So I went over to the local bowling lanes yesterday to get some practice in before the Pro-Am. Since Kathleen was at a get-together in the city, I brought Caroline along. I was in a lane next to a senior citizen couple, and as I unloaded my bowling equipment onto the rack, the fellow turns to me, looks at Caroline, smiles and says, “Is she here to help grandpa bowl?”
“I’m her father,” I said.
He looked at me as if I hadn’t understood what he was saying. “Her grandfather?”
“No,” and my voice turned to ice. “Her father.”
“Oh.” Pause. “Really?”
“YES!”
I dunno. Maybe I should start dying my hair…or at least what’s left of it…
PAD
• 
My mother’s older sister was staying with us one time, filling in for my mom at my brother’s 6th grade pizza making activity. A close family friend who knew my brother asked if my aunt was our grandmother.
She was then carded for cigs the next day by a cashier who was not joking.
As for myself, I’m 24, and the first time I got carded for alcohol was last year. I was dumbstruck.
The thing I’ll remember is having to have my younger sister buy the tickets for the R rated movie. I was 23, she was 16.
She gave up deep dark tanning that day.
I never could get in a club/bar without being carded. I dont and never have looked my real age.
When I was in my twenties I looked much younger. Not too long ago when I lived down south I got carded when I went to buysome cigs and my friend at the time who was way younger than me didnt get carded. I was in my late 30’s at the time. I was like but hes younger than me and your’re carding me only??? Of course the kid behind the counter wasnt even old enough to sell cigs. Got to love it lol.
When I was 20 (in 1998), I was hired by my old school board to do odd job computer work.
I was always brought in to my old high school, where my borther was in Grade 9 and my sister was in Grade 10.
After a while, my siblings were asked if Mr. Jago was their dad.
They said, “Yes,” thinking about our dad who was a elementary school teacher in town.
“Wow!” their friends would exclaim. “He looks so young.”
“No,” my siblings replied. “That’s Kyle. He’s our brother.”
I have the opposite problem… my husband is about 12 and a half years older than I am. Once at a gas station, the attendant thought I was his daughter.
So embarrassing.
-A.
Yesterday at around this time I had no anecdote to add to this growing stockpile of offenses and embarrassments, but …
Last night, I was walking around downtown Milwaukee and I decided I’d stop in this one piece-of-crap bar that I don’t even like, simply because a friend of mine frequents it and I thought she might be there.
So I walk in, and the guy at the door says, “I need to see some ID.” I’m 25 and at the moment my face is covered in facial hair (which if you’re going to have some kind of hair on your face, facial is the way to go … but I digest). But, no big deal, I don’t mind wasting two seconds giving him my ID.
So he takes it … squints at it … looks at me, looks at the picture, real suspicious-like. (Note: my driver’s license picture is also from a time when I was covered in facial hair. When I’m clean-shaven I look fairly young, so I’m used to people doing a double-take at the Driver’s ID then … but at the moment, I look JUST LIKE THAT FREAKING PICTURE!).
So, he’s sitting there examing, and he apparently decides he’s going to quiz me.
“What’s your middle name?” he says.
“Mathew,” I says. (Correct.)
“What color are your eyes.”
“Blue.” (I’m two for two!)
“Do me a favor — take this piece of paper and sign your name the way it’s signed on this card.”
And at this point, I get annoyed. “Look, I already don’t want to come in here anymore. Give me my ID and I’ll leave.”
And honest to god, he says, “Sign your name on that paper, or I’m going to have to confiscate this ID as a fake.”
WHAT?!?!?!?
If somebody who’s conversant with the law wants to tell me how a guy can ask me two questions from my ID which I both get right, and STILL confiscate my ID — the ID with a picture that looks exactly like me — please let me know.
So I sign my name, and he takes the piece of paper and puts it next to my ID and squints real hard for a while, and then finally gives the ID back to me. “Sorry,” he says, “But we have to check.” I blow out of there wordlessly, never to return.
Yeesh.
Another interesting story…
My wife has a nephew who is just one year younger than her… and a sister who is two years younger than her. So my mother-in-law has a grandson who is older than her own daughter!
Posted by Jason Powell:
If somebody who’s conversant with the law wants to tell me how a guy can ask me two questions from my ID which I both get right, and STILL confiscate my ID — the ID with a picture that looks exactly like me — please let me know.
It definitely sounds like that ID-checker was out of line. As for the relevant laws, I’m sure they vary from state to state. Some states may authorize businessowners to confiscate fake IDs. Some may even require them to do so (though I’m not sure if any states do.) Such legal authorization–or responsibility–to confiscate IDs may impel some businesses to be overly eager to do so.
But aside from the fact that you presented an ID and then asked for it back (which may be one of them ‘red flags’ they teach bouncers in spot-fake-ID-school) it definitely sounds like that guy was out of line.
Honestly, Peter, you don’t look that old!! And people just assume too much these days. *sighs*
After reading some of the comments on this thread about cashiers checking the ID’s on people who are ‘clearly’ not underage I felt I had to chime in and give the other side of the story from the other side of the counter (I was a cashier at a convenience store for almost ten years before being uncerimoniously shown the door a few years back). A few observations from that side of the counter:
1. The clerks are, at least at the store I worked, not given any sort of official training (i.e. videos to watch, pamplets to read, that sort of thing) on just how to judge a customer’s age just by glancing at them. That info is gained by a combination of trial-and-error and from hearsay from more senior clerks. And it does take awhile to learn what signs to look for to indicate that someone is likely to be ‘of age’ or ‘underage’ to purchase cigerettes and booze and such. So mistakes will happen while a cashier is training him/herself in in the fine of age judging total strangers.
2. I have seen 18 year olds who can pass for thirty. I have seen 28 year olds who could literally pass for 12. When it comes to figuring out which customers really are thirty and which are really teens who can pass for thirty, the only sure method is to ask for the #^%@ ID.
3. There is a reason why having several kids in tow is not considered sufficient proof of being ‘of age’ to purchase cigarettes and booze: the fact that some women can start having children at age twelve or younger (assuming their periods have started by then, of course). The fact that society does not (at least in most areas, anyway) encourage giving birth that young does not invalidate the fact that it can be done. So unless the cashier knows you real well from somewhere else and has a good idea of just when you started your family he/she can’t just assume that you waited until your 21st birthday to start giving birth. Especially when the consequences of being caught selling to a minor can be rather nasty from the cashier’s point of view.
4. ‘Stings’ by agents of either the local police or by The Bueroe (sp?) of Alchohol, Tobacco, and Firearms do happen on a regular basis. And the kids used in these stings do not go into the stores wearing shirts that say ‘Hi, I’m working with the police to see if you’re enforcing the rules against minors purchasing cigarettes and alchohol’. The kids dress as they normally would in their everyday lives. And the cashiers don’t always know ahead of time that a sting is being planned for their area. We may hear rumours of one, or hear of one that has been conducted after it’s done, but very seldom are we informed that one really is going to be conducted at such-and-such a time on these days of this month. Though the mere rumour of a sting being planned for the area can cause the cashiers to be more likely to ask for an ID from people who they might have previously let slide. . . . .
5. The punishment for being caught selling to a minor range from a fine starting at about $500 – 1,000.00 up to some jail time, depending on whether it is the cashier’s first, second, or third offence. The fines are usually paid by the store the crime occured in. (Or at least that’s what I was told; I don’t really recall seeing any official postings/brochures at my store on just what the punishments were for selling to a minor.) The store, and the company who owns it, REALLY do not like to shell out that kind of dough for any reason, let alone for one where cashier error/stupidity leads to the fine. Cashiers who cost their stores that much money usually find themselves on the unemployment line pretty quick.
Just some things to think about the next time you’re carded: the cashier may not be so much being dumb as being sure to cover his/her rump just in case you’re not really as old/young as you first appeared. . . . . 🙂
Chris
Remember that hair loss is caused by excess of testosterone, the MALE hormone.
Considering that I’ve lost quite a bit of my hair already, yet am not getting any, I seriously fail to see your point…
as the hair began to sprout on my chest (and back),
And arms and legs. Dunno about you, but I’m starting to look halfway to being a gorilla (only not as hard)…
An addition to the post
Posted by Mark @ 11/18/2003 03:44 PM ET
I have an older sister (by 3 yrs).
My wife graduated with my sister.
At their 10 year reunion they gave out bøøbÿ prizes. One of which was for the most oldest looking person. I won it by a landslide.
My prize: a bottle of shampoo for grey hair.
One time, when I was, I dunno, 12, and my sister was 24 (but we all thought she looked, I dunno, 14) we’re in the grocery store and some lady tells her that her son is in the next aisle, meaning, of course, me. I now understand that the ice age was not caused by an asteroid or massive glaciation. It was caused by a lot of well-intentioned people making a lot of dumb assumptions about Irish women. But then, on the flip side, when I was born, my mother-in-law was pregnant with my wife, and she’s(My mother-in-law) only four years older than my sister. What does this prove? That I have absoulutely NO idea what the heck’s going on on this planet….
You guys are the 77466 best, thanks so much for the help.