Rambling through a shopping mall over the weekend made me aware of something that made me feel a little uneasy. I am now in the age demographic of consumers who apparently don't want to buy anything. Countless store windows had colossal images of beautiful people engaged in the use of the stores merchandise. The parade of models fell in to two categories - tweenties (tweens, teenagers and twenty somethings - a word I invented may I add) or over 60's. Clothing, beauty products and telephones were fashioned by baby faced models while financial products, chemist items and travel ideas were shown off by more mature smiling faces. So where did I to fit in to all this? Too old to be fashionably dressed however too young to be on a cruise. Too old for the latest mobile devices yet too young for health products. So what is there to do but sit with my coffee and piece of cake and watch the target demographics fulfill their roles in this kaleidoscope. The high school girls gazing dreamily at the lip gloss posters while the older couple fills out their travel insurance forms. Then there is me, feeling relived I made it through my tweenties relatively unscathed, optimistic about getting to my golden years in one piece, but quietly appreciating the serenity of my currently invisible existence. The best of both worlds, even if the marketing posters don't say so.
2 comments:
Sent over to your blog by Betty. Used to live in NZ. I can really relate to this "anonymity of old age". The need to "look pretty for others" or buy things in general seems to have evaporated, and when I go to malls, they feel so alien. I am just an observer, thinking "there's nothing for me here". I'm lucky if I can find a pair of comfortable shoes or pants and more likely to find those at Goodwill, all nice and broken in for me already. XD
Thanks for the comment. Thats exactly it, I feel like an observer too. I'm not into fashionable items or the latest model of technology, so there isn't much that appeals anyway but I do feel like I am in a place where I shouldn't be. As for clothes shopping, I keep thinking there must me an over 40's shopping mall somewhere that I haven't discovered yet because surely I am not alone in wanting a comfortable pair of pants and shoes without the latest trends which make them uncomfortable or outrageously expensive! Thanks for writing to me JR.
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