OUR 21st-century world is, in so many ways ...[Derived headline]

OUR 21st-century world is, in so many ways, mystifying for theelderly.

Online banking, eBay, Twitter, sat-nav, congestion charges, flat-pack furniture, they can at least avoid.

But making a routine telephone inquiry and having to press 1 forthis, 2 for that and 3 for the other must seem like adiscombobulation too far.

Of course, some old people embrace these modern so-called'conveniences'.

But far more of them, whether in the High Street newly strippedof its post office, or the home where the television has just goneinteractive, must sometimes feel plain alienated.

When I was recentlu waiting to be served in our local bakery, itstruck me that it's possible to be too young to understand theworld, as well as too old.

I don't mean too young as in three, or seven, or 11, I mean tooyoung as in 49.

In some everyday situations, it's easier to be 77 or 82 -- oreven 91.

What sparked this realisation was an exchange between a tiny,rosy cheeked old lady and the female shop assistant.

"I'll have a cob and a bloomer, dear," said the old lady, and itoccurred to me that I had not the slightest idea what distinguishesa cob from a bloomer.

All I know is that they are both types of loaf and that everycustomer over the age of about 65 seems to have an innateunderstanding of the differences between them.

It is my fervent hope that I will absorb this useful knowledge --perhaps by some sort of osmosis, on the eve of my 65th birthday.

In the meantime, I have noticed a similar phenomenon at thefishmonger and the butcher's.

There too, as a general rule, the senior citizenry seem able toname dozens of species of fish and cuts of meat in a way that we inlife's late summer cannot.

Benjamin Franklin wrote in 1789: "In this world nothing can besaid to be certain, except death and taxes."

That being the case, the elderly, having in their long livessuffered many more tax-rises and seen much more death than themerely middle-aged, have a significantly stronger grip on life'scertainties than the rest of us -- whether or not they know how tosurf the internet or send a text.

It's amazing what revelations come to you in a bakery queue,moments before you make the unworldly request for a large wholemeal,thick-sliced.

BRIAN VINER