I believe the children are our future… let the children’s laughter remind us how we used to be.
With a hat tip to Whitney Houston, here’s a short conversation I overheard when the neighbor girls next door were playing outside with their cousins and friends.
In total there were seven girls, ages 6 to 12. They are creative girls, boisterous, and oh. so. funny. when they get together.
Girl #1: I know. Let’s play theater up on the deck.
Many voices, shouting at the same time: Yes! *yay*
[Sound of small feet running all over wooden deck as they drag metal furniture around on it.]
Girl #1: I’ll play the sister!
Many voices, talking over each other: I’ll be {indistinct words}. *blah, blah, blah* No me… I wanna be {indistinct words}. *blah, blah, blah*
Girl #1: OK. Now we need someone to play the old person.
[Complete silence. Nary a peep. Total quiet.]
Girl #2: I’ll be the old person.
Many voices, filled with concern: Are you sure? Really? You want to do that!
Girl #2: Yes, I’ll do it.
Girl #1: How old will you be?
Girl #2: I’ll be… (dramatic pause)… seventeen.
Many voices, in unison: *gasp* That old? {indistinct jibber-jabber} Oh my!
And that, my gentle readers, is all I heard because the girls started talking quietly among themselves, presumably to prepare for their big performance. Of an unnamed show that I can confirm has at least one sister– and an old person in it.
Break a leg, girls. Happy Friday, everyone. 😊
Age. It really is all relative!
LikeLiked by 1 person
rivergirl1211, true. And at age twelve, well– seventeen is ancient. 😊
LikeLiked by 1 person
And by their reckoning, I’m a dinosaur.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Me too. And I’m ok with that!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Trouble is, I’m more Brontosaurus then Velociraptor these days…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yep, I hear you. I consider myself a stegosaurus but that in no way makes any difference when you’re dealing with the younguns. Nuanced thinking is not for them.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m too old to remember 17. 😦
LikeLiked by 1 person
Really Jill? Why I didn’t think you were a day over 25, remembering 17 as if it was yesterday. 😉
LikeLike
17, sigh. I told a recruiter the other day I became interested in information technology around 1990 and she replied “I hadn’t been born yet.” I recalled being impressed she didn’t preface her statement with the word ”like” before feeling old.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Andrew, great *like* story about *like* you know old people! Not that you’re one of them, of course. It’s weird to get older and it hits you at the oddest moments.
LikeLike
😂 Oddest moments indeed.
LikeLiked by 1 person
😊
LikeLike
They might have been playing gymnastics where 17 probably is old.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Z-D, you might be right. That’d explain it. Or we could go with the obvious that at 17 you can drive a car and old people do that, therefore… 🚗
LikeLike
I learned the truth at seventeen…
I am choosing to believe she said seventy. My eyes are getting old and I’m almost sure that Ally wrote seventy too. Reality is flexible.
You know, I don’t remember ever thinking that 18 or 20 or whatever was old. I thought that people in their 20s were grown up and that impressed me. I knew, of course, to not trust anyone over 30 and old was people at least my parents’ age, 42 and older.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Zazzy, I’d forgotten that song. Good memory you have there.
I remember, for sure, that as an elementary school girl I thought the older girls in high school were so cool and refined and old! Definitely old. So overhearing this conversation resonated with me and took me back in time. It made me laugh out loud.
LikeLike
You didn’t have any interest in wandering over and volunteering yourself to join the play? Maybe play the little sister and see how they reacted… 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Deb, laughing out loud here. Thank you. In answer to your question it didn’t occur to me to wander over to join in the casting process for the unnamed play. Seems so obvious now.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Here I was, buzzing along having a good morning, feeling spry and yes, even ‘young’.
… and you killed my happy buzz 😕
… and this is why I avoid young people 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Joanne, LOL. Oh you are so right! Avoid and ignore those little whippersnappers with their deranged ideas. If only they weren’t everywhere I go around here. Speaking their truth.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hehehe! I remember when 20 was old, then 30, then 40 etc. Now everybody is so damn young; it’s amazing how that happened!
Deb
LikeLiked by 1 person
Deb, you said it: so damned young. I agree, too much youth around us. Sure they’re cute and all, but really… 17? 🙄
LikeLiked by 1 person
So my first experience with overhearing similar age-related conversations among those younger than myself came at my not-so-old-age of 19. Standing in the checkout line at the local K-mart one summer’s day, a group of 14 year olds were talking and giggling. Then the infamous line was spoken: “Did you know that Paul McCartney was in a band before ‘Wings’?” the others hushed and then all joined in with a unison, “No way!”
This has become a family joke between my brother and myself – reminding us age really is relative. (ummm, there’s a subtle pun in there, get it?)
😉
LikeLiked by 2 people
laura, that is a perfectly hilarious story. What a thing to overhear! I love it. I can see how it’s become an inside joke between you and your relative. You just never know what you might hear when you listen in, do you?
LikeLiked by 1 person
😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh to even be 17 again! Sometimes it seems so long ago. And sometimes it seems like yesterday. It seems nowadays that everyone is younger than me! Thank goodness for grandkids to keep me moving.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Beth, I liked being 17 as I recall, but of course knowing what I know now I wouldn’t want to be that age again. I find the opposite from you, almost everyone I encounter is older than I am– either literally by age or figuratively by old-fashioned thinking. 🙄
LikeLike
Fun post, Ally. Old is so relative ~ and fortunately it’s always just outside my reach! 😛
LikeLiked by 1 person
nancy, I always knew you were a youthful woman, never shouting at the kids to get off your lawn. 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Never! I would be more inclined to go over and join in the skit . . . or offer to be an audience of one. 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
I didn’t think about being the audience. That’s a good idea, but I fear it might have stifled their creative genius with someone as ancient as myself watching them.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Audience participation is most appreciated by “unabashed hams.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
Duly noted. Will right this wrong should I get the chance again.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Great! I’ll bring the pitcher of Bacardi’s and lime.
LikeLiked by 1 person
This week on the news I heard about an elderly person who was killed. She was 73. When did that get to be elderly? Spring chicken!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Kate, spring chicken, indeed. I think of elderly as 90 and above, but maybe the reporter is a millennial and has a different definition of elderly. 🙄
LikeLiked by 1 person
Elderly is at least 90! There is a 90-year-old in my walking group. She is spry and her synapses snap better than many millennials. I would never call her elderly. I think of it more as an overall physical state than an age.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good point Kate. It’s not a specific number as much as an attitude and physical state of being. I want to be spry when I grow up! 😊
LikeLiked by 1 person
Spry or dead! That’s my motto.
LikeLike
LOL. I like it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That is when my joints started aching and I began forgetting stuff.
LikeLiked by 1 person
My goodness. You were truly an old soul if that was your misery at age 17! Of course, some people are as per the neighbor girls.
LikeLiked by 1 person
This fits right in with a Dr. Seuss book I’ve been reading: You’re Only Old Once (and other myths).
All my teachers looked old, and they were probably only 35 – 40. Your keen observations have given me a chuckle this morning, Ally. Thanks!
LikeLiked by 1 person
marian, I need to read that Dr. Seuss book. I never have, but its theme appeals to me.
Most of my teachers were of the same age as yours, but a few of them were ancient by all standards. I swear there were cobwebs on the corners of their glasses. 🤓
LikeLiked by 1 person
Here ya go:
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, nancy. I had no idea such a thing was on YouTube. Huh.
LikeLike
Me neither, I was going to “peek inside” on Amazon . . . and then this reading popped up.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well, that’s about as depressing as you can get. Dr. Seuss wrote that! What a bummer.
LikeLike
It’s definitely NOT as encouraging as “Oh, The Places You’ll Go!”
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s the sort of story I thought this would be. This makes me think that Dr. Seuss got bitter in his old age and that makes me sad.
LikeLike
Here’s the backstory:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You%27re_Only_Old_Once!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ah-ha! Thanks for the link. It does explain how this book came to be, but I cannot believe this book was on the NYT Bestseller List. Not sure what to make of that fact.
LikeLike
Two words ~> name recognition. Some books sell due to the author’s name, not the book’s content. But I think he was also poking fun at all the poking and prodding we are subjected to these days due to “advances” in medicine. 🙄
LikeLiked by 1 person
17 😊 for kids of their age 17 is already old 😮😊 I wish I could be so old again 😊
LikeLiked by 1 person
popsiclesociety, well said. Oh to be so old as 17… It sounds like the first line in a poem.
LikeLike
Hahahahaha! This is so sweet, so funny & yet so sad! Imagine if you have volunteered to play the old person? It would have been fun to offer just to ask the question, how old do you think I am?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Lynn, this conversation was sweetness in its purest form. These girls are often up to something when they get together. Now that you mention it, it would have been fun to ask them how old they think I am. Of course, am I ready for the answer? 😳
LikeLiked by 1 person
Which brings to my mind the memory of when my son and his friend were around 4 and asked me how old I was – I said “28” to which they replied “how did you get so old?!” I told them I worked hard.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Carol, what a funny story! I’m laughing here. That’s the best answer I’ve heard to that question. Oh dear, how did you keep a straight face!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m not sure how I managed to keep a straight face but they ran off to play right after I answered and that’s when I laughed myself silly.
LikeLiked by 1 person
This is just perfect. Thanks for sharing it here.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I remember when 17 seemed “grown up” and the age I am today seemed impossible.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Dan, I do too. I just loved that these girls were so sure that 17 = old person. As if there was no doubt!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Used to always say “In the year 2000 I’ll be 45.” That seemed like such a huge milestone! I wouldn’t want to be 17 again though, maybe 21.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Janet, it’s interesting how certain ages mean so much to one person and nothing to the next one. I thought 35 would be so old, but you know what? It wasn’t. I liked being 17 it was the one year during my teen years when things went my way– or at least I remember it that way.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I remember figuring out how old I’d be in 2000 also! It seemed so ancient… I wondered if I’d make it (I did!).
LikeLiked by 2 people
Somehow that idea never occurred to me. I guess I was not thinking ahead as much back then.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh, to be old again…
LikeLiked by 1 person
The Travel Architect, I hear ‘ya!
LikeLiked by 1 person
An old person of 17! 🙂 I love how creative they are in their games, and wonder how their play turned out.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Margaret, I wonder about the play too. I couldn’t hear them anymore after the casting was over, and there was no way for me to see them from where I was. Whatever they did after this conversation is a mystery to me. Maybe like the play? 😉
LikeLike
Oh man. What must they think of people our ages? Yesterday my daughter went to play with the two little girls who moved in two doors down. I’ve met the grandma who has lived there for a while. When I came to retrieve my daughter, I met the mom: young, blonde, gorgeous, hipster. I immediately wondered what she must think of me: older probably by 15 years, decidedly unfashionable, perma-frizzy hair, and nowhere near as pretty. My inadequacy made me cut the conversation short with, “Well, I’m sure I’ll see you again.” That lady and I will not be BFFs.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Betsy, I hadn’t thought of the mom angle on this conversation, but you’ve got a point. I wonder how old the girls’ mothers are? I bet that you didn’t look as old and disheveled as you think you did, but I take your point. Age differences can make for some awkward situations, not on purpose, just because of the different age-appropriate priorities.
LikeLiked by 1 person
As young as she is, she must think I’m quite old. I remember, even in my 20s, thinking my age was old. Sigh. The perspective certainly changes the older you get.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Betsy, you said it. At 25 I was convinced 35 would be soooo old. I was wrong. Perspective is everything.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Too funny. I think at 14, 17 wouldn’t seem old, but rather grown-up and sophisticated. Weren’t we all reading 17 Magazine at that age? I hope their play was a success!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Janis, I’d forgotten about Seventeen magazine. It was such an important step toward adulthood in my world. We went from American Girl magazine to Seventeen to Glamor magazine. That was how we got our fashion news back then.
LikeLiked by 2 people
That was marvelous!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Anne, these girls had it going on! And so sure about how old an old person is. 😊
LikeLiked by 1 person
This is a fun observance by you Ally. And I remember when teens thought 30 was old (“don’t trust anyone over 30”), so I wonder what these girls would think of Clint Eastwood’s “get off my lawn” character? Probably they would deem him ancient.
LikeLiked by 1 person
linda, we have a real life old coot living down the street from us. I think he’s ancient, in body and mind, so I cannot even begin to think how the girls would describe him. Age is relative, for all of us, I guess.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s very true, the older we get. I know that I cringe when I am filling out a form and I have to scroll endlessly to get to my age category. Or a news story mentions elderly to describe people in their 60s and I have seen comments on social media when a reporter does that and people are angry, as am I. It gives me cause to pause Ally.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, I hear you. I hadn’t thought about how much time I waste scrolling down a page merely to check the box with my age in it. I do wonder about news reporters who toss the term ‘elderly’ around without stopping to define the term. It’s often inaccurate and mean-spirited.
LikeLiked by 1 person
When I was in school, our style book termed “elderly” at 80 and above. They also discouraged using the phrase “dead bodies” which is redundant and I see/hear it used all the time. I should have kept that style book – it might have rivaled your telephone etiquette post.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haha! That tickled my funny bone!
LikeLiked by 1 person
joey, it’s a good one. I laughed out loud when I heard it.
LikeLike
Too cute! I remember putting on performances with neighbor girls when I was their age.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Eilene, I did the same thing. We played ‘book’ and each of us took on one character’s role, then we sort of followed the book’s storyline, sort of improvised. It was fun.
LikeLiked by 1 person
We danced. I recall a choreographed piece to Three Dog Night’s “Joy to the World”. (Joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea…wiggle butts with arms out front like a diver)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh, that’s great. The things we did back then sound silly now, but were fun then.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi, Ally – I remember when I thought that 60 was ‘very old.’ It’s amazing how wrong we can be! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Donna, yes you’re right. 17 isn’t old. 60 isn’t old. I’m sure old starts at 100! 😊
LikeLiked by 1 person
That was funny. I remember a 17 year old “co-op” student who did a work term with us, saying that her mother was “old”. So I asked her how old she was and she said 37. I was 39 at the time. I also remember listening to Prince’s Party like it’s 1999 song when it was released back in 1982, and thinking, the year 2000 was just too far away to even contemplate.
LikeLiked by 2 people
thehomeplaceweb, I remember thinking the same thing about that Prince song. It seemed implausible that we’d be living in any year that started with 2—. Of course these girls weren’t born until after the turn of the century. Oh dear, now I feel really old!
LikeLiked by 1 person
This tracks. I thought people in their 20s were old when I was a teenager.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Akilah, yep. Old is anyone older than you, either in years or in attitude. But to be so young as to think 17 is old– well, that’s charmingly young.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I can still remember how “magical” the age of 25 sounded to me as a young kid. I thought I’d have all the freedoms by then. 🙂 – Marty
LikeLiked by 1 person
Marty, yes, I was thinking the same thing as a kid. Then I thought at 35 I’d have it figured out, but alas that didn’t happen. Now I’ve given up on figuring it all out, and think, instead, about how young I used to be.
LikeLiked by 1 person
When I was in kindergarten, they had one of the sixth graders come pick up our “milk order” for the class and take it down to the cafeteria. I remember thinking, “Man, he’s really big and old!” And of course, now I look at a sixth grader and think they look like they belong in preschool. I hate playing the old person in real life…
LikeLiked by 1 person
evilsquirrel13, funny story and totally relatable. Those sixth graders were so important back then. Who among us didn’t want to be like them?
LikeLike
I’m laughing! Wasn’t there a song ‘when I was 17, it was a jolly good year’ – mind you, 17 and 70 sounds very similar even if it doesn’t feel very similar ..
LikeLiked by 2 people
Susan, it was a funny conversation, so serious. I agree that 17 and 70 sound about the same so I say sing that song any way you want to. When I was seventy, it was a jolly good year… 🎶
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wow – Whitney sure had that amazing voice and rocked this song!
Loved your quick story to remind us that “old” does change.
And when I was 13 or 14 – someone at my mother’s work had a heart attack and he was okay – but I recall them saying he was only 25….
and I was like “what?”
And later of course I learned 25 is super
Young for a heart attack –
But it felt old at the time
LikeLiked by 1 person
Prior…, I’m sure at 13 I’d have thought 25 was old enough to have a heart attack, too. Of course, now I’m horrified to think of that happening to someone so young. Old is what you think it is, I guess.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well said
😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
My granddaughter, aged seven, wanted to play Barbie dolls once. She said to me “I’ll be the popular Barbie that everyone likes and you can be the unpopular Barbie that everyone hates.” What fun!
LikeLike
Jan, that’s funny– and kind of sad. So do tell, what was it like being the Barbie who everyone hated? 🤨
LikeLike
Delightful, as always. Took me awhile to track this down Ally, but here’s a list I used in a post on aging; I got it from a HuffPost article on exactly this topic. (A copy and paste here)
For 5-year-olds, old age begins at 13.
For 13-year-olds, old age begins at 30.
For 30-year-olds, old age begins at 50.
For 50-year-olds, old age begins at 75.
For 75-year-olds, never. And go away.
LikeLike
I distinctly remember standing outside a yellow school bus waiting as the students who rode that bus from the high school to our elementary school got off to go get in their own yellow school buses. They were absolutely MYTHICAL in my 8 year old imagination.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Katie, MYTHICAL is so true. I used to have to walk by the high school on my way home from elementary school and those girls where COOL, so I get how 17 would seem old to these neighbor girls.
LikeLike
WOW! That IS old. Phew. I hope I never get that old… … … um, I mean… What? I’m how old?
*faints*
LikeLiked by 1 person
Tara, age is such a strange thing to contemplate. Am I old now? Was I old at 17? There are no great answers from what I can tell.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haha! This reminds me of some of my writing students when they decide on the ages of their characters. 17 is actually a very popular age for little kids to pick, and they do consider it to be “old” as if that is the age where everything truly becomes important.
LikeLike
😁 😂 I need to show this to my 24-year-old niece. She’ll freak out.
LikeLiked by 1 person
L. Marie, yes she will. To the neighbor girls 24 would be ancient, like the dinosaurs.
LikeLike
‘dramatic pause….seventeen’ Bwhahahahahaha.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh Elen, there was a pause, worthy of any thespian. I could not stop laughing after I heard this conversation. Seventeen! 😮
LikeLiked by 1 person
LOL – ah, outta the mouths of babes wisdom flies! And so does time…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Shelley, ain’t it the truth? Loved these girls.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Plus they gave you blog material for FREE! :-)!
LikeLiked by 1 person
😂 So true.
LikeLiked by 1 person