We feared as much, but the confirmation that we're not getting any younger arrived yesterday with the realisation that it's 18 years since Christy Moore's pal Joxer "packed his German phrase-book and jump-leads for the van", and set off for Stuttgart.
Euro '88, Ray Houghton putting the ball in the England net, Jack Charlton beaming, an ocean of Irish fans jigging and reeling - all that. Memories that are 18 years old. Hard to credit.
Well, Joxer's back in Stuttgart, quite possibly accompanied by his grandchildren this time around, along with another 8,000 Irish supporters - but you know yourself, you could probably add a nought to the estimate.
Joxer came armed with rosary beads in 1988 and this time the consensus would appear to be that divine intervention will again be required if the Republic of Ireland are to leave the Gottlieb-Daimler Stadium tonight, after the opening game of their 2008 European Championship qualifying campaign, with anything more than nothing.
Germany, after all, are fresh from finishing third in the World Cup, Ireland not so fresh after a 4-0 hammering at home by Holland, one that will hardly help boost that world ranking of 38. God help us all, we're only two places above Scotland - and they're closing in.
But, so far, the Germans have been the perfect hosts, even laying on cloudless blue skies, stifling their sighs at the sight of the green invasion, when they'd only completed the clear-up after the summer's World Cup finals.
England, Ecuador, Poland, Holland, Ivory Coast, Croatia, Australia, France, Switzerland, Spain and Tunisia passed through this city in June and July, so the natives have seen it all. What very few of their visitors brought with them, though, were inflatable green and gold shillelaghs.
"We all want our country to do well . . . at least I think we do," said Irish manager Steve Staunton, in somewhat spiky form, at his press conference yesterday, his eyes scouring the room for those hacks who'd suggested he wasn't up to the job after that Dutch trouncing.
If tonight goes as badly as Grandad Joxer's worst fears, Staunton's credentials will be questioned, in some quarters, even more fiercely, and the people of Stuttgart will be cleaning up 8,000 deflated shillelaghs for a month. But, if all goes well, they could still be singing about Robbie Keane putting the ball in the German net 18 years from now.