When did I stop being young?

I was browsing some necklaces in a charity shop this afternoon. One of the old ladies who help there noticed and told me "Young people wear those", with a very clear implication in her tone that they weren't for the likes of me!

How did that happen?

I'm not old..."just older" than I used to be.

I moved on to another charity shop (last of the big spenders, me)

I picked up a book. Again, the old lady was straight on the case. "It's like the Da Vinci code" she volunteered. "Have you read it?"

I admitted I'd got a bit confused in places. "Oh well," she said,"it's good to try to keep your brain active."

Only a year ago I was a full time teacher,, and now, all of a sudden old ladies are seeing me as kindred spirits!

I was thinking of abandoning my burgundy hair dye for something calmer, but this has convinced me to stay purple :-)

Warning - When I Am an Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple

By Jenny Joseph

When I am an old woman, I shall wear purple

with a red hat that doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.

And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves

and satin candles, and say we've no money for butter.

I shall sit down on the pavement when I am tired

and gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells

and run my stick along the public railings

and make up for the sobriety of my youth.

I shall go out in my slippers in the rain

and pick the flowers in other people's gardens

and learn to spit.



You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat

and eat three pounds of sausages at a go

or only bread and pickles for a week

and hoard pens and pencils and beer nuts and things in boxes.



But now we must have clothes that keep us dry

and pay our rent and not swear in the street

and set a good example for the children.

We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practice a little now?

So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised

When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

Just in case you missed it...Bon Jovi's "just older"