I used think when I was really small when people got to a certain age (around 80-90 years old) parts of people's bodies would just sort of get old and fall off and that is why you shouldn't point/stare at them and also why 'they don't want to talk about it'.

One day I realised there wasn't so many of these old people missing limbs, eyes etc around anymore and they were of course the last of the WW1 veterans.

They don't exist anymore and neither do old school yokels. When I was young there was a man in our village who had smelt of cigarettes and bacon and had a belt for a rope. My family took him to the hospital because he was bitten by a rat, he went in with black hair and came out with grey because he was so dirty 🤣