Signposts for Boomers

How to tell you’re not 34 any more.

Photo by Giacomo Lucarini on Unsplash

At each of the big birthdays, the ones that end in zero, you cross an unseen border. At 50, you have officially entered middle age.

The first time my husband and I bought a condo in an over-55 community, I waited for someone to say I didn’t look 55. Anyone. I planned to blush becomingly and smile and protest gently then assure them that yes, indeed, I was old enough. I’m still waiting. Even if you are told you look good “for your age,” you will probably look your age. Maybe better than some of your peers, perhaps not as good as those who have been surgically lifted or plumped.

Once you’ve crossed this magical border, from which there is no going back, there are signposts that will inform you of your location. Here a just a few of them:

• One of the ladies behind a department store cosmetic counter will offer you the brand’s heavy-duty wrinkle cream even though you didn’t ask for one.
• Like being hit by lightning, you will realize there is more road in the rearview mirror than in the road ahead. Take as long as you need to recover from this insight.
• Just yesterday, your children were snotty teens; today, they are fully grown, humans. If they got older, does that mean you did too? Yes, yes, it does.