In the scheme of things this is quite unimportant but bear with me. A recent article in a major new outlet twice referred to a 71 year old man as "Elderly". ELDERLY?. It turns out the the word 'elderly' is considered by many as as referring to someone who is 65 years of age or older. I have been 'elderly' since 2011. i readily accept the term 'old' especially when I get a senior discount but "elderly"? I'm going out for a bike ride.

What counts is how you feel, not the terminology others use.

For many of us, "elderly" is someone older than ourselves.

https://www.elderly.com/ , is a very well stocked music instrument store in Lansing Michigan.

And this old Jazz Guitarist likes to go there when I pass through the place. Great guitar store one of the best for many things and they are pretty straight up folks.

Elder denotes someone of age and accompanying wisdom. They say respect you elders. A certain religion we all know refers to it's leaders at all levels as elders.

Then there's that berry that makes a good wine.

Roll with it. You are what you know you is.

I've lately come to accept that I'm getting really #%& old. Or at least that guy staring back at me in the mirror is. I'm still a kid when I'm on my bike.

Actually I prefer elderly it beats, "Hey you old fart."

One of my mom's in-home health aides referred to her clients as "my elderlies". My mom thought it was amusing. Most folks probably didn't.

Recently I applied for the affordable health care system at our local public hospital network, a teaching hospital that does pretty good work considering the low cost. After being hit by a car and out of work indefinitely it's all I could afford. I'm grateful to have access to affordable health care at all.

Immediately after being approved on the spot they even squeezed me into the clinic for my first checkup, which was great. The intern and LPN were terrific. After the initial checkup they told me my next visits would be at the clinic down the hall.

I looked at the referral paper. It read "Geriatric clinic."

I'm 60.

Geriatric.

I hang out with a few folks who are all younger than me but act older than me, so who is "elderly?" BTW I'm 73.

Geriatric? Yipes, that would get my knickers in a knot and I just turned 75. I must admit certain events have made focus a bit more on my age which I generally ignore. Not too long ago there was some news item on TV where they made reference to TET (Vietnam War TET) being 50 years ago. I thought Yipes, maybe I am old.

To be honest, I was mostly upset about being reassigned from the family clinic to geriatric because the LPN I would have been assigned at the family clinic was really cute. And she spoke to me like a regular person.

There are some cute LPNs at the geriatric clinic, but they talk to patients in that cloying, almost condescending way that is almost but not quite precisely the opposite of how most of us would like to be addressed.

However my mom adored being doted on and catered to by aides, nurses and doctors. She was never offended by being treated like "an elderly".

Fortunately the nurses at the ortho clinic and ENT clinic where I'm being screened for cancer just talk with me like regular folks. I appreciate that.

Hope springs eternal. This is a little town I ride through sometimes, I always get a laugh out of that sign, for some reason.

Cranklecat, I know what you mean. Every interaction here, doctor, lab, etc. they ask your birthdate as some sort of double check.. or memory test. . Beyond some arbitrary age they assume you can't hear well, see well or are in the early stages of dementia and treat you accordingly. I've respectfully set a few straight from time to time.

Those clouds aren't going to yell at themselves!

I was shocked the first time some kid called me Mister. I think I was 18.
Don't know how I'll feel when I'm called elderly but I've proudly worn the moniker "Old Crock" since my 40's.
Cheers!

Elderwood? 🤔 It can happen.

'Senior' is a word that is also used and abused in a wide variety of ways, most of which do not refer to the last year of high school.
I took a Human Growth and Development course while working towards a degree in nursing a few years ago and learned that Middle Adulthood goes through age 65. At 66 we enter Older Adulthood. I am truly Old.
Learned not long ago that CMS defines those of us who are Medicare-eligible but still working and with employer-provided health plans as --> Working Aged.
Making me working aged until the end of the year when I retire and become merely Aged.

I saw an old comic somewhere that said, "You know you're really getting old . . . when family members don't allow you to participate in family conversations any more, and only talk about you in the third person."

Depressing but true.

Someone is trying to come to our rescue...
https://www.aarp.org/home-family/per...f6287_Opinions

What is that screen, a VCR for the old person to try to program while they're merging into traffic?



AARP to the rescue! Is there any problem they can't solve?

Just the fact that we're all on a forum about actively riding bikes means that our physical age is far younger than our numerical age. I work with a bunch of 20 through 50 year olds and work and they are usually in awe of my bicycling achievements (latest, the 130 mile Markleeville Deathride). I look a lot younger and fitter than some of them too! I am a complete subscriber to "you're as old as you feel". I may die sooner than they do but I'll certainly leave a much better looking corpse.