I can definitely sympathize with older people and their stories.
Though I am not close to being an old person, I'm starting to see where their long-windedness and stories come from.
When you're a young person and you or your friends have a new experience, it's likely no one else can relate, so you/your friend tells this exciting story of some event and everyone else pays attention, rapt, and their reply is like,
"Oh wow, that's cool."
And then they ask you more about your experience because they have none of their own to share.
However, as you get older, if someone tells of an experience, invariably someone else can now relate because they or someone close to them has had a similar experience. Now the story-telling starts to build.
"Oh wow, that's cool. Reminds me of this story/my adventure in..."
And life's experiences just pile this on until you're some old geezer, sitting in a cafe somewhere, going
"That reminds me of the time, back in the day, that..." and the recollections can last hours.