Our perception of age can sometimes be a funny thing.
The older you get, the more the numbers mean to you and the quicker they seem to change. When I was in grade school, time passed agonizingly slow, especially when school was in session, but now it seems to be passing agonizingly fast.
When we discovered dating, it was almost unheard of to date more than a year or so either side of our own age – especially someone younger – but after the 20s, the age gap didn’t seem to mean as much. Couple’s ages became 3, 4 or 5+ years different. I once knew a couple with an age gap of 20 years.
Older people put more stock in numbers. They have almost a need to give each person a specific age; but when you’re younger, you know four basic age groups. People are either younger than you, your age, a little bit older than you or just plain old.
When I was a kid I remember hearing my Mom say she was 39 and thought, “wow, that’s old”. Now, I think being 39 again wouldn’t be all that bad.
What got me thinking about this was the passing of a local icon in my hometown. When I was growing up he was the mailman, and that was back when that ‘neither snow, nor rain, nor gloom of night’ thing really meant something, because for six days a week, he brought the mail. Come hell or high water.
He was one of those ‘older’ folks. I had no idea how old, and it really didn’t matter, he was just older. He was not a kid.
According to his obituary, he and I were only 16 years apart. He doesn’t seem to be so ‘old’ now.
