Does your age have anything to do with FEELING old?

´´ Those were the days, my friend,

We thought they´d never end,

We´d sing and dance,

Forever and a day.

We´d live the life´d we´d choose.

We´d fight and never lose,

Those were the days,

O, Yes, those were the days....´´

Sung by Mary Hopkin

The song, partially quoted above, was just a happy tune to my friends and myself, as we sang along and danced to it during our teenage years.

Not realising the seriousness of the line....´´We thought they´d never end´´..

Man alive !!!!. We were having so much fun., at 17, 18 19 yrs of age...........

It never occurred to us that life would be any different ...... ever....

(I realise how dumb that sounds now.)

Our little group of close friends all worked hard in our own ways. Some at college, some in employment. For me...... The week began at my desk in an office on Monday mornings

9.0. a.m. SHARP:! Finish at 5.0. p.m.. Even that was fun. I loved my work, the office was a large one with varying age groups and lifestyles.

Lifestyles.......While at the office, I´d sit with my hair piled up into a neat chignon, my clothes, conservative, modest and neat.......but come Friday.........wheeeeee! The lifestyle of a normal teenage girl along with my normal teenage friends. (Show me a ´normal´teenager........)would begin... Hair down, freedom loving, flowing clothes, dancing and ... er... well probably a little too much drinking. But heck! , that sort of went with the territory. Life was one big party, we thought... and yes, however naive it may seem now, I personally did expect life to just continue as I liked it. Fun. Fun. Fun. .............

Falling in love, slowed me down only slightly, we continued with the life is fun concept together..

Marriage, children, reaching the age of 30, then 40, even 50, despite life´s traumas I never concerned myself with my age. I enjoyed every moment of bringing up my children, despite the trying times when they behaved just as I had. ...(them thinking they were 1st to do it.)

Many people, especially women, even one or two of my friends, worried about getting older. Personally, I didn´t ´´get it´´. I was still me.

So what makes a person FEEL old?

My first grey hairs put a smile on my face. I felt I must now finally be a grown-up. (It wasn´t true, of course. We are still waiting for that to happen)

Plenty of hair products on the modern market could eliminate grey hair, so as you´d forget you had them.. So grey hairs didn´t make me feel any older.

My children married young, resulting in my becoming a grandmother at the tender age of 38.Still young enough to play with them. Still believing I was ´´young´´. No problem.

Not even when the grandchildren (at least 2 of them ) settled down at a young age and each of the two presented me with a great grandchild within 3 months of each other.(Was it a race???)

Even this title of great grandmother had no effect on me feeling older. I found it much more difficult to get my head around the idea of my son being a grandad.

My health had , on occasions, forced me into a wheelchair. This MUST have made me feel I was aging, surely .? NOPE! I just knew I had an illness and my bones were crumbling. Could happen at any age....

Silly, happy, crazy, me.....Was I still having fun? You bet. Totally oblivious to the FACT that I was and am aging. Am I having fun yet? Am I supposed to be grown up now?.........

PLOP.!!! One day, without warning, drops an envelope through our letterbox onto the carpet. A suspicious looking envelope, therefore I ignored it and my husband opened it.

He passes a card the size of a credit card to me.......It had a picture of a woman I did not recognise, yet my name and date of birth were typed right next to it.........

THUD!!!!!! It has finally happened . I feel ancient , not old. The card is my bus pass.!!!!!

A senior citizen bus pass.!!!.

Aaaaaaargh!!! When did it happen?. Of all the different events, good, bad, crisis, joy, all natural events as we age (including menopause, which I have avoided mentioning.! Nightmare....but still didn´t make me feel old.)

All it took was for our Great British government in their infinite wisdom to grant me a bus pass....and that´s it! One tiny card with a picture of some woman claiming to be me and I feel ancient , not old. I´m done for. It´s all over. Whooooosh...........Was that my life?. Yep! Afraid so. Goes quickly when you´re having fun doesn´t it?

In my head I can still hear.......´´´We thought they´d never end . We´d sing and dance forever and a day.......´´´´

Does anything make you feel old.? Does it even matter?

I´ll love to hear some opinions.