Saturday night Tammy and I watched a former coworker get married. It was a beautiful ceremony and we had a great time at the reception, but as the night wound down Tammy and I both came to the same conclusion: We don’t have many friends in our age range.

Now don’t get us wrong, we’ve made some really good friends since we moved to Memphis, but the majority of them are 10-20 years younger than us.

That fact was made clear at the reception Saturday when we found ourselves sharing a table with three other couples, who were all between 24-25 years old. They were all friends of the bride and groom, who are the same ages.

Photo by Kelly Ginn Photography

Another former coworker was the only guy we knew at the table, so when he and his wife left to go to another wedding — we begged them to stay — we were worried if we’d have anything in common with the remaining four people.

Those worries were soon erased as we were included in their conversations about food, work, and movies. Even though we knew they were younger than us, it never actually FELT like they actually were, until… they asked if we had any children.

Tammy: Yes, we’ve got two but they are grown and out of the house. How old are you guys?

Everyone at the table said they were 24, which caused Tammy to chuckle.

Tammy: Yeah, that’s what I thought. My kids are your age. My son is 22 and is at school in Kentucky (which drew gasps and turned up noses*) and my daughter is 24, married and lives in North Carolina.

* Memphians hatred of Kentucky stems from when then-Memphis basketball coach John Calipari left to coach Kentucky. Every college basketball season fans here get on talk radio to say Memphis could have been where Kentucky is now had Calipari stayed. Tammy once wore a Kentucky T-shirt out in public and got evil looks, even from our friends. The hatred is real.

I felt everyone’s eyes staring at us at that moment and blurted out.

Me: We are actually grandparents.

The table all collectively gasped.

The next few seconds were filled with them telling us how good we look and how they had no idea we were old enough to have grown children. I have to admit that part felt kinda really good.

Tammy was sitting next to a girl I nicknamed Pretty Little Liars because she looked like a girl from the show and said.

Tammy: I’m actually old enough to be your Mother.

The reaction from Pretty Little Liars, whose real name was Narnia (not really, but I can’t remember it other than it was something like that), was something like this…

We finished our meal, got a few more drinks, and everyone got up to get some wedding cake. Tammy and I ventured back to the table to eat, but our new-found friends didn’t.

They sat on a couch in a different room, then all stood around the bar for a while (not that I was watching or anything), which didn’t get past Tammy.

Tammy: I think they ditched us when they found out how old we really were.
Me: Nooooo. I don’t think that.

But secretly I kind of did. It’s entirely possible that they felt OK hanging out with us since we all were friends with both of my former coworkers, but once they found out we had been alive almost two decades before them freaked them out.

After the wedding we to went to a birthday party for some friends we met at the bar we used to go to all the time. Of course we were all dressed up – I actually had a tie on — and felt entirely out of place since the party was at a bowling alley.

The birthday girl actually took the picture, but this is us and Casey all decked out at the bowling alley.

The birthday girl, Nicoooooole, was celebrating her 32nd birthday and I’m pretty sure most of the people bowling in her crew were a decade younger than us.

Again, don’t get me wrong, we totally enjoy hanging out with all of these people, but when Narnia was talking to us about her Mom, Tammy and I both had the same thought. Only Tammy expressed it.

Tammy: (to Narnia) So, it sounds like we should be hanging out with your Mom.

Everyone laughed, but there was truth in that statement. The problems is most people our ages have kids still in school and don’t have as much free time as we do, and therefore don’t hang out in the same spots as us. So Narnia, if you read this tell your Mom we thought she sounded cool and would hang out with her.

It’s not that we don’t fit in with the younger crowd, it’s just that sometimes we don’t have as much in common, deal with the same issues, or move at the same speeds.

At the wedding my friend asked if I had tried Crown Royal’s Apple flavor.

Friend: It’s so good and if you mix it with Sprite it’ll get you so f^cked up because you can’t taste it.

While Tammy did catch a good little buzz that night, our getting trashed days seem to have more and more days between them at this point.

At this point I’m not really sure how we could remedy the situation since it’s not like couples in our age-range grow on trees.

I guess we’ll just have to keep hanging with the youngsters for as long as we can.