Let me begin this column referring to all of us older in years by a word not used often in polite society. Before the word is introduced it needs to be noted that someone is sure to conclude that the Old Coach is about to use a bad or crude word.

The word might be unfamiliar to some reading this column. It might sound bad or at least indicate a derogatory meaning. Let us all understand that sometimes a word may sound bad when it really has no evil implication.

To all of you having grown into middle age and on into the golden years let me suggest that you are an anachronism.

So the question is “what is an anachronism?”

After hearing the definition most will certainly agree that those growing into older age might consider themselves an anachronism. But, if they don’t feel that way about themselves they will certainly be looked upon by a younger generation as one.

Anachronism is defined as “a relic that belongs to another time; a person who seems to be displaced in time.” Also, an anachronism could be something located at a time when it could not have existed or occurred.

If you were to see a segment on TV news advertising a 2010 Ford automobile and George Washington was driving it down a street, you would have a great example of an anachronism.

With all the above said, let me suggest that there are many living today who are considered an anachronism by their children or grandchildren.

That last statement does not indicate the younger generation view their parents or grandparents as such from an evil heart. They have simply grown up, probably more quickly than generations before them. They realize that we older critters, as Gabby Hayes, the bearded Roy Rogers sidekick of the Saturday cowboy movies of my youth, would say just aren’t in step with things of the modern day.

In simple terms, we are anachronisms in an age that moves at a pace more quickly than we can keep step with. Simply, the learning curve is too steep.

Ask any parent about their child’s response to questions you ask and see the impatience with which the child reacts. They wonder where you have been “all these years.” But, really, it hasn’t been that many years.

It is probably true that most generations feel that those before them lived into an age that they really didn’t belong. It doesn’t mean the young felt the older should be gone. They simply recognized time and progress had passed the older ones by.

Often, in this column I have expressed a desire to have my Granddaddy Foster back for just a little while. I always wonder how I would explain the computer to him.

I would like to see his expression as he viewed a weather map on TV. At the same time, I would like to hear his not-too-proper expressions when they missed the forecast or change it five or six times as they did in the earlier part of this week. I would listen and I would understand why he put such great confidence in the Old Farmer’s Almanac that printed the weather forecast months ahead.

We all must realize that our parents and grandparents would be lost getting in a car and trying to operate it. Their starter in the floor and their window handles would be gone. To this day I can’t “negotiate the curriculum” with my radio and CD player. What about our parents? And certainly they would not grasp just how to adjust the heater and air conditioner. If they were alive today they could indeed be an anachronism.

Jokingly, I often refer to myself as an anachronism when certain things demand skill and attention. We can be an anachronism in our philosophy of life. This is the area that many older people deviate from modern ideas. We are anachronisms. We belong in another age and our children and grandchildren don’t understand.

The task might be difficult but how wonderful if differing generations could “get on the same page.”