This is the inevitable thread for ILxors in their forties

Just don’t retire from ilx, Ned

I was here the first day, think I'll be here when they finally turn out the lights.

;)

I don't know, man. I hoping ilxor can keep up and running until the inevitable message board revival of 2029. We'll all be like gods.

ilx will run longer than snl or the simpsons and will promote just as many arguments about when it turned to shite.

That's the site description right there!

“public servant fistbump” is a good username

Rather.

It's surreal to realize that I met some of you when I was in my late teens (in college) on the Fake Matador Bulletin Board, and I've been on here since...what, my early 20s? I'll probably die in the middle of an ILX post, and that thought doesn't really sadden me.

I was on FMBB but I dont remember anyone from here?!

In seven months, I'll be a member of this thread.

Morbz was on FMBB, so was Johnny Fever (right?)

I was as well (as Domino)

xp

https://i.imgur.com/20BpjIg.jpg

Is it common once you've reached your forties to basically no longer GAF about having reached your forties, because it's been a year and I'm basically just all like 'whatever, dude' about the whole thing. Maybe if I was like a skateboarder or something and started feeling my knees give out it would be a big deal, but I can still sit around and do nothing of consequence with just as much alacrity as I could in decades past.

I just started the last year of my 40s as of yesterday. ;_;

Is it common once you've reached your forties to basically no longer GAF about having reached your forties

it depends on your social life/lifestyle ... I'm about half way through my 40s and I generally don't GAF, but sometimes I'm out somewhere, and I'm talking to a friend or a member of the desired sex, and the fact that I am much older than that person, like, I got my driver's license the year they were born, or I could have gone to high school with their parents ... it can be a bit awkward

I turned 40 this year but I've been going grey since I was 15 so not much has changed from getting older.

I really want to grow out my hair so it's all white but I think I would have to shave my head first.

ageism is rampant and more or less sanctioned afaict
i refuse to impose it on myself so i try to feel as good as i can about my age, which is >40

I'm 44 and I get one or two gray hairs a month ... I pluck them ... it's probably partly why ppl tend to think I'm younger than I am

i am a spazz and sometimes like to just sprint like i'm running a receiver route or something, but when my says "GO!!" by body says, let's just not

wow 44 is late to start going gray

I think I am pretty much 80-85% grey but I have really dark hair and it's long so it would all have to go at once.

also just that socially, I think people tend to assume/want it to be the case that the people they socialize with are like them -- with similarities in age being part of that. For me, it's not a case of being "old" = "bad" but that there is a difference as opposed to a similarity. I see the same thing play out with economic class and it used to be this way re race, though people are now way more conscientious of race issues.

Maybe if I was like a skateboarder or something and started feeling my knees give out it would be a big deal, but I can still sit around and do nothing of consequence with just as much alacrity as I could in decades past.

I play a lot of basketball and am better than I was when I was 20, though prob not quite as quick. Can actually jump lil higher tho. Older guys I've played with say 50 is when they really started feeling like their body was betraying them.

6 months to go.

xpost one of the things i like about big cities is age matters less socially. I find it difficult to figure out how old someone is and for the most part people don't really care.

yeah, I like the fact that my urban social community has a wide difference in ages -- it is like a multi-generational family in that way -- but in specific instances it can be awkward, like when you are 44 and a dude hits on you and says he is 24 ... do you have mommy issues or ....?

i laughed when i found out i was the same age as my new colleague's parents.

I know what you mean but in the small towns I've been living in last few years (hefty population of transplants, so wanting to connect with new people), a lot of the clubs and meetups and art/music/etc events attract all ages. Simply because there is a limited number of people and events. Can't have a over 50 art club for Methodist Veterans or whatever but can have a general Art Club and oh hey I've never actually done art but am I retiree in a new town and it'd be fun to give art a try and I bet they're not too serious about it here and are eager for new members and hmm isn't that the 20 yr old tatted-up artsy barrista from the corner shop over there at an easel?

When I first started consciously feeling / realizing I was older than the people around me, I had the tendency to bring up age in conversation. But no one really cares. It’s really not a big deal unless you make it a big deal. Now when I overhear older people talking about how old they are to younger people - especially in an attempt to be funny- I just smh

otm

the tendency to bring up age in conversation

rn, in my mid-60s, I bring up my age only in the context of telling younger people that I am less energetic than I was ten years ago and cannot do the same amount of tasks in a day. I'm entering the period in life when my limits are more easily reached and my main goal is to keep that trajectory to a gentle glide rather than a steep descent. So far, so good.

nothing makes me feel older than being confronted with the appalling ignorance of the young (usually about history, or pre-smartphone existence or how the government works or who Orson Welles or Kraftwerk are)

i bring it up mostly in the context of trying to be supportive or assuage anxiety in younger friends ... like, it's okay that you're in this position now, you shouldn't feel like a failure at life, you've still got a lot of it left

in other words, "don't feel like a fuck up. I was a much bigger fuck up when I was yr age, and now I'm awesome" or so they think

i don't mind being my age, but i do get a little freaked out by stuff like 'oh, cool song, i remember when that came out 35 years ago. and 35 years before *that* they were playing polka on the radio'

My forties have been absolutely shit so far and this year doesn't look like it's going to be any better.

― Colonel Poo, Saturday, 30 December 2017 17:34 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

well that certainly turned out to be the case

^^ same

recently i was chatting with a person i knew was my junior (but not by how much) about van halen and i was like "yeah i never really got into them" and he posited "i think you needed to grow up in the 80s to be able to enjoy them" and i felt compelled to -- and did lightheartedly -- tell this person that i did grow up in the 80s, i just thought van halen were dumb and gross. it was funny. he may have been surprised that i am older than he thought but it was not a huge thing. just a little lol at van halen's expense.

i always choose not to feel bad about being older than other people. as for young people not knowing stuff, i like being useful and i am a teacher so it's not an affront when students don't know who jimi hendrix is. i can teach them. that is my job. :)

oops that same was to sarahell
i was indeed a much bigger fuckup than most of the young people i encounter these days

also they don't even teach kids how sex works in school, it's no surprise they don't understand state legislatures

also stuff like the cost of housing where I live and the cost of higher education/student loan debt -- younger ppl have it harder than I did.

I just feel awkward about it, like uh oh am I doing the cranky old white male mansplaining thing by telling you about how important Kraftwerk were in the development of that shitty electronic dance music you like so much

also I am not a teacher tbf

xp

just be cool man
they can google kraftwerk, they don't need you

my only moment of that feeling was when i was at a show organized by some very young people and i said something about Can and they were like who's that and i wigged and excitedly told them about Can...and then maybe a day or two later I realized they may have been just fucking with me and they wanted to see the old lady wig out and i felt stupid. but whatever. so i feel stupid? i can't let that bother me. i didn't hurt anyone. i just wigged about Can. that's human.

what's Can

Can is a band
Google "can band"

see how cool i was that time

Suzi Quatro's side project.

they are a band who had a song called Can Can. google "can can can" if you want to know more

I think it's cooler when ppl excitedly explain to me the things I don't know about than when they ask me to look it up

fwiw

keep telling ppl about bands LL it's good