Pickles by Brian Crane for December 19, 2017

I’ve got approximately 20 years until then.

Think I was about 56 or so. The one Big Lots store around here that gave senior discounts one day a week and they asked me if I was over fifty. I said yeah, and I was farther over fifty than I had been two days before. Then they rang up the carpet steamer with a discount I didn’t even know I was entitled to.

Too bad that’s one of the stores that closed last year.

I lied to get a senior discount!

It’ll be a week ago tomorrow that I turned 58.

That happened to me at a fast food place. Although I didn’t say anything, I was thinking “I’m not eligible for the senior discount. I look like this because I used to eat at places like this 5 times a week.”

I was a few months shy of 50 at a McDonald’s just off an interstate highway in New York or upper Pennsylvania. We gray early in my family.

My sister, the elder, always snickered when they offered gray-haired me the discount when I was still a few years shy of the required age!

At 72 I still forget to ask for it most of the time.

I’m not bragging ( lie ) but, at 72, I still, sometimes, have to show my I.D. to get a Senior Discount ( true story ) but not as often as I’d like ( regretfully ) !

About two weeks ago and I’ll be 66 in Feb. Got carded for alcohol at 54.

The first time is always magical!

I’m still not used to people saying “sir” to me. Makes me feel old. Wait, what am I thinking? I AM old.

Yup, think I was about 51 also. Dunkin Donuts. Got a whopping 15¢ discount!

I was 21! Went to a local restaurant with my mother & ordered a senior coffee for her and a regular one for me. When I looked at the receipt, the woman had given us both the discount.

The last time I remembered to ask, I got carded. That was less than ten years ago, and I’m now 77!

This brings back a rather bad memory mostly because of how I behaved. I had just that morning redyed my hair to cover the gray so there was no excuse. I was only 44 and the senior age was 55. Some woman at a Goodwill store asked me if I was eligible for the discount and I said nastily “If the age has been reduced to 44 then yes I am!” I was hopping mad! She was not a young person either who may think everyone over 30 is old, she was probably around that age herself. My husband who was around 50 at the time said he’d been asked too, but he’s balding on top which makes him look a bit older. We established a policy that from then on if someone asked we’d just take it. Sometimes they just automatically give it to us. Whatever. If you think we look old enough for it, we’re taking it.

The first time it happened to me, I’d been having a rough week and I wasn’t actually old enough to qualify for it. I decided the bit of money I saved was better than being offended about it.

Oh the things to look forward to. I may have to show my ID. I don’t actually like having to prove my age. I always feel left out of things with my peers.

I remember when someone assumed I was my other half’s father…… there’s only five years between us!

As I was approaching 50, that was the required age – couldn’t wait. Just before I became 50 the age went up to 55. Same thing when I got to 55. And 60. and 65. Finally gave up and started asking, never carded. Buummer (bummer with 2 u’s) looking 15 years younger than my age…..

I was nearly 70 when I got carded at a hamburger chain that gives a free cup of coffee to seniors over 65. I guess that’s good. Right?

I don’t think getting old is as bad as some people make it out to be.

But then, I will see for myself one day.

xxx

My problem was at the other end of the age spectrum. 24" at birth and a growth spurt starting at 10, I had to carry a note to get in movies at children’s price. And I only topped out at 6-2.

A co-worker was 30, and I was 50, with mostly gray hair. She bragged that she sometimes got carded. I said “Big deal! I sometimes get offered the senior discount.” That was much more important.

I’ve never been offered a seniors’ coffee at McDonalds and I’m 67 going on 80!

Most of those working in the service industry are young. Anyone over 40 looks old to them.

I always forget to ask for the discount at 64. There is one nice girl at Taco Bell who always gives me the discount without asking. However, when I take my 94 year old mother out shopping or to a restaurant there have been too many times when the employees ask my mother if I am her husband! Maddening!