Grandparents

I golf  a lot with my grandpa.  He lives in another state so I go there a lot and stay with my grandparents.  We have gone on vacation to Florida with them 5 or 6 times since I have been born.  As they both get older, my grandma always seems to be the one that complains about the way people treat her in public-they don't respect her or don't listen to what she is actually asking.  Lately my  grandpa, who is NOT a complainer, has made a few comments about the way his pharmacy or other clerks treat him when he is trying to purchase something.  Well, I went on vacation with them over my spring break and boy, did I see that it is true.  When my grandpa calls to make tee times, it sounded like they were very short with him, but I really did see it when we played golf.  People would get mad at us for no apparent reason-so it seemed.  We were playing with an older couple one day-making three sentiors and me, and we constantly had remarks made about or slow play when we were actually ahead of schedule.  When we ordered something at a restaurant, the lady taking our order seemed annoyed the 'old man' was asking quesitons about meny choices because he has diabetes.  She was smiling and friendly with me, but that all changed when taking his order.  I see this all the time now-people treating my grandparents differently.  I know my mom said while she was in a store over Christmas with her mom that she saw it too; people would be very short with my grandma but not with her.  My mom even made a comment to the lady about how rude she was to my grandma...she didn't know they were together and apparently told my mom that she just hated waiting on old people.  Then, I am sure my mom blew it and told her what she really thought.  I have been reading a lot about ageism but many of the articles seemed to be when the topic was pretty hot about 5 years ago.  Well; everyone says that bringing the topic to the forefront would make a call for change, but I am not seeing it at all; especially now that I am aware and my grandparents are older.    Here's an article I found about seniors being treated like second class citizens....how true.  http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/446179/old_people_treated_as__second_class/index.html