This is a thread for ILXORS IN THEIR 50's

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

Imagine my surprise

Just realized that the “ordinary guy” in Pavement’s “Stereo” is maybe a reference to “Dr. Wu.” I still got it!

Oh wait

I just went through all the tests you are supposed to do when you get to 50, only 7 years late.

Anyway, all passed 100%, so hey!

I guess that lower back pain is gonna go in the "what do you expect at yr age?" cart.

Thanks for reminding me. I just did the same with one test, the biggest of all, remaining to be done in the next few months. If the news is bad I will speed post my remaining backlog of screennames.

I was Big C diagnosed about five months after turning 50, so maybe i didn't get the other tests.

(i'm mostly OK now, just medicated)

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

― calzino

for two months and then he got sacked. quintessential "being in your '50s" experience tbh

Definitely another bummer about being in your 50s. If you lose your job, you can't necessarily bounce back. You might never have a salaried position again.

Definitely another bummer about being in your 50s. If you lose your job, you can't necessarily bounce back. You might never have a salaried position again.

HI DERE. Raise your hand if you have been rendered depressed, rudderless, and without direction because you've structured your life around a eight-hour, salaryman working schedule for so long that when you were inevitably disrupted out of your career you've become addicted to the anxiety and panic of not being able to focus. oops TMI

raises hand

in my case it took several years to work through the trauma of being ejected and to figure out other ways to live ... I won't trivialize the difficulties involved, but now the only thing I miss from my salaryman days is the income

I check the boxes for the top two causes of floaters per Mayo:

Age over 50 years
Nearsightedness

I've had floaters for years, well before my 50s.. but I also have constant tinnitus in my left ear, so the floaters seem mild by comparison, they're just floating around in there

i just went to the ophthalmologist last week and he was worried about floaters - he said it could be an early sign of retinal detachment, that cuz of the shape of my eye i was at increased risk. well i don't have floaters that often and he did the dilation (of the eye) thing and i'm ok for now.

i also have constant tinnitus in my left ear, which sucks

i went to pick out frames and the optician was like, "oh those fit nice on your bridge" and then i remembered that i got a consult for rhinoplasty in five days... maybe the bridge will still be fine after that, i don't know. it's mainly that i've never been able to breathe through my nose. i've had a turbinate reduction and really i just need a rhinoplasty, for the breathing issue _and_ the gender dysphoria.

anyway costco is still a fucking great place for vision. i got two pairs for just over 300, and i have a _very difficult_ prescription so i can't just go on like Zenny or whatever.

I also have constant tinnitus in my left ear. Why is it always the left ear?

I have a brother and friends with bad tinnitus, knock on whatever I haven't had to deal with it despite a lifetime of playing drums and going to loud concerts. (The first time I remember my ears ringing was after the first Ramones show I saw, where I stood right in front of the speakers.) I've had some minimal hearing loss so far, but that's it. Am I safe? If you don't get tinnitus by the time you're 57 does it mean you won't? Probably not but let's just go with that.

(I just googled and I am definitely not safe)

I also have tinnitus - in both ears, but it's usually slightly louder in the left one. I assume I must be more likely to stand on the left hand side if I go to a gig

I've heard of people going totally bonkers from tinnitus, but I just tune it out... I'm wayyy better at ear-plugging than I was in my 20s-30s

There's was a line in Children of Men that stuck with me... after the cafe bombing, Julianne Moore says something like 'Hear that ringing in your ear? Enjoy it while it lasts, because you'll never hear that pitch again.' Or something like that

I have it worse in my right ear than my left, and worse some days than others but it never fully goes away.

I mostly blame Hüsker Dü, but I also had a fungal infection in my left ear (Aspergillosis? something like that) as well as a puncture from a yew tree

When my ears ring it is in E

Catching up but yeesh and good luck to koogz there. (On my end, mild tinnitus since the mid-90s, hasn't worsened since, and the bits in my eyes just always seem to be there, I first noticed things when I was a kid.)

posted this before, I have what I consider "normal" tinnitus, the high pitched stuff, but an abusively loud Gary Numan show in the 2010s caused my left ear to occasionally do this fluttering thing which was very disturbing. since that stopped, I hardly even consider myself to have it anymore as my hearing is absurdly sensitive still for my age (I swear, there have been tests).

it's like background noise. last note, I can count on one hand (ok maybe two) the shows that caused it.

I mishear what people say to me at least 10% of the time, but give me an unusual tiny background noise and I notice it right away

I saw Panic Shack in a small club earlier this year and have felt a hint of tinnitus since, as did the two people I convinced to go to the show :-(

sleeve, I think I know that fluttering thing you speak of

a serious issue with my ex was that should would speak softly in a frequency I must've lost long ago, so I would just kinda nod when she was speaking.. and then later it would be like "I TOLD you about this thing on Sunday!" and yeah maybe she did but I didn't fucking hear her. At one point she told me to 'get a fucking hearing aid then!'

And that's why she's my ex

man, I had no idea this thread would be "here are my ailments." No shade! I'm just surprised.

I have an old buddy I see only a couple-three times a year, and we inevitably start with ailments just to get it out of the way

My left ear is the bad one too. Ear Dr speculated it’s because I shot guns as a kid without ear protection. When aiming the right war tends to be tucked in more.

Or it could have been where I was standing at a Swans concert.

lol Alfred just wait til we get to the 60s and 70s threads.

But in the interest of life-begins-at-50 positivity, I will report that this week I've been to see two movies in movie theaters, a rock band (The Beths), and a soccer game, encountering assorted friends at each, and tonight had to miss band practice with the new band I'm in to go have a lovely double date with friends at a very nice little restaurant. And my wife and I have plans for trips to New York and New Orleans in the next two months. So ... it's not only the slow degradation of the physical capacities.

Also my oldest kid is working on two different self-produced albums and this week successfully sold a beat to a rapper for $25.

At the risk of annoying people with repetition of My Own Personal Journey(tm), the experience of not dying a hideous and humiliating death at 53 means that I am grateful for every little ailment.

Bring on the stupid aches and pains, they are indicators that I am still on the more interesting side of the ground.

hope it's nothing serious, koogs! last saturday night I saw flashes of lightning over and over in my peripheral vision - thought it was car headlights since I was outside at night. realized it was just happening every time I looked to the right. sunday morning my left eye had a giant new floater in it.

called an ophthalmologist Monday morning for a Tuesday appointment. the doctor CALLED ME at work around 2pm Monday and was like "go to the ER right now". he feared a retinal tear or detachment, and I was like "would they be able to fix it or would they just refer me to you?" and he was like "uh, well... maybe just come in tomorrow. but until then don't laugh, don't sneeze, don't cough, and don't pick anything up." I was like "don't pick up heavy stuff?" and he replied "don't pick up anything if you can avoid it". so I went home and listened to music in the dark all evening. was kinda fun really.

it was PVD, not a retinal tear or detachment just a mostly harmless thing that happens as you age. floater may or may not go away but he said they can sometimes laser them if they're truly annoying. our undergrad receptionist asked how it happened and I said our eyes are like peaches, they shrink and rot in time.

At the risk of annoying people with repetition of My Own Personal Journey(tm), the experience of not dying a hideous and humiliating death at 53 means that I am grateful for every little ailment.

Bring on the stupid aches and pains, they are indicators that I am still on the more interesting side of the ground.

― Paprikachu (Ye Mad Puffin), Thursday, October 1, 2026 6:58 PM (thirty-three minutes ago)

real

nah this is the thing that fucks with me most... i may have mentioned it here before, but having spent my whole life expecting to be dead within the next five years, then getting to the age where people start dying of natural causes, taking an honest look at my health, and realizing, hey, wait, none of these things are likely to kill me, they're just going to become progressively more obnoxious if i don't take care of them. in fact, given my family history and overall health, i probably got about another 30 years left. i know some people get to middle age and go "oh shit, i'm going to die"... i reached 50 and went "oh shit, i'm probably not dying anytime soon, and now that i know i'm not gonna kill myself, i gotta recalibrate my whole life".

i talk about my aches and pains here because it takes up a _large_ amount of my life, and when i talk with other people my age i know they're not going to roll their eyes and say "ok grandma" like i did to older people when i was a snot-nosed kid.

my dad spent the last 30 or so years of his life basically waiting to die, and i guess i understand it, but i also think it's stupid and i refuse to do it. that's something else... i think about death a lot differently now. i went to see ALOK with a friend last weekend, and they were talking about wanting to die surrounded by all their ex-lovers... when i was young i was really afraid of dying alone, and now i'm not so much feeling it. i mean dying is like, a couple minutes. if it's more than a couple minutes i figure _somebody_ will show up, even though i know it's impossible to get any of us to show up for anything these days. when my great-aunt was dying in 2017 and i was all the way across the country, i asked my mom if i should come to see her, and my mom said no, my great-aunt didn't want to be remembered dying, she wanted to be remembered how she was when she was alive. and i thought that made a lot of sense. i was lucky enough to have her in my life for more than 40 years, and i'm really grateful for that. if she didn't need me to see her dying in a hospital bed, i didn't need to see her dying in a hospital bed.

dying alone would suck, probably, and also i know that i'll be remembered, and remembered fondly, by a lot of people. i know that i've made the world a better place just by being me. and i know that i'm alive now. dying alone isn't really the issue for me. it's living alone, which kind of sucks, and well, you know, i'm doing what i can with what i have.

in fact, given my family history and overall health, i probably got about another 30 years left. i know some people get to middle age and go "oh shit, i'm going to die"... i reached 50 and went "oh shit, i'm probably not dying anytime soon, and now that i know i'm not gonna kill myself, i gotta recalibrate my whole life".

My dad died at... somewhere between 57 and 59, I forget exactly. But my mom is 75 and is as I type these words flying home from a two-week trip to Egypt where she was just marching around in 105-110 degree sun, touring the Pyramids, blah blah blah. She's doing fine. I'm gonna be 55 in December and I feel healthy enough that I'm probably likely to make it closer to her age than my dad's by the time I finally die, but the last decade or so might suck, given the diabetes. My biggest worries are a) getting old with no money and b) dying and leaving my wife with no money.

Dang this thread got grim

Dying alone is one of my big fears too. It’s less the death part and more the thought of dying slowly and being unable to get help…. The lying in one’s own excrement for 24 hours or more in excruciating pain… and then there’s the thought of being a bloated corpse that is only found days or weeks later because of the stench .

honestly curious whether my cat will chew on my corpse

i'm guessing yes

It's the threat of not knowing what is going to happen next in the world around me that scares me about death. I want to continue watching the world go by forever.

We owe it our cats to make ourselves delicious

otm