Seniority

I'm not quite sure when I became old.  Obviously it's happened.  Perhaps during one night I turned from being just me to being an old man.  I climbed on board a bus the other day and the charge was $3, but only $1 for seniors.  The driver immediately said to me: "You're senior!"  I was with my son and we started putting money in the slot, and once again he reminded us: "You're senior; you're not!"  As if to cement the brand on both of us.
It is an odd thing that we old men can get away with lower prices, as being at the further end of the road, we usually have more money that those only halfway along.  But society has deemed it necessary to charge us less.  Perhaps as our appetites have diminished some, our weight is less so we don't use up as much fuel to run the vehicle.
I appreciate the fact that we are treated this way, but I can't help feeling that it would be nicer not to be so readily obvious to a bus driver or anyone else for that matter.  Ah me!