showing your age

Our culture today seems to prolong adolescence. Maybe we are obsessed with youthfulness. We certainly try to stay young or young looking and acting as long as possible. In my grandparents' day this was not the case. People generally became adults and married at a younger age and looked their age sooner than we like to today. I have always been fascinated with photos of my grandparents' generation especially (I think my parents' generation have kept fairly young looking.) Case in point, the photo above. These two ladies apparently were friends of my late aunt. My guess is that they are in their 50s more or less. Granted the clothes were probably somewhat in style (not that that mattered all that much in those days) but, do you see what I mean? They certainly look their age or older! And I look at photos of my grandmother at a younger age than I am now, and she looks like a little old lady! Maybe they had more on their mind back then––like surviving the war and the great depression, earning money for their family––and therefore just accepted life as it came to them. I wonder why we, in the culture of today, constantly seek that fountain of youth.