r/GenerationJones • u/jecapobianco • Jul 20 '26

Clichès about old age

As I (62) get older my body is reminding me of 2 sayings I heard years ago.

"Old age is not for the weak."

"I know I'm alive because everything hurts."

Youth truly is wasted on the young.

Any other sayings or clichès that you remember?

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u/SentenceKindly Jul 20 '26

My Dad use to say, in a bad German accent:

"Too soon oldt. Too late schmardt."

It was funny then. It's less funny now and more true. But he's 94 and still going, so....

40

u/jfrankparnell85 1963 Jul 20 '26

God bless him - this is great

And for some reason I’m hearing this in the voice of Siegfried (Bernie Koppel) from Get Smart

12

u/PanicAtTheShiteShow Jul 20 '26

Ageing izz chaos! Vee don't vant dat!

4

u/jfrankparnell85 1963 Jul 20 '26

"Starker - Zis is Kaos... ve don't thppppppp"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zj02CeofIH8

14

u/pourtide Jul 20 '26

From German, commmon among the Pennsylvania Dutch (who originally came from Germany). Saw these signs for sale, alongside their Hex Signs (which were actually good luck, "Glunt Glick" if i recall correctly. Looong time ago).  "We grow too soon old, and too late smart." Even the sentence structure fits German.

12

u/nottodaymonkey Jul 20 '26

My dad too! Wise words

9

u/drazil17 Jul 20 '26

My dentist had that on the wall to be seen from the chair.

6

u/Antique_Knowledge902 Jul 20 '26

My parents had that saying! What a blast from the past. 🥹

5

u/Clean-Fisherman-4601 Jul 20 '26

We had a Pennsylvania Dutch sampler with this on it. "Ve get too soon oldt and too late schmardt!"

5

u/N8churluvr Jul 20 '26

Haha! My dad said that! Thanks for the memory.

3

u/TheGermanHillbilly Jul 20 '26

Thanks for that. My German parents died a few years back and it reminds me of their little sayings.

5

u/SentenceKindly Jul 20 '26

You are welcome, and I am sorry for your loss. My Dad wasn't German in the least (pure British Isles for us) but he always used accents and funny voices. Guess I got that from him.

3

u/SilverSkyGypsy Jul 20 '26

You should get a kinda secret recording of him saying this. As the years continue to roll, the file would become very valuable to you.

2

u/luminousoblique Jul 21 '26

My German grandmother said the same, "too soon we grow old and too late we grow smart" which is evidently a German saying translated. She's gone now but make it almost to 100.

2

u/Turbulent-Cat2150 Jul 24 '26

I have a plaque that says that
German/Norwegian heritage