A NEW survey by pollsters Opinium reveals that 49 per cent of over-65s feel excluded by high streets.

Well, what a surprise.

Not really, excuse the sarcasm.

Yes, even those of us who are tarnished with older years can do sarcasm, especially when we’re sick of being treated as though we’re plain stupid.

The problem is that some of us feel invisible on the high street and are tempted to plan a revolution.

Not the violent kind, just one with placards held high, and slogans like “we are not invisible”

and “body perfection is gross at any age”. Oh, and for good measure “down with ageism and all who sail with her”, or something daft like that.

Actually, if the truth be told, my lingering discontent with younger shop assistants has been going on for some time, a bit like a rumbling appendix ready to burst. In a single day, five of them can tell me that their mothers have bought the same thing I’m trying on. A compliment or not? Maybe it is, because we all love our mums.

But there is another matter to consider. I haven’t seen their mums, and I cherish the hope that I still have my own individual style in mature years. So after a day of it, the “my mum has that”

begins to irritate. But hang on a minute. It’s not all bad.

Now and again there are golden (or silver if you prefer) moments that are cherished.

Take, for instance, the assistant at a department store in Leeds who directed me to what she called “ more funky” gear and enthusiastically helped me to choose an outfit that her mum probably wouldn’t have worn in a month of Sundays. Or the purple-haired lass who said she believed older women should never think old, and promptly brought out a fetching number that I only wish that I could have fitted into.

Oh, but it lurks and hurts, that thing about looking what you are.

Older. In the unrelenting, cruel world of the high street, you feel it.

The Opinium survey tells us that some older people feel that fashion items are being designed for a younger audience.

Too true. You can end up feeling like topping yourself after a day’s shopping in the unforgiving light of the changing room. If you are older, you’ll get my drift. You know you have still got a role to play, can still be dynamic and you have accrued tons and tons of experience and knowledge with the years. Which is why you feel like landing a punch when the nice young man in the supermarket asks: “Are you going to do your jobs this afternoon.

It’s a nice day, isn’t it?”

Or this one, when selecting curtains: “People of your age like this design. It’s quiet.”

And this for good measure: “Do you understand what I am saying?” from someone who looks as though they are 12 years old and explaining company policy from behind the counter when you have returned faulty goods.

But at the end of the day, you have to laugh. A sense of humour becomes increasingly important as you get older. What about the time when four of us, two men and two women, innocently ordered coffee at a cafe in Inverness after a long and arduous walk, only to hear a yell from the kitchen five minutes later: “Four pensioners’ coffees over there.”

She meant us, of course.

I sympathise with a friend who had a puncture. He took it to the garage and had it fixed, but five minutes down the road it went again.

It kept on doing it and the mechanic said accusingly “Mate, are you sure you’re driving properly?” Ten minutes later, after another punctured journey, the truth emerged The equipment that had been used was faulty and no apology was given. Had the friend been 20 years younger, would it have been?

Past 60 and going on 70, or somewhere in between, there is a change in the way our generation is perceived.

Those who treat older people as though we are in the shadows or lacking in intelligence should remember that older people still have a part to play in the world around them. Thousands across the country make a huge contribution to communities, often as voluntary helpers, visiting old, ill or vulnerable people, pulling out the stops for charities or going into schools, day centres and hospitals – all of them doing what they can to improve the quality of life for others.

Variety is the name of the game in 2013, so those pensioners who have got their health haven’t got a minute to spare. They may be bolstering the economy being ace grandparents so that their sons or daughters can earn a living, or they may even be working full-time themselves.

Some may be working a bit and love it, and some have a new lease of work-free life going to art galleries, writing, walking miles, climbing mountains, leaping around in the gym, reading, going to the theatre, cinema, attending classes, developing new interests and even, dare we say it, educating themselves even more by joining the many activities laid on by the many University of the Third Age groups dotted around the country.

Which is why it is so galling when shop assistants waiting impatiently for change lean over and attempt to help us pluck it out of our purses. And why it is so infuriating when they sigh if we complain goods are not up to scratch. Or speak to us as though we were at primary school, explaining concepts we understand and probably helped shape while they were in the cradle.

So, just give us a break and take stock of how you treat us. You’ll be in our shoes one day.