This is a thread for ILXORS IN THEIR 50's

did you see ned at the sockhop

NO

The sockhop ended some time before I entered high school in Sept. 1968. I was not inconsolable over this happenstance. I was a rotten dancer.

sept 1968 was like the gayest time to enter high school

everyone cool in those days were entering college

u cursed by the stars aimless

everyone cool in those days were entering college WAS GETTING DRAFTED TO 'NAM

yep -- that's where my pops was in '68 -- sent there two weeks after i got borned! booh hooh.

--a sometime ilxor in his 40s

everyone cool in those days were entering college WAS GETTING DRAFTED TO 'NAM WAS NOT ME, BY ANY STRETCH OF IMAGINATION! Skinny, geeky 13 year old, I'm just sayin'.

nED AT THE SOCKHOP OH MY GOD

aimless serious q did you at least smoke a lot of pot? and at least know a kid like trip fontaine?

if not you have destroyed any reason i have to respect actual early 70s HS kids

I am 10 years shy of 50 but this thread is making me feel old.

momus is almost 50

There's a Guided By Voices song about this.

nED AT THE SOCKHOP OH MY GOD

I really, really don't know how to react to this.

weve all reacted by blotting it out

Well I know that you're in love with him,
Because I saw you dancing in the gym
You both kicked off your Keds.
Oh, I dig that rhythm and Ned!

(I thought JBR's suggestion at first was an age progression of ILXors into their fifties and was thinking "oh it won't take much to imagine some of that.")

Ned, all you have to do is put on the socks. That's all. And we need a hardwood floor, and XTC's "Life Begins At The Hop". Now who will film this????

did you at least smoke a lot of pot?

I think the first time I smoked pot was roughly summer of 1970. Didn't do much for me. My friends included several 'heads', but I was just a dabbler. My older brother was into it pretty far by 1971. He still tokes up now.

I didn't really get launched as a pot smoker until college, where I spent most of 1974 stoned. Made my own bong from a glass lab beaker. I quit entirely around 1977 or so. I can't say I miss it.

and at least know a kid like trip fontaine?

Hard to say, because I don't have a clue who trip fontaine is. I did know a lot of druggies and hippies in the 70s. They were as common as daisies back then.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_3Pgo2kaznFU/RqsBjrRCKMI/AAAAAAAAARs/7wAJzhaYC3A/s1600/964.jpg

that link 404'ed me

(xxpost) Trip Fontaine is a character from the book/film "The Virgin Suicides"

Start at about 3:30 here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_smJP8oRnE

Btw, Frank Kogan, who posts to a couple of the rolling genre threads on ILM, is 54.

Also:
Most of the time I dwell in a state of unreality, where I have amazing superpowers. And I am 50 years old.

-- Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Monday, February 5, 2007 12:29 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Link

Our cohort is few, but mighty.

abbott being a sexy cold war scientist

OH MY GOD WHY WAS I NEVER THAT

I remember Howdy Doody.

and i thought i was old for remembering leaded gasoline!

madonna, michael jackson, prince and ME -- i am now 50 and 1/2.

sept 1968 was like the gayest time to enter high school

everyone cool in those days were entering college

there is truth lurking here -- people in our sub-generation have a complicated relationship w/our older sibs, the 60s baby boomers. this usage of "gay" is uhm, anachronisitic, or something. (I entered HS in 72 FWIW.)

anachronistic! edgy, you mean!!1!

so is bimble part of this exclusive club?

I didn't expect to get shoulder and back hair this late in the game.

ha was wondering what you meant in the 40s thread

what's up y'all

had a cardiologist call me at 7am to cancel my appointment (snow)

this morning the dentist said that my teeth with metal fillings will all eventually need crowns; seems legit, the youngest of those fillings is 40+ years old

i went to the dentist for lots of work this past year, first time since forever, and it was all space aged nano whatever shit and i think the dentist and his assistant were legit smirking at my one old iron ore filling from when i was a teenager, fifty years ago, in an eastern bloc nation

oh hi, I'm 54 now

peeing takes a long time

backache is a thing

(knocks on wood)

As hinted above, I have a cardiologist now! My primary doctor, who has pretty amazing raw skills -- like hearing -- apparently, thought he heard a murmur in my heartbeat last month. GREAT!

It turns out I have an "unconcerning" prolapse which is a "2" (not a 3 or a 4), so it just has to be checked every year from now on.

Aging is a motherfucker.

all the best morbs

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murmur_(album)#/media/File:R.E.M._-_Murmur.jpg

i am two years older than william hartnell in this picture :D

https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/1920x1080/p01hg14p.jpg

(obviously i have regenerated several times: also did not grow up in poverty etc)

He got paid five times more per ep than Anneke Wills was, to make up for the poverty stricken childhood!

what a feelin'

mainly feeling it in my lower back today

Rapidly approaching Sammy Hagar milestone.

Minutemen?

Can you hear me, Dr. Mu

my varifocals seemed to be ok after a couple of weeks and then got bad again. i think the problem is that most of my use isn't reading distance, or tv watching distance but laptop distance. and the bottom of laptop screen and the top are in different zones, both can't be in focus at the same time.

I’m 56 and got to here not needing readers at all, I can still read Zing easy at 12”. So I’m v spoiled I know. BUT, oh fuck is this changing now, my sight is changing fast and bad— both focus and lighting issues generally. I’ve always been nearsighted since 16, I had glasses until lasered at 42ish— I’m v comfortable, even tho unhappy, w specs, and they’ll be back soon.

Yeah the eyesight thing comes on pretty quick

Having worn glasses since I was four or so, for me it was the shift to two pairs that was the trick. (Tried varifocals briefly, frankly sucked, and my eye doctor said 'Yeah let's just go for two pairs,' and it's been gravy since.)

I’ve always been nearsighted since 16, I had glasses until lasered at 42ish

This was me exactly although they told me in the laser recovery room that I would need readers going forward "because of my age". 12 years later still only on +1s but I think I could go up one and not think they were worse.

Approaching 56, never had glasses but I've been struggling with eye fatigue in the last six months; picked up a pair of +1.25 readers from the pound shop. They make my phone look like an upgrade. I can read it from 25cm away (without: more like 40cm). Useless for anything else, but the fatigue has subsided anyway, possibly because it's actually daylight for the entire working day and I cannot get ambient artificial light levels right in my miserable little back bedroom office.
I only wear the readers for minutes at a time but they're like a superpower for microscopic label details.

Obv everything else is falling apart.

I've just bought a ticket for up and coming act PAUL MCCARTNEY

Sorry to inform you but PAUL IS DEAD. We know this because at the very end of the song "Strawberry Fields" you can hear a voice say very plainly "I buried Paul." Also, on the cover of the Abbey Road album, Paul is pictured barefoot, which is how corpses are prepared for burial in - I think it was Sicily or someplace like that. Shocked you never heard about this.

whatever happened to the 'buy this lamp for 400 pounds' things that were forever on the TV / falling out the guardian? 'serious' i think they were called. that said, in sure you can buy daylight bulbs for less than 400 pounds.

(i checked, £3.29 from screwfix)

(do we have a 'wonders of the modern world' thread because 6W light bulbs should be included there)

heck, white LEDs alone are an amazing achievement

Funny how most of the posts itt are about bodies. That’s the one thing we all have in common I guess

the £400 daylight bulbs probably put out a few more lumens than the £3 screwfix ones - you can still get £200 daylight lamps for artists, but yes the price is probably a triumph of marketing over technology.

heck, white LEDs alone are an amazing achievement
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2014/press-release/

yep!

lol. everything hurts.

― Humanitarian Pause (Tracer Hand), Saturday, June 8, 2024 4:23 AM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

otm

snoball even warned me about this shoulder shit! fml

I had a bad case of subacromial bursitis last year. Got lucky with a GP appointment - physio specialist was in that week. I showed him how I could get this hand all the way up my back (not bad for an old-timer is what I was aiming for), but this other hand? No way, Hipsway. Not even behind my back. He identified the issue immediately, pressed HARD into my bursa and got me to magically do what I couldn't previously, and then gave me exercises to do.

As with all other "do this for 20 mins every day for the rest of your life, don't skip a step" routines that I'm supposed to be doing, I did it half the time for a few weeks and it totally worked.

i had intense pain in my right knee a few weeks ago out of nowhere that persisted for a week, i was about to go to the doctor but then it gradually got better and is mostly fine now (my suspicion is that i need to drop 20 lbs to fully get rid of it). Typical in that i was waiting for some terrible news about a chronic condition but it was just a slow healing process due to age and not great personal habits. of course that bad habits are eventually gonna get me...

out of desperation, i've just tried my old glasses, the ones i used up until 2 months ago and lol, blind. sunglasses too. guess i'm stuck with these for the near future even though i think they are making me light-headed.

i had frozen left arm a few years ago that they couldn't find anything wrong with despite ultrasounds. got better on its own but took an entire year. there'd be times when i'd drop something and grab for it with the bad arm without thinking and would swear because of the pain. right one is just about 90% again after the same happening to that last january.

fucking hell, people!

I had something similar happen with both of my shoulders, but the right was significantly worse than the left. Couldn't raise my right arm over my head, couldn't scratch my own back. Got weekly acupuncture for a couple of months which helped a little, but it gradually went away on its own. I still don't think I have full range of motion, but it doesn't just hurt all the time, so I'll take it.

it’s just confusing. I have good shoulder mobility. I stretch. I exercise. ??? am currently in the doctor’s waiting room. will report back.

So they think it’s shoulder “impingement”. Which may get better in a few weeks. They are booking me for an ultrasound to be sure. Pretty happy with this result!

Xposts back although my eyes are well short&longsighted lensy at the same time, but my overall eyesight has been improving the past two tests. Possibly due to sacking the contact lenses.

I'm due another about now so who knows ...

(Tried varifocals briefly, frankly sucked, and my eye doctor said 'Yeah let's just go for two pairs,' and it's been gravy since.)

The problem with the two-pair solution is that "where the fuck are my reading glasses?" is a very real problem now.

I just lift up my glasses when I need to see close up.

right there with you

https://i.imgur.com/hyHWxyX.png

The way Sen. Carl Levin wore his glasses like this used to irrationally piss me off. Like it was an intellectual way to offer some Shade Tippin' .

But now, I get you, Carl. I get you.

Battle not with eyeglass wearers lest ye becom etc.

Sen. Levin was just channeling Ben Franklin

I just lift up my glasses when I need to see close up.

― Christine Green Leafy Dragon Indigo, Saturday, 22 June 2024 13:01 (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Ditto, but I found I have to use my readers when working ont’ laptop. But I get drowsy if I have them on too long and/or walk around with them on…

Battle not with eyeglass wearers lest ye becom etc.

But see, most people who wear glasses look their glasses, even in official portraits.

Feel like Levin would've wore earbuds all the time, even when he wasn't listening to music or podcasts.

I lookawful without my glasses on. All sorta washed out. Maybe it is just that I'm so used to it, having worn em since 16?

When my father turned 50 I laughed when a short while later Saga (UK travel and insurance company for the over 50s) sent him a brochure through the post that seemed to arrive like a laser guided bomb. Today they sent me an email.

Ask not for whom Saga trolls.

In re glasses, one vanity benefit I get from them in my 50s is that they somewhat obscure the ever-growing shadows under my eyes. Way better than any kind face cream would, I'm sure.

Snoball - ha! I've very nearly made it through the first year of my fifties without Saga tracking me down.

Yeah, I started to get marketing mail from Michael Parkinson

I got my first mail from Saga the day after my 50th birthday. The only one I get repeated mail from is a retirement village outside Malvern (which admittedly looks very nice).

We actually took advantage of a special over 50s hotel discount earlier this year. We were by far the youngest people there.

I might have claimed pensioner discount for F at the outdoor museum in Bucharest last year. She wasn't best pleased (but the lady on the desk took it all in good spirits and gave her it anyway).

My wife takes great joy in claiming discounts based on me.