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When with your friends, acquaintances, what do you converse/talk/chat about? Each Poster on this Forum is Very helpful, has wisdom, kindness.
A person who told me she retired in her 50's, said the older women talked about their health and/or their
children, grandchildren, neither of which she could not relate.
While at a quilt show, attended the showing of antique quilts and discovered I was sitting next to the founder of the club. As I sometimes do, tried to ask her an opening question, to hear her story. After the presentation, someone can to talk to this delightful lady. The conversion was so interesting, enjoyed it so much, just sat and listened to the conversation-as much as I do/can talk myself !
Hobbies, jobs, kids, the weather. Clothes, prices/bargains, pets. Sports, movies, TV. Food, what's for Dinner, entertainment, trips/vacation. News, books, a little gossip. What should we do tonight. Pretty much the same stuff everyone talks about. I don't think retired people are different from everyone else. Maybe we talk more about having fun than work but that's OK with me!
As an older person I try to avoid droning on about my health. I also avoid complaining. Back in the 90's I went on a cruise and there were two older women who were constantly paired with us for dinner and excursions. There's a reason why old whiny people are lonely. All they did was discuss their ailments and complain. They never had anything good to say about anything. I made up my mind to NEVER become one of those people! I also stopped eating in the regular dining room and did my own excursions just to avoid them! Darn it, I was there to see things and have a good time.
Depends who I am with. Obviously, I can't talk about working in a strip club with most people. I am the most comfortable talking with former cops about that line of work. But when I am around 'normal' people, I'm generaly very cautious and try to find a common ground. That is difficult for me, being an atheist, having no kids, being vegetarian. So hopefully they garden, ride horses, travel, or know music.
Travel & vacations, restaurants, cooking, theatre, wine, sports, books, the weather, gardening, what's happening in our hustle-bustle little community ... the list is endless. If I'm the one who starts the conversation, it's never about health, children, grandchildren or pets.
when i'm with a strictly female group, the topics are often books, places we'd like to visit or possibly live, food and occasionaly recipes, some movies, though most wait until the movies are available on netflix , tv, pbs, or cable series such as "downtown abbey" and "mad men", and often politics, but only with certain groups does that happen. also with one particular group, most are fans of the pbs series that haven't been shown here in the u.s.- "luther", touch of frost","trial and retribution"; most brittish mysteries/suspense that you can get through netflix or on some of the pbs stations. on rarer occasions when i'm with a mixed group of men and women, the topics might be somewhat the same- not so much food or cable/pbs series,- but might extend to current events, state of the world, precarious economic times.
of course topics discussed reflects the friends that you associate with, their background and interests as well. i don't have children/grandchildren and the majority of the people i see on a fairly regular basis don't either, so that isn't a usual topic. sports is not a topic either since i'm not a fan and most people i see, not all, are not huge sports fans- the exception sometimes is sailing, but that is a major interest of many in the area where i live.
With the girls....former boyfriends, art, movies, books, our pets, gardening, farmers' market, positive heath subjects, former boyfriends, former boyfriends, the one who got away....
I avoid politics like the plague, as that can be friendship killer.
The same things i life i have always spoke about. Work was always a way of losing freinds and becoming unpopular.;because most people are not interested. hobies; people we know in common that we have talked to.hunting ;fishing ;about projects working on at home etc.
I find conversations are getting more and more shallow as I age. New friends aren't so likely to want to share their old selves with you and they want to (or need to) keep their histories private. I miss conversations that start with 'I' and go deep. No one I know, however, drones on about their health. It might get mentioned and acknowledged but I've no interest in anyone's gallbladder or lack thereof.
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