Andie, this is funny!
I haven't been carded for under- or over-age for a long time, until recently:
Our supermarket, or rather a couple of clerks, had apparently sold some alcohol to under-age customers - some of whom look much older, it's hard to tell sometime - and were instructed to ask every customer for date of birth, regardless how they looked.
So I check out my bottles of wine and the clerk asks me my birth-date, including year. I couldn't help myself, I just had to ask: "Is there now a maximum age when geezers can't buy booze any more?" Cracked everybody up.

Andie, one of the few bonuses I have discovered about growing older is the discount offered to senior citizens. I take advantage of it whenever I can -- and have even been known to ask, "Is there a discount for senior citizens?" Sometimes there is, but the teen-ager behind the counter didn't offer it, till I asked.

Come to think of it, lately I did not have to ask for senior discounts. Wonder why!

Anneliese

Andie, don't feel bad. I forget not what I bought (guess that shows right there that I qualify), but I noticed when I left a store last week that there was a senior discount included when I checked the receipt. I'm 44!

My next purchase was a bottle of Clairol. LOL!

The joke in our house is that I'm still getting carded to buy booze on a semi-regular basis (twice in the past month alone). Especially since I let my hair grow long again. I guess the only positive aspect of carrying 25 or so extra pounds is that it tends to push out the wrinkles... I wish there were some sort of benefit (like a discount) involved with people guessing my age wrong. Mostly people just underestimate my intelligence/experience when they mis-guess my age.

There's such a broad definition of what constitutes a senior in this area, I have as much problem as the cashiers in determining if I qualify or not. It can range from fifty to sixty five. I was pregnant when I was forty four, and I would have been highly insulted if I took my kindergartener into a burger joint and offered a senior discount.

Yes, me too. I usually look to see if somebody slapped a senior discount on my slips. I seldom find one, but I also never get asked, either. I think a lot of it has to do with shopping where the clerks are older than me and supplementing their Social Security. rofl. They refer to anyone under medicare age as young man or lady.

If it makes you feel any better, you know age is relative. To a high school kid working after class, anyone who has had the high risk dropped off their driver's license because they grew up is considered a geezer. I know when I was under twenty, I used to watch romantic films and think eeeewwwww if the leading men or ladies looked mature. Looking back on it, gosh they must have been maybe late thirtysomething?

I know everything is relative & I do love getting the discounts - especially in these troubled times. It was just that initial stark realization that I look it that sent me back momentarily on my heels. Maybe it's payback for the time at my first job out of college when at age 22 this guy asked me out & I told him he was too old. He was 28.

Would you believe that, in the state of Illinois, for purposes of qualifying for residence in a retirement facility, persons age 40 and older are considered SENIOR CITIZENS??! Forty! How depressing is that?

Karen

That isn't depressing, that's asinine. You're at the peak of your career and still in the child-bearing years. It's a real dichotomy anymore because as they inch social security guidelines upward so that a person has to be older each year to retire, they're retiring people younger, and retirement accounts are earning zilch in interest. There can only be so many *mart greeters.

I find that some places won't give the discount unless you ask - not because they're afraid of insulting you but because they want to get full price.

The interest rates on retirement accounts is a joke these days. I'd like a bailout since the value of my savings has dropped dramatically and gasoline has risen dramatically.
$3.44 yesterday.

I won't offically turn 65 till April 1st. But Medicare and
my seconary insurance started yesterday March 1st. I had to
celabrate by going and getting a pill refilled at wal-mart. I usually paid $50.00 to get it filled but now it will cost me
$4.00 to get it. My husband said he never saw anybody that
happy to turn 65. Yes, I was happy about it Having to pay
just $15.00 at the doctors instead of $95.00 really makes me
happy. Age has never bothered me.