How Old Are You in Human Years?

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So how old ARE you in human years?

How ridiculous is it that my nine-year-old fur baby is supposed to be middle-aged like me in cat years?!

Even more ridiculous is that I’m soon to be an official old aged pensioner!

Seriously? How and when did that happen?

Officially Old?

What? Am I supposed to get myself a rocking chair and furry slippers now? Drink cocoa every night and take up knitting? Now, if that’s your lifestyle good for you. However…let’s face it. Those things are associated with being… well… old.

I have never met an older person who said they actually felt their age. I do not feel old! Could it be to do with the stereotyping of what older people are supposed to be like?

Older and Wiser

I must admit, when I was younger, someone of my age seemed very old. Now that I’ve had the grace to reach this age I realise what a fallacy that is.

60 is the new 40! No I’m not there just yet but the clock is ticking.

Some Old Cliches

So let’s get the cliches out of the way, why don’t we? You’re as young as you feel; age is just a number; there’s no fool like an old fool…Wait, what?!

So there you go, you most definitely do not need to do things “granny” or “grandad” style, whatever you perceive that to be. Nor do you need to relive a second youth on the other hand. Just do you.

We’ve Come This Far By Faith!

There is usually a lot of truth in cliches. With age comes wisdom. (Or at least it should). How many times have we said “If I knew back then what I know now…”?

Sometimes younger people think they know best and go heavy on the “boomer” bashing. (I really don’t like that word!) Yet, I more or less feel like I’m still in my 20s but with a better perspective of life because I have more experience now.

So if you’re in my age group, remember how blessed we are to have survived so much, experienced so much and to have come this far!

Memory Lane

Well now I am 59 and three quarters (since this is August 2022 and my 60th birthday is in December), it’s that time of life when all the old memories resurface.

If you spent most of your childhood in the 1970s like me, let’s take a little trip down memory lane together. If you didn’t – well, here’s how it went.

Fearless in the 1970s

I grew up on the (mean!) streets of East London, England.

Looking back, it was not for the faint-hearted. Health and Safety experts would be in pieces watching 11-year-old me walk across 6ft high brick walls, with no clue whatsoever.

Not to mention revelling in playgrounds in the park with swings, roundabouts and slides which were practically accidents waiting to happen – although I never witnessed or heard of any, strangely enough.

Oh yes, hands up who remembers being assaulted by flying footballs in the school playground?

Weeeeee!

Playing Out – A Thing Of The Past?

“Playing out” with local friends was very much a thing, until it got dark.

Other “things” included: doing handstands and thus exposing your knickers since our dresses and skirts were literally T-shirt length (although I never learnt to do those after trying and trying…), hopscotch, knock-down-ginger (uh-oh!), bike-riding, clapping games, skipping ropes, roller-skating and lots more.

Out On My Lonesome

I also went to places by myself, so with no adult with me – meaning going to school, dentist appointments, the library for example.

My friend who lived across the street and I would go to the cinema on our own. Totally unheard of today. We would buy our own sweets in the local sweet shop to save paying extortionate rates in the cinema.

One of the films we saw was “Tom Sawyer” with Jodie Foster and Johnny Whhittaker.

What’s On The Telly?

Our black and white telly had only two channels i.e. BBC1 and ITV. Anyone in the household was the occasional “not remote” control.

Yes, we had to get up and change the channels ourselves.

I remember cartoons galore, Sesame Street, Blue Peter, Opportunity Knocks etc. etc. Little House on the Prairie was one of my favourites.

Watching Top of the Pops every Thursday evening was almost a ritual. Oh the over-the-top bell-bottoms and giant platform shoes worn by the pop stars, as if the fashion of the day wasn’t over-the-top enough!

Of course, back then, flappy trousers which almost flew you to the moon were absolutely normal. As were platform shoes which almost put your head in the moon.

Anyway, I digress. Let’s not forget Pans People, the wonderfully talented dancers on Top of the Pops. I wanted their hair, but a cardigan on my head had to do…

Old 1970s Hair Styles

OK then, let’s briefly talk about outlandish 70s hair styles.

Generally they made something of a trendy comeback not too long ago but of course back then they were…that’s right…absolutely normal.

As a black girl my hairstyle of the decade was three plaits with a ribbon on the front one.

I remember being a bridesmaid aged 10 at my cousin’s wedding where all the bridesmaids of all ages were made to have afro hairstyles. Pretty sure all the males had afros too.

Here Come The Perfume Girls!

Who? What?

This was our nickname for the two teenaged girls who would occasionally pass through our street and would always leave a waft of sweet scent behind them. We never did find out who they were though!

What, No Phone?

We had no phone until my teenage years and then of course it was the looooong dial-up version. I still remember our first phone number, beginning “01”, the London code back then.

So, relatives and friends would drop in unexpectedly as most of us didn’t have phones of any kind.

Can you imagine turning up at someone’s house uninvited? Not hearing from certain people for weeks because you had no phone?

If so, chances are you’re a superstar who lived through the 1970s!