Some people are just seriously embarrassed by the idea of aging. Like
"social" diseases, it shouldn't be mentioned in polite company. When I
became old enough to get a free city bus pass I was delighted. I
showed off with it when friends or colleagues had to pay bus fares. I
was startled to discover how embarrassed most of them were. Some took
the attitude that if I was really that old I shouldn't be talking
about it. Some expressed sorrowful sympathy that I had become so
old. Some rushed with over-effusive enthusiasm to reassure me that I
certainly didn't look anything like *that* old.

The really sad ones were those who were older than me, and hadn't
bothered to claim their free bus pass because it would be an admission
of age which they felt uncomfortable about making. They preferred to
pay at least a few pounds sterling a week in bus fares rather than
reveal to other bus pasengers, some of whom might be colleagues, that
they were that old.