He Meant Well

[stephen1254]

Yesterday after our hike we stopped in at "Sunnyside," our favorite lunch spot at Tahoe. Our waiter asked what we had been doing that day and we told him we had just completed a 12.5 mile hike. He said "You guys rock! I hope that when I get old I can still hike like that!"

[Woodstock Hippy]

Heck, I'm 62 with two fake hips and I too hope that when I get old I can still hike like that!

[Dannywayoflife]

Ha im a lot younger than you and i hope ill hike like that again!!

[stephen1254]

My wife said it was my beloved Tilley hiking hat, which admittedly looks pretty bad. I've retired the Tilley and will go to using a very snazzy Minnetonka hat with a vented crown.

Doubt it will change my waiter's opinion of my age, but it's worth a try!

[hernanu]

Better to be experienced and still kicking it than young and never to kick it at all.

One time I was able to horrify a young guy giving him a glance at the future:

When my daughter was twelve, she was going into her punk / alternative phase, which at 22 is still part of her life. I went shopping with her to a store that specialized in goth / punk clothing, and the salespeople were obviously heavily into the lifestyle, and in the late teens, early twenties 'I'm so cool I could melt' motif.

I (dressed in my suburban old dad finest) was looking around while she was being helped by an extremely cool sales guy, then as I walked up to her, one of my favorite bands from my punk/ska era (78-82), The Selecter's 'On My Radio' came on, and I said " oh... the Selecter". The sales guy looked askance at me and said "you know them?" as the chain going from his nostril to his earlobe shook. I rejoined with "yup, saw them the first time they came to the States, at the Rat in Boston (the Rathskeller, one of the defining punk clubs at the time). I told him I also saw the Sex Pistols, etc.  He was growing more uncomfortable, then looked at my outfit, I chuckled and said "tough to see the future, huh?"

My daughter was cracking up on the way out, but still telling me... "Dad - I told you not to scare the sales people here... you're SO embarrassing!"

Some times there is joy in the years passing.

[Dannywayoflife]

Ha that's quality Hern! Never judge a book by the cover hay!

[hernanu]

Did have fun with it, Danny. 

Stephen - I'd keep the hat, maybe add a feather.

[stephen1254]

Can't do the feather - wife said she'd dump my ass and look for a younger man if people started calling me I'm old!

[Tin Soldier]

"A feather in your cap!"  cmon that's what it means to be getting old, we all have a feather in our caps, so to speak.  A few of us have 2.

Hern - I want to go to punk shows at the Rat when I get old.  BTW - It's the parent's job to embarass their kids.  I do it all the time.  How else are those kids ever going to get humbled and become human?

[stephen1254]

Funny - I remember going to see the Pixies in the mid 2000's down at Ocean Beach (Jen - I loved this band in the mid 80's!). Show started and this old, fat, balding guy walked out. Black Francis morphed into Frank Black!

Still rocked though....

[B.I.L.L.]

The Selecters, theres a memory ! , I still have the "Dance Craze" ska album. English Beat, Madness, The Specials, Bad Manners... Good Stuff !   People say things like that to me too, try this, "What are talkin about fool I'm only 87..."