Getting old? Senior discounts you must ask for.

[SheilaT]

154. Oh, yes. Good old McD's!

Some years back, when I was merely in my late 40's, I was getting a cup of coffee at one. The young lady -- she was probably not over 16 -- handed me the coffee and said, "Twenty six cents please." (This was a good twenty years ago, prices have risen since then.) I responded, "I thought it was fifty-three cents." She said, "Oh, senior discount." and then looked at me more closely and got a nervous expression on her face. I thought it was hilarious, and I put the extra money in the Ronald McDonald box.

I remember all too well when I was not much older than her and working for a company that gave a senior discount, and how insulted some people would get when I'd offer it to them. To a young enough person anyone over 40 looks old.

Nowadays, three months shy of my 65th birthday, I forget to ask for senior discounts, even though I'm eligible. I need to remember.

I have noticed that the AAA discount at hotels is at least as good as the AARP one. I belong to the former, not the latter.