You Know You Are Old When

[Creamer]

It's hard to reconcile the first half of your post, above, with the second half, below. Surely no one worried about the cleanliness of a restaurant kitchen would ever order anything from Pizza Hut, where the average age of a kitchen employee is 15 years?

My sister and my best friend both worked in Pizza Hut as teens, and you couldn't pay either one of them to eat there, today. They can tell absolute horror stories of what happens there.

When we fitrst moved to Indiana everybody raved about the Pizza Hut as the best. We laughed because our experience had been in other parts of the country. Then we found out that the local franchisee kind of went his own direction and they were the best in the area by far - he owned 50 or more restaurants in this genereal area. When we travelled for our kids soccer we would often get pizza for the group and it was always laughed about because if the Pizza Hut had a red roof it would not be this franchisee and we would not get the pizza from there. It all comes down management just like the aforementioned Denny's.

 

[Jstpssng]

Is it a sign of being old when you read before signing? I was activating my new Amex card online last night... fill out the numbers, hit "next". They want my phone#- wait, they needed that before giving me the card. Then I read "supplying this gives your permission to recieve promotional texts and phone calls."
Nope, I'll have the card shut off first.
It took a while to realize the first step had activated the card, then seamlessly went to the page trying to get permission to send me spam.

 

[sixdogs]

Is it a sign of being old when you read before signing? I was activating my new Amex card online last night... fill out the numbers, hit "next". They want my phone#- wait, they needed that before giving me the card. Then I read "supplying this gives your permission to recieve promotional texts and phone calls."
Nope, I'll have the card shut off first.
It took a while to realize the first step had activated the card, then seamlessly went to the page trying to get permission to send me spam.

This seems to be the latest trick.

 

[Oaktree]

We would usually have a fountain soda or ice tea with our diner lunch but their prices have gone to $3-4$ now. I'll now get an iced water and now they do the same labor for free. We used to chuckle when we saw seniors only get water and now we are doing the same.

All I ever do is water at a restaurant. Not gonna pay $3.50 for a glass of soda that's mostly ice.

I use my age as an excuse to get out of doing dumb things. ;-)

Or simply to get out of something you just don't want to do.

Years ago a friend told me a story about an older relative and how she found turning 80 liberating, especially when it came to visitors who'd overstayed their welcome. She'd just nod off in a chair (or pretend to), and they'd get the hint. Would probably be considered rude in a younger person, but not so much in an older one.

 

[Oaktree]

Is it a sign of being old when you read before signing? I was activating my new Amex card online last night... fill out the numbers, hit "next". They want my phone#- wait, they needed that before giving me the card. Then I read "supplying this gives your permission to recieve promotional texts and phone calls."

Benefits of only having a landline I guess.
Seems like more and more times though they'll insist on a mobile #, and won't let you continue if you leave it blank. I'll put in something like 555-1212 or 867-5309 just to get them off my back.

 

[WinterDeere]

When we fitrst moved to Indiana everybody raved about the Pizza Hut as the best. We laughed because our experience had been in other parts of the country. Then we found out that the local franchisee kind of went his own direction and they were the best in the area by far - he owned 50 or more restaurants in this genereal area. When we travelled for our kids soccer we would often get pizza for the group and it was always laughed about because if the Pizza Hut had a red roof it would not be this franchisee and we would not get the pizza from there. It all comes down management just like the aforementioned Denny's.

Yeah, I have a similar story WRT McDonalds. When we first moved to our present town, we were amazed that burgers from the local McDonalds actually looked like the burgers on the commercial, not the smashed bits of hell we've always seen from other McDonalds.

This was a few years after McDonalds was taking a serious beating to their reputation for poor quality and nutrition, and were really making a public push to improve ingredients, quality, and overall menu health. So, we just assumed, "hey, McDonalds must be finally cleaning up their act." Some of the burgers actually went beyond just "not terrible", to "pretty good".

But over the years since then, as we've hit various other McDonalds restaurants in our travels, we've come to realize no... McDonalds is still terrible. It's just "our" McDonalds that's an anomaly, it must be the local franchise owner/manager.

So, yeah... I'll believe you that your Pizza Hut is much better than the one in my home town. They became so much of a joke there, and really in our entire surrounding area, that most of them have closed and gone away.

 

[WinterDeere]

Is it a sign of being old when you read before signing? I was activating my new Amex card online last night... fill out the numbers, hit "next". They want my phone#- wait, they needed that before giving me the card. Then I read "supplying this gives your permission to recieve promotional texts and phone calls."
Nope, I'll have the card shut off first.
It took a while to realize the first step had activated the card, then seamlessly went to the page trying to get permission to send me spam.

Good on you, for paying attention. But of all the cards I've carried over the years, my AMEX is the only one that actually has useful promotional material. They've never texted or called me, I just get a weekly email with that month's promotions. There's even an opt-out button at the bottom of every email, if you don't want that.

It may vary with membership level, my card is a no-limit one with a yearly fee, as I'm often buying production and marketing materials for my business with that card when dealing with new vendors with whom we haven't established credit. Overall, AMEX has become my favorite, among the various cards I've carried over the years.

 

[Jstpssng]

Benefits of only having a landline I guess.
Seems like more and more times though they'll insist on a mobile #, and won't let you continue if you leave it blank. I'll put in something like 555-1212 or 867-5309 just to get them off my back.

My landline was overpriced and the service stunk. Consolidated Communications has that reputation pretty much statewide. I save about 50$/month by going with AT&T. The service still sucks but I can drive up into my field if I need good phone or internet service.

 

[WinterDeere]

I'll put in something like 555-1212 or 867-5309 just to get them off my back.

Customer service for most credit card companies appears to be in or near India, guessing on the Hindi accent. So, it's likely they'll never catch the joke there, Jenny.

 

[ultrarunner]

Customer service for most credit card companies appears to be in or near India, guessing on the Hindi accent. So, it's likely they'll never catch the joke there, Jenny.

I'm getting call centers in the Philippines for many things...

I think Discover is US based call centers?

 

[JethroB]

My older sister struggles with technology. She wanted to watch our nephew coach his ACC baseball team on ESPN which is streaming through the ESPNX app mostly. I gave up trying to show her how to use her Smart TV to view games and bought her a second simple ROKU TV for baseball only. So she now has two TV’s side by side, one for baseball and one for DISHTV. But hey she cooks for me every Sunday so well worth it. She is a very good cook.

 

[BravoXray]

My older sister struggles with technology. She wanted to watch our nephew coach his ACC baseball team on ESPN which is streaming through the ESPNX app mostly. I gave up trying to show her how to use her Smart TV to view games and bought her a second simple ROKU TV for baseball only. So she now has two TV’s side by side, one for baseball and one for DISHTV. But hey she cooks for me every Sunday so well worth it. She is a very good cook.

Everyone has their own set of talents.

 

[Jstpssng]

Everyone has their own set of talents.

I'm still trying to find mine.

 

[bigtiller]

My older sister struggles with technology. She wanted to watch our nephew coach his ACC baseball team on ESPN which is streaming through the ESPNX app mostly. I gave up trying to show her how to use her Smart TV to view games and bought her a second simple ROKU TV for baseball only. So she now has two TV’s side by side, one for baseball and one for DISHTV. But hey she cooks for me every Sunday so well worth it. She is a very good cook.

That's a good idea.
I wondered why my kid has 4 tv's in his basement.

 

[scootr]

A new family moved in across the road a few yrs back. Lots of kids. I met the mother and we exchanged greetings, I mentioned they had lots of kids. 10 she proudly announced. 10 Gee that's a bunch, I said. Yes, she said, well - everybody's got to be good at something.

 

[Jstpssng]

Yes, she said, well - everybody's got to be good at something

I started to post the first thing which popped into my head, but in a rare moment of brilliance deleted it.

A couple of years ago I raised to many chickens, so gave them to an Amish family which had 18 kids.

 

[Creamer]

Yeah, I have a similar story WRT McDonalds. When we first moved to our present town, we were amazed that burgers from the local McDonalds actually looked like the burgers on the commercial, not the smashed bits of hell we've always seen from other McDonalds.

This was a few years after McDonalds was taking a serious beating to their reputation for poor quality and nutrition, and were really making a public push to improve ingredients, quality, and overall menu health. So, we just assumed, "hey, McDonalds must be finally cleaning up their act." Some of the burgers actually went beyond just "not terrible", to "pretty good".

But over the years since then, as we've hit various other McDonalds restaurants in our travels, we've come to realize no... McDonalds is still terrible. It's just "our" McDonalds that's an anomaly, it must be the local franchise owner/manager.

So, yeah... I'll believe you that your Pizza Hut is much better than the one in my home town. They became so much of a joke there, and really in our entire surrounding area, that most of them have closed and gone away.

Sadly though the guy died a few years back and the corporation he had is now being led differently. It is not same as it was. A good friend that was in charge of a group of the restaurants told me that back in 2009 because of the tough economy they dropped their prices for any large two topping pizza to $10 and their sales went through the roof - yes, the wood shake roof. Their average variable cost of making that two topping large pizza was $2.37 - not a bad profit margin. Overall profits for the corporation skyrocketed because their sales were so high. Still, when the owner died a couple of years later they fell back into the mold of how could they reduce costs. My friend didn't understand why they didn't want to focus on increasing sales at those profit margins - that was the reason the profits soared during the down time.

 

[Creamer]

I started to post the first thing which popped into my head, but in a rare moment of brilliance deleted it.

A couple of years ago I raised to many chickens, so gave them to an Amish family which had 18 kids.

Into your head????

 

[masseyrider]

A couple of years ago I raised to many chickens, so gave them to an Amish family which had 18 kids.

I had a couple Mennonite kids work for me on the farm years ago.
They said their mother had 23 kids... that lived.
They ate their meals in shifts.
The adults and those old enough to work got the first shift and choice and the rest had the leftovers.

 

[scootr]

Irish Catholic family down the road from us had 15 redhead kids. They all wore the same socks and underwear. A large wooden picnic table filled the kitchen and pots on the stove were as big as you could get.