The Little Old Lady Generation Gap

Thursday, May 15, 2008 |

I was sitting at the temple last night laughing with my favorite mothers and grandmas and thinking to myself....wow.....sometimes when we are younger we think everyone else is SOOO old and we can't possible have anything in common. When you get to know people better and with maturity you realize you can be great friends with anyone. Some of the people with the spiciest and craziest comments on life are the most unexpected. There are still some people who you just never relate to and it's more a personality thing or they just don't want to relate to you.

So anyways I was on my grandma-hugs high last night and then went to my Zumba class this morning. Once again. Everyone's older than me but they are all lovely people.

Then I went to the Post Office. Where I encountered the actual generation gap. A poor little old lady was there and stood in line with a form in her hand to hold her mail. Of course it was not filled out. I appear to be the only person on the planet who gets harassed for not filling out forms before I get to the front. Everyone else gets kind understanding but whatever. So the lady gets to the front and tells the man "I refuse to fill out this form until someone explains it to me" I can already tell this is going to be greatness. So he says "Put on your address and then the dates you will not be home for us to hold your mail." So she says "It says it's a minimum of three days and I wanted to know if Sundays count since you don't deliver" So he says "Every day counts- just fill it out." So she says " Now I'm leaving Friday and will be back by Monday so you better get my mail to me Monday" And he's all "....ummm....I'm not personally going to be delivering your mail....sooo....we will follow whatever you say on the form" So then she walks off to fill it out and then leaves. So these are my thoughts on this exchange:

1) Old people who refuse to learn new technology seem to have a much worse generational gap.

2) I love it when old people talk to employees at large stores as if they were personally affiliated with the company or the owner or something. There's nothing better than an old person who has NO perspective on the corporate world we now live in. Please go to Walmart and tell the boy who is changing your oil in the Autocenter that the Bakery at the other Walmart doesn't make their blueberry donuts the same way anymore and you'd like to register a complaint.

3) Who on EARTH holds their mail for a weekend out of town when Saturday is the only mail she actually won't be there to receive? Old people apparently.

4) I love it when old people wear crazy clothes from catalogues(you know they don't sell magenta polyester slacks in stores anymore)with really bold makeup. (This is part of why I love my own grandma so much)

5) I love that they all go get their fluffy white hair permed (so it will curl) and then still hang out in rollers all day to control the curl. Greatness.

Ok. I gots ta go get lunch now. Much Love to the Grammies out there!! Peace out.

2 comments:

Alison said...

I am forever with older individuals, and honestly, it's really fun for me most of the time. They tell me all kinds of crap: awesome stories and crazy jokes. All my fellow 6th grade teachers are over 50. Two of them are sooooooo entertaining, and one of those two would give you the shirt off her back if she thought it would make you just a little warmer when you're freezing.

There are just too many cool people not our age out there to limit our friendships to our own generation. Ok, I'm finally done.

Rhia Jean said...

My own mother (who is not really an old person yet) refuses to get a debit card. She has only dealt with cash most of her life and has just recently made the transition to checks. I think sometimes they try to make things harder than they really should be (like holding your mail for a weekend) because they just can't grasp the fact that things have been made easier for their convenience. I love them anyways!