I don’t I **** them.

The same way that you talk to anyone else. They’re people. Most people like talking about themselves, so you can ask them about themselves. Most have an endless supply of great stories. If they’re old enough, you may be able to hear first hand what the depression was like. Perhaps you will meet someone who was married in her early teens. You can learn about their parents and how they grew up.

My dad is 76 and I still never tire of the stories about him working in the fields and plucking chickens so his mom could make them pillows and mattresses. He tells me what life was like without a refrigerator and having to bring water in from a well.

Maybe these kinds of things would bore some people but I find them fascinating!

they are human beings just like us. Who have more knowledge than we can imagine. Get them to talk and you listen you might be surprised what you will learn.
Find out what they are interested you just might find someone who has the same interests as you.
Too many times we think that they are from some other planet when they are the same people just that their bodies have grown old but the inside is just as youthful as ever. Trust me on this. Even though some become bitter because they cannot do what they were used to when they were young

Don’t be patronizing. I **** it when members of my family talk to my old granny as if she were a child. Grrr!

I speak to her just as I would anyone else and she’s told me many times how much she appreciates that. I just speak slightly louder! I mean, the old girl’s 90 now! :o)

just smile and nod shade, just smile and nod….

ok joke over (sorry), they are people after all, itll probably be fine. most old people I’ve met seem nice enough, and will probably start off the conversation, if they want to have one. you’ll be fine.

Ask them if they ever owned one of those really tall bicycles with the huge front wheel.