How old are you?

[Rockfish1]

I'm 58. Which is old. Way too old, in my opinion. I'd happily be 22 for the rest of a long unnatural life. And I'm immature enough to pull that off.

I'm old enough to be divorced after a marriage longer than many will have. I have kids who are (legally) grown. I know from personal experience a lot of things that my younger acquaintances know only from what I would call "books". Meanwhile, I'm so old that I've lost track of really hip popular music in a way that caused me to scoff at old farts when I was a young man.

(Beloit College does this "Mindset" thing every year to remind its academics what incoming freshmen have never experienced and know (if at all) from "books". Here, randomly, is what freshmen hadn't experienced in 2010.)

As stodgy as I seem here, my 20-something kids teach me things all the time, and among my greatest fears is that I'm falling further and further behind in what the smartest cool kids know today. Happily, mine are now bound to get stodgier themselves at some point (I hope not), and maybe we'll reach an equilibrium somewhere down the road.

Anyway, how old are you, and what do you think about that (if anything)?

 

[Rockport Zebra]

62. What I think about societal transformation as the years go by is very hard to express. I think about it a lot. I experienced 3 television channels, the morning and evening paper, Life and Look magazines. Todays youths are inundated with endless information that is extremely difficult to process. What is their anchor to help them find the truth?

 

[VanPastorMan]

I'm 58. Which is old. Way too old, in my opinion. I'd happily be 22 for the rest of a long unnatural life. And I'm immature enough to pull that off.

I'm old enough to be divorced after a marriage longer than many will have. I have kids who are (legally) grown. I know from personal experience a lot of things that my younger acquaintances know only from what I would call "books". Meanwhile, I'm so old that I've lost track of really hip popular music in a way that caused me to scoff at old farts when I was a young man.

(Beloit College does this "Mindset" thing every year to remind its academics what incoming freshmen have never experienced and know (if at all) from "books". Here, randomly, is what freshmen hadn't experienced in 2010.)

As stodgy as I seem here, my 20-something kids teach me things all the time, and among my greatest fears is that I'm falling further and further behind in what the smartest cool kids know today. Happily, mine are now bound to get stodgier themselves at some point (I hope not), and maybe we'll reach an equilibrium somewhere down the road.

Anyway, how old are you, and what do you think about that (if anything)?

15 yrs from now you won't care one bit about it. Old people are dangerous because they don't care when they speak their mind. Old people are like Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino. They will tell you when you are screwing up and don't care about your feelings because the truth is what matters. And a lot of times they are right. My grandpa on my Dad's side if he didn't like what you were saying he would glare at you and say bull *&%$. He didn't have time for excuses and weak thinking.

 

[Marvin the Martian]

57 years physically. 14 mentally. I was heading toward cranky old man status but decided to reject it. Like a certain poster, I thought Twitter and everything else like it was stupid. Then it dawned on me, I grew up playing D&D. Nothing is really stupid if people like doing it.

My fervent goal is never to be the old man yelling at kids to get off my grass. Though a couple years ago I asked my daughter' to go and look at something near our ashen tree, when they did I yelled "hey you crazy kids, get off my lawn".

Things really weren't better in our day, just different.

 

[Rockfish1]

62. What I think about societal transformation as the years go by is very hard to express. I think about it a lot. I experienced 3 television channels, the morning and evening paper, Life and Look magazines. Todays youths are inundated with endless information that is extremely difficult to process. What is their anchor to help them find the truth?

When I interact with my kids and their friends, I sense that they have little tolerance for what they see as bullshit, and they seem pretty grounded to me. Before we start weeping for the future, we old farts should spend time looking in the mirror. So long as we don't screw it up too badly, the future could be bright for our kids.

 

[Rockfish1]

15 yrs from now you won't care one bit about it. Old people are dangerous because they don't care when they speak their mind. Old people are like Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino. They will tell you when you are screwing up and don't care about your feelings because the truth is what matters. And a lot of times they are right. My grandpa on my Dad's side if he didn't like what you were saying he would glare at you and say bull *&%$. He didn't have time for excuses and weak thinking.

I don't ever want to be like Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino.

 

[UncleMark]

63. If I knew then what I know now...

 

[Lucy01]

Do any of you old guys color your hair?

 

[Rockfish1]

My fervent goal is never to be the old man yelling at kids to get off my grass.

The biggest challenge for us old farts is not to think (or live) in ruts. When we stop being open to what is new, our minds start dying.

 

[Rockfish1]

63. If I knew then what I know now...

Youth is wasted on the young.

 

[Rockport Zebra]

When I interact with my kids and their friends, I sense that they have little tolerance for what they see as bullshit, and they seem pretty grounded to me. Before we start weeping for the future, we old farts should spend time looking in the mirror. So long as we don't screw it up too badly, the future could be bright for our kids.

I told my Kids, WKU, Indiana, Air Force Space Ops and Indiana State freshman not to worry about the future. Opportunity will increase as the Boomers die.

 

[cosmickid]

Do any of you old guys color your hair?

I'm 63,and I WISH I HAD hair to color...

 

[Rockport Zebra]

Do any of you old guys color your hair?

no

 

[Lucy01]

no

I still do, makes me feel younger

 

[Rockfish1]

I told my Kids, WKU, Indiana, Air Force Space Ops and Indiana State freshman not to worry about the future. Opportunity will increase as the Boomers die.

I'm technically a boomer, but I was never invited to any of the reindeer games. Speaking as a boomer-adjacent person, though, I'd focus on what we can do right now.

In a range of accountability, blaming ourselves is only a little bit less useless than blaming others. Either way leads to learned helplessness. The question for each of us is what we do now.

 

[CO. Hoosier]

I'm 58. Which is old. Way too old, in my opinion. I'd happily be 22 for the rest of a long unnatural life. And I'm immature enough to pull that off.

I'm old enough to be divorced after a marriage longer than many will have. I have kids who are (legally) grown. I know from personal experience a lot of things that my younger acquaintances know only from what I would call "books". Meanwhile, I'm so old that I've lost track of really hip popular music in a way that caused me to scoff at old farts when I was a young man.

(Beloit College does this "Mindset" thing every year to remind its academics what incoming freshmen have never experienced and know (if at all) from "books". Here, randomly, is what freshmen hadn't experienced in 2010.)

As stodgy as I seem here, my 20-something kids teach me things all the time, and among my greatest fears is that I'm falling further and further behind in what the smartest cool kids know today. Happily, mine are now bound to get stodgier themselves at some point (I hope not), and maybe we'll reach an equilibrium somewhere down the road.

Anyway, how old are you, and what do you think about that (if anything)?

About to finish my 75th trip around the sun. I used to think that was old. It might be. I eat less and pee more. I see more doctors than ever. I doze off during TV shows. My favorite XM channel is 60’s on 6. I often box half my meal when eating out. I can’t tie a fly on a line without magnifying lenses. Putting on my ski stuff seems like a half a day’s work. But on the plus side, still more mountains to ski, fish to catch, miles to bike, books to read, ballgames to watch, jokes to laugh at, friendships to enjoy, friends to make, and most importantly, family to enjoy. And of course my stoker. Still going like the energizer bunny—and a vital part of all of it. Oh yeah, my former office still pays me for some jack leg legal work.

What do I think about getting old? That’s for old people to figure out, I’m having a ball.

 

[Rockport Zebra]

I'm technically a boomer, but I was never invited to any of the reindeer games. Speaking as a boomer-adjacent person, though, I'd focus on what we can do right now.

In a range of accountability, blaming ourselves is only a little bit less useless than blaming others. Either way leads to learned helplessness. The question for each of us is what we do now.

Dying is the demographic solution .

 

[twenty02]

I still do, makes me feel younger

How old are you this week?

 

[twenty02]

About to finish my 75th trip around the sun. I used to think that was old. It might be. I eat less and pee more. I see more doctors than ever. I doze off during TV shows. My favorite XM channel is 60’s on 6. I often box half my meal when eating out. I can’t tie a fly on a line without magnifying lenses. Putting on my ski stuff seems like a half a day’s work. But on the plus side, still more mountains to ski, fish to catch, miles to bike, books to read, ballgames to watch, jokes to laugh at, friendships to enjoy, friends to make, and most importantly, family to enjoy. And of course my stoker. Still going like the energizer bunny—and a vital part of all of it. Oh yeah, my former office still pays me for some jack leg legal work.

What do I think about getting old? That’s for old people to figure out, I’m having a ball.

You are the same age as my father...and you remind me of him in many ways. He is a stubborn ass too that will debate you to the end of the earth on a topic, rather than give in .

He's also a great guy that passed on his favorite pastimes (golfing, skiing, beer making) to me. We still do all together as much as possible
..other than the skiing. His knees shut him down about 5 years ago.

 

[TommyCracker]

I'm 47. Never married or had kids, worked corporate for about twenty years, never spent much money, learned to invest, got killed in the dot com crash when I first started, managed the 08 crash pretty well (only lost around 5%) and have done well enough in the bull market that followed that when my ass got laid off a couple of years ago (I'm in retail and watching Amazon take over the world has been astounding to see, even though it cost me my career) I was able to just retire early and live off of my investments and savings (it's amazing how much you can accumulate when you don't have kids, no debt and live well within your means). Lol

My biggest worry is staying sharp. I can tell when I go out with my work friends that I'm behind the game and have lost my edge, my focus, something.

Plus dating is getting stranger. My story is weird (I'm not unemployed, I retired. Oh shit I am unemployed aren't I? No I've never been married or have any kids. No I'm not gay or a serial killer. I do play guitar. Wait where are you going??) Lol Add to the fact that I'm shallow as hell and treat dating like I'm in my 20's...meaning I'm looking for sex and unfortunately, my age group is really starting to go physically. Yes, I said I was shallow. We held on well to 45 but damn, that 45 to 50 group hit a rough patch.

My biggest fear is like you said, falling behind the world. Losing whatever social connections I have. Etc.

Time is strange too. It is speeding up like everyone says. Y2K wasn't that long ago and those kids are graduating this year. We go back that space of time again and we're in the early 80's when I was 11 which seems 100 years ago. We go forward that space of time and I'm in my late 60's and that seems 100 years from now (and freaks me out, no offense. I said I was shallow)...but early 2000 seems like yesterday. Enron, world com, dot com crash, 9/11, George Harrison dies, our basketball drama, NCAA Title game, Bartman, etc.

 

[Hoosier_Hack]

About to finish my 75th trip around the sun. I used to think that was old. It might be. I eat less and pee more. I see more doctors than ever. I doze off during TV shows. My favorite XM channel is 60’s on 6. I often box half my meal when eating out. I can’t tie a fly on a line without magnifying lenses. Putting on my ski stuff seems like a half a day’s work. But on the plus side, still more mountains to ski, fish to catch, miles to bike, books to read, ballgames to watch, jokes to laugh at, friendships to enjoy, friends to make, and most importantly, family to enjoy. And of course my stoker. Still going like the energizer bunny—and a vital part of all of it. Oh yeah, my former office still pays me for some jack leg legal work.

What do I think about getting old? That’s for old people to figure out, I’m having a ball.

I will say that I throughly enjoy your jack leg posts.....please continue

 

[Hoosier_Hack]

I'm 58. Which is old. Way too old, in my opinion. I'd happily be 22 for the rest of a long unnatural life. And I'm immature enough to pull that off.

I'm old enough to be divorced after a marriage longer than many will have. I have kids who are (legally) grown. I know from personal experience a lot of things that my younger acquaintances know only from what I would call "books". Meanwhile, I'm so old that I've lost track of really hip popular music in a way that caused me to scoff at old farts when I was a young man.

(Beloit College does this "Mindset" thing every year to remind its academics what incoming freshmen have never experienced and know (if at all) from "books". Here, randomly, is what freshmen hadn't experienced in 2010.)

As stodgy as I seem here, my 20-something kids teach me things all the time, and among my greatest fears is that I'm falling further and further behind in what the smartest cool kids know today. Happily, mine are now bound to get stodgier themselves at some point (I hope not), and maybe we'll reach an equilibrium somewhere down the road.

Anyway, how old are you, and what do you think about that (if anything)?

I’m 51 going on 70. Been married half my life to the same woman (25 years) and can say she is honestly the best decision I ever made in my life. I haven’t aged well so I am more like Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino than not at times. I had a significant surgery a few years ago repairing damage to my back which has been marvelous but the surgery and recovery took a lot out of me. It led to my epiphany about life and how I was living it. I left my career in Commercial Banking and having fun figuring out what to do next.

Regardless of the tumult in some of our discussions, I do enjoy the give and take. For what it is worth, I pictured most of you old farts as young 30 something’s so I hope that brings a smile to your faces....now, stay off my lawn....please

 

[Lucy01]

How old are you this week?

Give me a hint,What did I say last time?

 

[Hank Reardon]

56, with two kids in college. I'm frighteningly immature and just checked a required mid-life box by purchasing a two-seat convertible, though I avoided red so as not to be a total cliche.

I agree on the music and recently had this discussion with a youthful colleague (mid-30's) who still stays up to date on such things. I explained that at some point in one's 40's one loses interest in keeping up with such things. Too much work. He calls bullshit. But he's wrong. He'll see.

One thing I notice out younger adults today is that they tend to have less knowledge of arts/music/film that was "before their time" than we did at their age. I imagine the vast array on entertainment choices is to blame here. We grew up with three channels and some radio, which led to shared experiences and exposure. Not so today.

 

[CO. Hoosier]

You are the same age as my father...and you remind me of him in many ways. He is a stubborn ass too that will debate you to the end of the earth on a topic, rather than give in .

He's also a great guy that passed on his favorite pastimes (golfing, skiing, beer making) to me. We still do all together as much as possible
..other than the skiing. His knees shut him down about 5 years ago.

Have you considered that you might be the stubborn one?

Maybe your dad is like me and gets off on maieutics.

 

[toastedbread]

I'm 58. Which is old. Way too old, in my opinion. I'd happily be 22 for the rest of a long unnatural life. And I'm immature enough to pull that off.

I'm old enough to be divorced after a marriage longer than many will have. I have kids who are (legally) grown. I know from personal experience a lot of things that my younger acquaintances know only from what I would call "books". Meanwhile, I'm so old that I've lost track of really hip popular music in a way that caused me to scoff at old farts when I was a young man.

(Beloit College does this "Mindset" thing every year to remind its academics what incoming freshmen have never experienced and know (if at all) from "books". Here, randomly, is what freshmen hadn't experienced in 2010.)

As stodgy as I seem here, my 20-something kids teach me things all the time, and among my greatest fears is that I'm falling further and further behind in what the smartest cool kids know today. Happily, mine are now bound to get stodgier themselves at some point (I hope not), and maybe we'll reach an equilibrium somewhere down the road.

Anyway, how old are you, and what do you think about that (if anything)?

I appreciate your perspective.

A few thoughts from a 25-year-old with a little hubris. (ok, a lot of hubris)

I'm scared!

We are but a small blip on the timescale of human history. This very short negative dot shall pass as well.

1. Humanity has never been more prosperous.
2. Violent conflict is at an all-time low.
3. Lifespans are at an all-time high.

These are all positives. By nearly all measures, humanity has never been in a better place. However, these positives are not shared equally.

As for my perspective, the world is more competitive (A masters today is a Bachelors of yesterday?) than ever before and the speed of change is faster by the day. I'm scared and worried. Automation is affecting nearly every industry. (I believe even many legal tasks are being automated now?) I don't know where this leads. I'm broadly in favor of technological progress. It seems that a minimum income will eventually be required. Are people healthy when they are permanently unemployed?

I'm worried about my career prospects. Connections and money still matter. I have little in common with many of my classmates from moneyed backgrounds who do not worry about their finances. (Or they have connections for internship and job opportunities) Being removed from these stresses is an enormous advantage imo. (particularly the financial one)

Many of my acquaintances are brilliant and ethically sound. I like to believe we are in good hands. However, that's not all encompassing. My time in London has been eye opening, and mostly not in a positive way.

 

[CO. Hoosier]

The biggest challenge for us old farts is not to think (or live) in ruts. When we stop being open to what is new, our minds start dying.

Most of the healthy aging stuff I’ve seen suggests maintaining lots of human contact with friends, family, or even volunteering is the single most important thing we can do. Learning new skills is not far behind.

I'm technically a boomer, but I was never invited to any of the reindeer games. Speaking as a boomer-adjacent person, though, I'd focus on what we can do right now.

In a range of accountability, blaming ourselves is only a little bit less useless than blaming others. Either way leads to learned helplessness. The question for each of us is what we do now.

Some of my friends do a lot of volunteering. I’ve been there and done that by years of serving on boards of church and various 501’s. One of the most satisfying volunteering I did was coach high school mock trial. After coaching I judged some of the competition. What do I do now? I think my epitaph is in the can. I don’t want to screw it up. I just stay positive.

 

[JamieDimonsBalls]

left my career in Commercial Banking and having fun

Were you client facing? Always seemed like one of the best jobs relative to me when factoring in pay, work life balance, perks.

 

[Hoosier_Hack]

Were you client facing? Always seemed like one of the best jobs relative to me when factoring in pay, work life balance, perks.

Yes I was.... i grew tired of the late nights entertaining among other things. I do love underwriting (kinda strange but I do) and I enjoyed the chase.

 

[VanPastorMan]

I don't ever want to be like Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino.

He redeemed himself by the end of the film didn't he? The part I really liked was when he was eating dinner at the next door neighbors and he is up in the bathroom wiping up some blood he had coughed up. He looks in the mirror and says to himself, "I've more in common with these gooks (derogatory term) than I do my own $%^$ family. It was the start of his change in thinking. That's why he ended up dying for Tao or "Toad" as he called him.

 

[Bulk VanderHuge]

He redeemed himself by the end of the film didn't he? The part I really liked was when he was eating dinner at the next door neighbors and he is up in the bathroom wiping up some blood he had coughed up. He looks in the mirror and says to himself, "I've more in common with these gooks (derogatory term) than I do my own $%^$ family. It was the start of his change in thinking. That's why he ended up dying for Tao or "Toad" as he called him.

I think you have found your true calling...providing simple plot summaries of Clint Eastwood movies. Tell us what happened in "Every Which Way But Loose"?

 

[VanPastorMan]

I think you have found your true calling...providing simple plot summaries of Clint Eastwood movies. Tell us what happened in "Every Which Way But Loose"?

Everybody acted like a bunch of apes.

 

[Lucy01]

Everybody acted like a bunch of apes.

I am old enough to have changed Goats diapers

 

[TheOriginalHappyGoat]

I am old enough to have changed Goats diapers

I would never trust you around my diapers.

 

[kingmanite]

I'm 58. Which is old. Way too old, in my opinion. I'd happily be 22 for the rest of a long unnatural life. And I'm immature enough to pull that off.

I'm old enough to be divorced after a marriage longer than many will have. I have kids who are (legally) grown. I know from personal experience a lot of things that my younger acquaintances know only from what I would call "books". Meanwhile, I'm so old that I've lost track of really hip popular music in a way that caused me to scoff at old farts when I was a young man.

(Beloit College does this "Mindset" thing every year to remind its academics what incoming freshmen have never experienced and know (if at all) from "books". Here, randomly, is what freshmen hadn't experienced in 2010.)

As stodgy as I seem here, my 20-something kids teach me things all the time, and among my greatest fears is that I'm falling further and further behind in what the smartest cool kids know today. Happily, mine are now bound to get stodgier themselves at some point (I hope not), and maybe we'll reach an equilibrium somewhere down the road.

Anyway, how old are you, and what do you think about that (if anything)?

I'm 58. Which is old. Way too old, in my opinion. I'd happily be 22 for the rest of a long unnatural life. And I'm immature enough to pull that off.

I'm old enough to be divorced after a marriage longer than many will have. I have kids who are (legally) grown. I know from personal experience a lot of things that my younger acquaintances know only from what I would call "books". Meanwhile, I'm so old that I've lost track of really hip popular music in a way that caused me to scoff at old farts when I was a young man.

(Beloit College does this "Mindset" thing every year to remind its academics what incoming freshmen have never experienced and know (if at all) from "books". Here, randomly, is what freshmen hadn't experienced in 2010.)

As stodgy as I seem here, my 20-something kids teach me things all the time, and among my greatest fears is that I'm falling further and further behind in what the smartest cool kids know today. Happily, mine are now bound to get stodgier themselves at some point (I hope not), and maybe we'll reach an equilibrium somewhere down the road.

Anyway, how old are you, and what do you think about that (if anything)?

I'm 58. Which is old. Way too old, in my opinion. I'd happily be 22 for the rest of a long unnatural life. And I'm immature enough to pull that off.

I'm old enough to be divorced after a marriage longer than many will have. I have kids who are (legally) grown. I know from personal experience a lot of things that my younger acquaintances know only from what I would call "books". Meanwhile, I'm so old that I've lost track of really hip popular music in a way that caused me to scoff at old farts when I was a young man.

(Beloit College does this "Mindset" thing every year to remind its academics what incoming freshmen have never experienced and know (if at all) from "books". Here, randomly, is what freshmen hadn't experienced in 2010.)

As stodgy as I seem here, my 20-something kids teach me things all the time, and among my greatest fears is that I'm falling further and further behind in what the smartest cool kids know today. Happily, mine are now bound to get stodgier themselves at some point (I hope not), and maybe we'll reach an equilibrium somewhere down the road.

Anyway, how old are you, and what do you think about that (if anything)?

 

[kingmanite]

I am 81 as a month ago. I have 3 children, 7 grand children and 1 great grandchild. My wife of 53 years is deceased and I live alone and find that I do not understand much of the politics of today. It is all about party and not country. The fiftys were the best years in this country.

 

[IUCrazy2]

39.

My biggest thought on aging is that it goes so quick. And time has seemed to accelerate the older I get. My parents always used to say that when I was young and I kind of laughed it off. I graduated from IU in 2001, feels like that was only a few years ago...not almost 2 decades.

My oldest son will be 10 this year. He is already halfway to 18, I think of experiences I want to share with him and his brothers and the clock is ticking.

Edit to add: And I know all of my elders on here are laughing thinking I do not even know the half of it.

 

[IUBBALLAWOL]

Well i have been told right here that i am an old angry white guy so with that i guess old is 52. Not sure when the angry thing started. But the white thing started at birth.

 

[MrBing]

I'm 58. Which is old. Way too old, in my opinion. I'd happily be 22 for the rest of a long unnatural life. And I'm immature enough to pull that off.

I'm old enough to be divorced after a marriage longer than many will have. I have kids who are (legally) grown. I know from personal experience a lot of things that my younger acquaintances know only from what I would call "books". Meanwhile, I'm so old that I've lost track of really hip popular music in a way that caused me to scoff at old farts when I was a young man.

(Beloit College does this "Mindset" thing every year to remind its academics what incoming freshmen have never experienced and know (if at all) from "books". Here, randomly, is what freshmen hadn't experienced in 2010.)

As stodgy as I seem here, my 20-something kids teach me things all the time, and among my greatest fears is that I'm falling further and further behind in what the smartest cool kids know today. Happily, mine are now bound to get stodgier themselves at some point (I hope not), and maybe we'll reach an equilibrium somewhere down the road.

Anyway, how old are you, and what do you think about that (if anything)?

35 with one marriage and two young kids. I remember thinking that 30+ was old but I don't feel old at all. All you old guys make me feel very young.

 

[MonroeCity]

I'm 44, married for 19 years. Legalized drug dealer and enjoy talking sports , politics and life