I am 52 and I Got Carded!
“Ma’am” I need to see your I.D,” said the woman behind the counter.
“Sorry, what? Really?” I was aghast and shocked.
I am holding out my AARP card. The card that will grant me my free Dunkin Doughnut.
“Isn’t this card good enough?
You don’t look old enough to get a free doughnut.
In some respect this should be seen as a compliment. I am now a woman of a certain age (52), there certainly is the boost to one’s ego when you are carded for alcohol at the grocery store or a club. There was the euphoria of being mistaken for a twenty something while your in your thirties. Being carded has not happened as of late. Once I have gone as far as calling a clerk out when they carded someone much younger than me a few minutes prior. “Hey, what about me?” Arn’t you going to card me? I have several bottle of wine.” The clerk gave me a bemused smile, hiding the fact they want to laugh. This clerk had treated like I am being cute. I am by nature, not in the cute category.
Why then does if feel okay to card us for alcohol but, feel there something amiss about carding people for food? Is it because of grasping for the feeling one felt for that right of passage of obtaining alcohol for the first time, then as you age you can cling on to youth. Or just the simple fact that you are being carded for an item that may give you immediate diabetes and you are in the next stage of life. This new stage is so removed from my once belief that I could be immortal. A new stage, a new outlook.
I hand her my I.D. and get my doughnut.
