This throwaway joke at the bakery was just another example of ageism

I was queuing at the bakers, minding my own business,” he told me, “Then, when it was my turn, the bloke behind the counter said, ‘And what can we do for you, young man?’

Being 65 myself, I knew exactly why he felt so outraged and humiliated. This may surprise those of you who are still young (it’s a very temporary state, so be warned) but those of us you think of as old do not go about our lives thinking of ourselves that way. We think of ourselves just as we always have – as we did when we were 14 or 40 or 25. Our outsides might have changed but our essential selves are just the same. It is always a shock when we find ourselves being treated differently simply because of the length of time we have spent on the planet.

However, the young (“not that young”, as my husband hastened to emphasise) shop assistant’s remark was particularly offensive because of the many ignorant assumptions it contained. The first is that old people are all despera