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They say memory is the second thing that goes when you get older. I can't remember what the first one was.

We live like things will never change. And then one day I couldn't find my car in the parking lot. It doesn't help that I own a white SUV and a whole lot of people also own white SUVs.

Antenna balls are great, because they help you differentiate your car from the others at enough distance you won't be wandering around looking lost for too long.

There starts to be a list of things that one used to do, but don't now. Staying out late with friends. Now going to bed before the Tonight Show. No wonder prime time television advertising demographics target people under 60the rest of us are asleep.

I bought a bike a while back. Remember the adage that there are some things you never really forget how to do, like riding a bike? They didn't factor in that bikes aren't the same as when we were kids. Bikes now have skinny tires that keep going flat. And there's all these gears and levers on them that change the chain and if you shift them wrong the chain falls off.

Then there's all these new fangled gadgets that we're supposed to have. So many buttons, most of which we don't have a clue what they do.

My favorite is the Blackberry. Did whomever invented that thing realize that after a certain age we can't see tiny little keys?

In our venerable years we're supposed to be able to share our wisdom with the young. Instead, we've got to find a kid to show us how to operate our cell phones.

Stores become a challenge. All that small print. Having to squat down to read the prices and labels. At least that's a good form of exercise.

I finally gave up and got a prescription for bifocalsthe no line kind. That lasted two days because I'd get motion sickness from everything moving around. Had to go to the old fashioned kind, and then buy a separate pair of close focus glasses so I could see and read what was on the computer screen. Getting older means having lots of pairs of specialized glasses all over the house (if you can remember where you put them).

Then there's the reality that after a certain age, if you are looking for a job, you aren't going to get one. Why? Because the young folks doing the hiring don't want to supervise someone who probably knows a lot more than they do about the job.

Remember when we didn't trust anyone over 30? Now we don't trust anyone under 30.

I finally near the age of 62 and was faced with the decision to take early Social Security or not. My guess is a lot of us decided to take the money and run because chances are Social Security is going bankrupt. If we waited until 65 we might not get a dime.

Then I found out that for every dollar you earn, your Social Security gets reduced. Maybe that's ok if you have a pension or a 401(k) but for a lot of people today who owned their own farms or businesses or were "self-employed" they have nothing to fall back on. We have to keep working.

Thank the Lord for places that hire older folks. I love the staff of the Ace Hardware down the road. Corporate executive one day, keeper of the paint department the next.

One of the harder things to adjust to is the jobs you can get are way below your experience and ability. You have to accept that your former life is over, and take joy in the fact that you have somewhere to get dressed up for and go out to in the morning.

We finally have to accept our mortality and our limits after decades of being the Baby Boomers dominating the culture. But we're still here, millions of us, slipping down the road to the Rock 'n Roll Rest Home.

Learn more about this author, Hugh Holub.
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