Have you ever been mistaken for being much *younger* than you really are?

[baldguy]

At work, over the PA they play a local radio station that plays a wide variety of music. There's an older guy (in his 50s) that sits next to me, and as he got up to leave the radio started playing some white-boy rap song. He said jokingly "When they start playing this noise, it's time for me to leave." Then said to me "You must like this stuff." I replied that it was a little young for me. The younger woman in the cubicle across from me (in her early 30s) stood up and said "This is the Beastie Boys! You've GOT to like the Beastie Boys!" When I asked her how old she thought I was she said with a "Thirty.....five?"

I'm 47.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

1. It used to happen a lot

I got into the Minnesota State Fair for the under-15 price when I was 22. I wasn't even trying. I was with my grandmother, and the ticket taker just said, "One adult, one child."

That same year, I went out for pizza and beer with some people who were in the same Japanese class. I was the only one who got carded. A 17-year-old in the group did not get carded.

The last time I got carded was at age 26. I was in Connecticut, where the drinking age was then 18.

Nowadays, people can definitely tell that I'm over 21. But sometimes they're a bit surprised at just how FAR over 21 I am.

[tabbycat31]

2. all the time

Last year, I had someone tell me "I'd buy you a beer if you were 21" (I had just turned 31)

People frequently think I am in my early 20s.

[femmocrat]

3. Just on the phone.

People would ask for my parents when I answered the phone. Not recently though.

[database]

4. I got carded at Goodwill first time I claimed the senior discount. Made my day.

[Honeycombe8]

5. You go girl! You must be livin' right! I get mistaken for young occasionally...

I'm 58.

Now, I can see myself in the mirror. I do NOT look young. Yet, I'm occasionally mistaken for much younger. Why is that? I think what it is is that some people have an image of what they think 58 looks like. And sometimes people aren't paying attention...they get a general impression of age by the hair, the way you move, your voice (voices get old, too). And sometimes the lighting is just dim!

But it makes me feel great! Just like you feel! You're probably healthy and you act and dress young & have good hair. Those things go a long way.

Imagine if we put little ol' lady, gray wigs on, move more slowly, make our voices a little less vibrant, and wear something our grandmas would've worn...I would bet people would think we're older than we are.

Not having skin damage from the sun is important, too. I've seen young women who have turned out to be younger than I thought they were, because their skin was thickened & wrinkled from sunbathing.

Whatever you're doing, keep doing it!

[fizzgig]

6. all the time

damn near everyone i met thought i was 21 from the time i was 15 to the time i was almost 30. it's happening less frequently now (i'll be 31 next month), but people still don't believe me when i tell them how old i am.

[RZM]

7. I get it alot, actually

I've always looked young. I usually get about 5-7 years younger than I am.

About 10 years ago, I answered the door at my house and the salesman at the other end asked if my parents were home. Needless to say I didn't buy what he was selling

[provis99]

8. no, I get mistaken as being my mother's brother.

she's 68, I'm 42. so either mom looks 42, or I look 68.

[Phentex]

12. LOL!

Not really funny but funny the way you worded it.

[JonLP24]

9. Every single time someone I don't know looks at me

[sarge43]

10. Use to until my hair went grey. n/t

[Wait Wut]

11. Yes.

When I'm out with my son people often think we're dating/married. It still grosses us out. I have some awesome genetics to thank for that. But, I also get to look forward to going downhill fast.

And, you're the same age as me. The Beastie Boys are NOT too young for us! They've been around since '79.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

13. The last time I got carded at a bar, I was 34.

But that doesn't happen any more.

[Phentex]

14. Not me, but my husband and I'm sick to death of it!...

I don't want to hear how lucky I am. I don't want the cougar tag thankyouverymuch. I don't find it all that amusing anymore.

I don't look old for my age. It's just that he looks so young for his age. Dammit.

[hifiguy]

15. At a trade show, a longtime friend asked me how old

I was after grumping about getting older. I told him and he was shocked - he thought I was 10-12 years younger than I am. And this was last fall. I'm one of those people like Johnny Carson who will basically look the same until I am a really old geezer.

[Chan790]

16. I'm 32 and I look 25.

What's more is that I've been passing for 21 since I was 13, it's like I hit an optimal age-appearance window and hovered there as long as possible. Now I'm aging but only because my hair is thinning, I'm still college-faced and still pass for 25 if I wear a hat.

[NV Whino]

17. All the time

I was carded well into my forties.

[Scuba]

18. Only by myself, when I think I can still do something....

... later, I recognize every day.

[OriginalGeek]

19. BUT THE IMPORTANT THING

is that you goddamn well SHOULD love the Beastie Boys!


I'm 48 and I love them. They've been around since I was in my early 20s - maybe more but that's when I first heard them.


I took my daughter to see them when she was 15 - it was her first concert. There were more people my age than hers from what I saw.

I took her to Ozzfest one year too. She just wanted to see DragonForce.


I got carded for cigarettes into my early 30s.
I quit smoking but the damage was done - I look old now. I just buy a cigar every once in a while and embrace my gray-streaked pony-tail.

[LibDemAlways]

20. When I was 22 or 23 I was pulled over by the

cops. They didn't think I looked old enough to have a driver's license - age 16 in Calif.

[Lucy Goosey]

21. I'm 36, and I just got asked for ID buying beer

...a couple of weeks ago at a hockey game - and I'm in Canada (if you couldn't tell from the beer-at-hockey-game thing); drinking age here is 19.

I was also asked several times last year on a trip to Hawaii. Are the laws particularly strict there? This hasn't happened to me in other parts of the States.

[Codeine]

22. Wait a minute. . . you don't like Beastie Boys?!

I'm in my forties and I've loved those guys since "Licensed to Ill."

[Mendocino]

23. Until I went gray

I easily passed for 20 years younger. When I was about 40 I met a buddy for a drink. The bartender carded me, he thought I was my friends son. My friend is only 5 months older than I. I'm almost 55 now.

[whistler162]

24. Only by my mother...

or is that her telling me to stop acting like a child and grow up?

[kwassa]

25. yes, by some attractive much younger woman ...

Not often, but it has happened that a young woman has shown, um, interest. One was 20 years younger, another 25 years younger.

I didn't act on it, but is was wonderful for my old married-guy ego.

[Hayabusa]

26. My family always has that problem

we're thankfully blessed with looking younger than we really are. I'm 27, yet barely look that I'm out of high school. I haven't changed all that much.

[Ron Obvious]

27. I too got carded until I was forty

Great fun at high school reunions and all to look younger than everyone there, but it doesn't really make up for looking like I was 14 when I was 18, I don't think.

Besides, I think it's beginning to catch up now. They say everyone has the face they deserve at 50... Must be the drink...

[steve2470]

28. No, sadly nt

[noamnety]

29. Once at parent teacher conferences

the greeter asked if my parents were with me. I was the parent.

[Generic Brad]

30. All my life

I am 50. Last week three people guessed my age at 38.

I have no gray hair or wrinkles. What can I say?

[Kaleva]

31. I was carded at a bar and not let in 'cause I wasn't born yet.

I was born in 1958 but my military I.D. said "1978". I never noticed that mistake till that night. An obvious typo but the bouncer told me to come back in a few months after I was born.

[GReedDiamond]

32. I'm 57, and I just got carded the other day, buying beer...I was highly amused by that...

...believe me, this cashier was being WAY overly careful.

I look at least 39.

[applegrove]

33. I use to get carded when I bought cigarettes in my late 30s. Made me feel great.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

34. I got carded WELL into my 30's.

[ChazInAz]

35. Normally.

It's a genetic quirk in my family: we refuse to age normally, and we live a very long time. My dad was in his late nineties when he died, and looked thirty years younger. I'm sixty-two and am usually thought to be forty by strangers. No wrinkles, no grey in the reddish hair, only a couple of age spots on the backs of my hands. Amusingly, I resemble Bela Lugosi, which results in some funny reactions when people learn my age. The sad part is loved ones. My late wife was much younger than I. Watching her age was heartbreaking. Then, in the last year of her life, with her health failing, there were new acquaintances who assumed she was my mother. That was very hard to deal with, to say the least.

[yewberry]

36. Not me, but my husband. He's 44, and gets carded for cigarettes.

Sadly, I just look as old as I am.

[Maine-ah]

37. 38 here

and I get pegged for early 20's all the time, and I still get carded.