spending more time reading what I wrote than I did in writing it. You have no idea how I look, unless I can figure out how to post an image.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

You're taking this whole thing much too seriously

We don't take anything too seriously here.

. You have no idea how I look,.

Why, is it that bad ?

 

[BobHufford]

When a 10-year-old comes to the door and offers to mow your small yard for $25. I charged $3.00 circa 1970. Granted that it should be $18.50+ with inflation, but it is still a bit shocking for someone who has always mowed his own yard. Kudos to the kid for starting a business though!