Feeling old

There are times when I feel old & this is one such time.

Why? might you ask.

It began as I read my current novel, “The People in the Photo” by Hélène Gestern. The novel is written in a rather old style. Essentially it’s in the form of various letters & emails, interspersed with the odd description of a photograph. The novel begins with a woman who inherits an old photo of her mother with two men. The woman whose mother died long before when the former was a young child so couldn’t really be remember her  mother, decided to investigate the photo & locate who these men were & their relationship with her mother. So far fine. I can understand the curiosity, just as I feel about a very old photo I’ve got of my parents taken in the interwar years. It’s when I discovered this ancient photo was dated 1972 I began to feel old. To me that isn’t a long time ago. That was the year & left school & started at university. Clearly, therefore, I’m very old too. I suppose having been laid low with this cold hasn’t helped.

The situation wasn’t helped with the arrival of a new computer. Our old one is playing up. All weekend has been spent trying to set it up. It’s beyond me. I suspect, left on my own, I would just not bother with a computer if I had to set it up by myself. The Fox is struggling through, but he’s still not sorted out how it all works & comes together. At present I’m still on the old one.

Yesterday my home help, Jo, came. She’s just 21. She loved the idea of setting up a new computer. She can’t imagine life without a computer. I commented on my conclusion that I’m not sure if I would bother with one if I had to set a new one up. “But surely you would be lost without it,” she commented. I couldn’t help thinking much as I regard a computer as a great tool for finding out information, I could manage without it. There are books. “But it is so good for keeping in touch,” Jo protested. “We managed perfectly well before. There are things like telephones & letters,” I assured her. She boggled. I continue to feel old.

Later on our conversation moved onto the subject of school meals. She loved the pizzas & sandwiches she had as school meals. I couldn’t help commenting when I was at school, pizzas were unheard of. I don’t think anyone had heard of a pizza in England then, certainly not in the north of England. As for sandwiches you only had those if you took your own to have instead of school meals.

I feel my grey hair is getting more silvery by the minute.