'Senior Moments'

Use this board for general non-cycling-related chat, or to introduce yourself to the forum.
thirdcrank
Posts: 36776
Joined: 9 Jan 2007, 2:44pm

Re: 'Senior Moments'

Post by thirdcrank »

Somebody, possibly Dr Johnson, is reported to have said that if a young man forgets his hat, we think it's funny, but we think it's a sign of old age in an old man. Or words to that effect.

It's easy to forget how young your audience is. I've a habit of remembering "commercials" from the early days of commercial telly. So, if I were to be looking for something which was in my hand or on my head etc, I've said "It's like my eighteen hour girdle." Younger colleagues had no idea what I was wittering about, but in a disciplined organisation they were too polite to comment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8qDxk4IJtA
colin54
Posts: 2529
Joined: 24 Sep 2013, 4:34pm

Re: 'Senior Moments'

Post by colin54 »

I knew the 18 hour girdle was likely to be a Playtex ad', I'd forgotten it's er... strap-line. Ace .
The ad made me laugh out loud. I also think someone's forgotten to put an aeroplane in front of those steps.
I was in the busy supermarket a while back and I said to the young lady at the check-out (commenting on the crowds), 'It's all go today isn't it' , she looked blankly at me and said what does that mean ?'.
Nu-Fogey
thirdcrank
Posts: 36776
Joined: 9 Jan 2007, 2:44pm

Re: 'Senior Moments'

Post by thirdcrank »

I think age differences can affect communication at checkouts where attempts at humour can call flat.

I've hardly been in any supermarkets since lockdown and a combination of my cloth ears and the polycarbonate screens makes all but the most basic communication impossible but in the first few years after I'd retired I did almost all our shopping. On one trip I was in Morrison's and the lady in front of me bought up a huge supply of brown sauce, explaining that her son was down somewhere like Torquay where it was unavailable. My turn next and I quipped to the young lady on the checkout that we might be hearing announcement that the Devon and Cornwall Serious Sauce Squad had made a seizure with a street value measured in millions. Result = blank expression

On another occasion I was in ASDA during the afternoon lull when everybody was on the school run. The was before self-service checkouts and there was briefly a long row of women around my age on the tills, waiting for the next rush. My shopping included loads of fresh veg and "my" ASDA colleague held up a courgette shouting to ask if anybody knew what it was. I remarked that lots of exotic stuff was available these days and that once things like rhubarb were once all that was available (NB Morley is in what was once the Rhubarb Triangle."

"We all know what rhubarb is!" came the cry and a line of ASDA colleagues all fell about in hysterics.

We're simple folk around here.
User avatar
661-Pete
Posts: 10593
Joined: 22 Nov 2012, 8:45pm
Location: Sussex

Re: 'Senior Moments'

Post by 661-Pete »

This is probably both ageist and sexist, but it's the honest truth. In the 1970s: I'm shopping at a market-stall in Brighton, a 'senior' sort of lady comes up to me and points to the red bell peppers, saying "what are these?". I explain. She says, well, what do you do with them? Do you peel them? Do they have to be cooked? I try to explain, if you peel it, you'll have nothing left, the outside is the bit you eat. Raw or cooked.

I don't think she bought it. But remember, she was of the WW2 generation who remembered rationing and lack of variety in foods. I think bell peppers (along with courgettes and aubergines) probably first turned up at our greengrocers' in the 1960s and 70s.

[Note how carefully I placed that apostrophe! :D ]
Suppose that this room is a lift. The support breaks and down we go with ever-increasing velocity.
Let us pass the time by performing physical experiments...
--- Arthur Eddington (creator of the Eddington Number).
Oldjohnw
Posts: 7764
Joined: 16 Oct 2018, 4:23am
Location: South Warwickshire

Re: 'Senior Moments'

Post by Oldjohnw »

I was once at the self service checkout and the machine played up.

The watching assistant saw this white haired senior and thought, "Senile". Says in a very loud voice, "You put your shopping here, pass the it ms over here then pack your bag. Do you understand that?"
John
User avatar
661-Pete
Posts: 10593
Joined: 22 Nov 2012, 8:45pm
Location: Sussex

Re: 'Senior Moments'

Post by 661-Pete »

I'm merely grey-haired, not white - but I get that sometimes. In Wilkinsons I nearly always go to the self-service checkout (often there's a queue for the staffed checkouts but none for the self-service). Quite often I'll get a staff member rush up to me and offer to show me how to use it. I try to politely respond "no need - I've used these before".

But maybe they have a point. Those particular tills are quite fiddly to use. You have to remember to press a sequence of buttons...
Suppose that this room is a lift. The support breaks and down we go with ever-increasing velocity.
Let us pass the time by performing physical experiments...
--- Arthur Eddington (creator of the Eddington Number).
colin54
Posts: 2529
Joined: 24 Sep 2013, 4:34pm

Re: 'Senior Moments'

Post by colin54 »

I hear you there TC.
The first one could be called a Force joke, the second a forced joke, considering how it's grown.
I'm surprised the queue didn't shout 'Rhubarb' with one voice.
The sauce joke got a Muttly like wheeze from me.
I can remember seeing my first sweet pepper sometimes in the 80's and approaching eating it with some suspicion, equating peppers with heat.
My pannier laden bike got away from me a little bit when unlocking it from a Sheffied stand the other day, I was just pulling it back upright and a kind bloke in his twenties walking past, asked if he could give me a hand with it ; how did this happen ! I'll need help one day no doubt, but not for a while yet touch wood.
Slight edit; I wrote the above before reading Pete's post , it's the Bell Pepper zeitgeist (except I couldn't recall they were called Bell Peppers), a senior moment in 'real-time', It's later than I think. Nurse !
Nu-Fogey
User avatar
661-Pete
Posts: 10593
Joined: 22 Nov 2012, 8:45pm
Location: Sussex

Re: 'Senior Moments'

Post by 661-Pete »

My parents used to call them 'paprika' - although they're not the same variety as the pepper from which paprika the spice is made. In the past I've generally called them sweet peppers. I think 'bell pepper' is an Americanism (when will we be forced to buy zucchini, scallions, and rutabaga?) but it's a useful term to distinguish them from the (also sweet) pointed Romano peppers which are now also commonly available (at a higher price).

Not to mention the Padron peppers, with which you can play 'pepper roulette'!... :twisted: :lol:

'Capsicum' which I've seen in some places is too general: it covers everything including the hot chillis.
Suppose that this room is a lift. The support breaks and down we go with ever-increasing velocity.
Let us pass the time by performing physical experiments...
--- Arthur Eddington (creator of the Eddington Number).
peetee
Posts: 4292
Joined: 4 May 2010, 10:20pm
Location: Upon a lumpy, scarred granite massif.

Re: 'Senior Moments'

Post by peetee »

I’m in my mid fifties and I’ve been having way too many senior moments since I was a junior.
I have what was described to me as an artists mind; random and spontaneous as opposed to the ordered and logical approach of a mathematician. So senior moments are my cerebral bread and butter. Sometimes they work in my favour but more often than not they result in me cursing my genes and spending twice as long getting ready in the morning or trying to find the right tool for the fifty-fifth time in a week, only to find its in the place I looked for it first.
The older I get the more I’m inclined to act my shoe size, not my age.
drossall
Posts: 6115
Joined: 5 Jan 2007, 10:01pm
Location: North Hertfordshire

Re: 'Senior Moments'

Post by drossall »

I have always remembered the weird cycling-related senior moment that I had, decades ago, as a teenager. On one of my early rides with a friend, near Alderley Edge, on a road we had travelled a number of times before, I suddenly realised that I had not the slightest idea where I was or where we were headed. That lasted several seconds before normal service returned. I don't think it's ever happened since, and certainly not with that force.
francovendee
Posts: 3148
Joined: 5 May 2009, 6:32am

Re: 'Senior Moments'

Post by francovendee »

I wasn't 'Senior' at the time so it's no excuse.
I held the keys to my work place so had to get there early to open up. This meant rising at around 5-30 am, a cup of coffee and then get going.
I'd been working 6 days a week and was a bit knackered and clearly not thinking clearly when I woke, but had my coffee, put on my motorcycle gear, wheeled the bike out of the garage and started it up. I was about to set off when my wife rushed out in her dressing gown shouting 'What are you doing? It's Sunday!'
I did go back to bed and slept until lunchtime.
User avatar
661-Pete
Posts: 10593
Joined: 22 Nov 2012, 8:45pm
Location: Sussex

Re: 'Senior Moments'

Post by 661-Pete »

How many people have forgotten the PIN on their bank or credit card?

It happened to me just once - and not really a 'senior' moment: I think I was only around 40 at the time. I went up to the ATM, put in my card, and then my mind sort of totally blanked out. All I could remember was that it was the phone number of an old family friend (long past deceased) - but I couldn't remember which one, nor what their phone number might have been...

After three attempts the machine sucked in my card and wouldn't return it. I was too embarrassed to ask the bank to send me a PIN reminder - instead I asked for a new card with a new PIN.

This has never happened to me since (up to now :? ). And I don't use anyone's telephone number any more (they're too long nowadays in any case)...
Suppose that this room is a lift. The support breaks and down we go with ever-increasing velocity.
Let us pass the time by performing physical experiments...
--- Arthur Eddington (creator of the Eddington Number).
User avatar
Audax67
Posts: 6001
Joined: 25 Aug 2011, 9:02am
Location: Alsace, France
Contact:

Re: 'Senior Moments'

Post by Audax67 »

Pick up the hammer, go looking for the right nail, come back to the work in progress and - where's the bloody hammer?

Been doing that since I was 25.
Have we got time for another cuppa?
thirdcrank
Posts: 36776
Joined: 9 Jan 2007, 2:44pm

Re: 'Senior Moments'

Post by thirdcrank »

I've always used the original PIN I was given with my first plastic and I've had two memory failures, both close together. The first time, we were a family group eating at the farm shop at Belford on the A1 in Northumberland. I went to pick up the tab and it was an anagram (?) of my PIN and my mind froze. Luckily, Mrs thirdcrank was close at hand and to a chorus of comments about me having a good trick she paid, although her card is on the same account as mine. Not long after, I was buying something in Richer Sounds in Leeds and made the mistake of telling the tale and my mind went blank. I had another card with the same PIN and with the heavies approaching remembered it. I now avoid all distractions at PIN input time
colin54
Posts: 2529
Joined: 24 Sep 2013, 4:34pm

Re: 'Senior Moments'

Post by colin54 »

I picked up some litter at a local churchyard whilst waiting for a friend to arrive on a recent ride. Stopping at the same
spot on our return, I was dismayed to find a freshly dropped piece of litter, I suspected a Senior Moment, what was it ?...
A Werthers Original sweet wrapper.
Nu-Fogey
Post Reply