Senior Portrait

OK, now I really feel old. Yesterday, I went to the movies with my sister. In the ticket line, the lady in front of me asked for a senior discount. She looked like a legitimate senior, probably in her late 50s. I suddenly realized that I had my AARP card on me (which, when I got it in the mail a few months ago, I decided not to blog about it because I am STILL in denial that I’m even close to being in this demographic group) and so I pulled it out and old-monkey-see, old-monkey-do, I asked for the senior discount, too.

Honestly, I fully expected the ticket agent to call my bluff and call her manager over to rat on me, tell him that there was an imposter at the window trying to scam her way into the theater on a senior discount . . . but she did nothing of the sort. She simply looked at me, flipped the card over, and said, “OK, $7 please.”

It’s a pretty sad day, indeed, when you can impersonate a senior citizen and get away with it.

I wanted to laugh. Make a joke out of it, Tell her, “Oh, come on! Do I LOOK like a senior?” But I was afraid of her response, so I said nothing but “Thanks,” and walked into the theater, passing symbolically into a whole new world. A grayer one at that.

Then it suddenly occurred to me that this AARP card could really work to my advantage. Hmmm . . . wonder if I can get a senior discount on a bucket of popcorn??