This is the inevitable thread for ILxors in their forties

Now that I'm here (age-wise, at least) I realize that probably everybody's improvising to some extent. Faking it to some extent. "Performing" adulthood to some extent.

I have vivid memories of my parents in their forties. They seemed like they knew what they were doing, they seemed like they had shit figured out. They didn't. They probably got just as lost and confused and scared as I get sometimes, but they didn't show it.

This x10000

I'm 44

Not sure when "wise" is supposed to happen. 50? 80? Never?

I saw Guided By Voices last night (they were great), but they made me remember that back when the band was hitting its out of the underground peak, around 1994, the two big takeaways were that the singer was 1) a former school teacher and 2) old. Robert Pollard just turned 60, which means back in 1994 that "old" guy was considerably younger than I am now (almost 43).

there are still some MLB players who are older than me, which gives me comfort. but since the players are Bartolo Colon, Ichiro, and R.A. Dickey it's cold comfort.

once i wanted to be the greatest (greatest greatest greatest!)

• I used to keep tabs on my age and the age JFK was elected. Now I'm counting down the days until I pass whatever age he was on 11/22/63.

• The junior U.S. Senator from my state is four years younger than me. Fuckin' junior.

• Listened to the Doors recently, and for the first time, I was just all "Ha, just listen to this kid. He thinks he's got it all worked out, doesn't he?"

• On the same side of the coin, I listened to the Doors recently and whaddya know, they fuckin' rock.

• I lifted a rock the other day and placed it about four feet away from where it had been. I couldn't stand up without pain for about three days.

My great-uncle died this year at 85, so I keep thinking, hey, I might not even be halfway there yet. In some ways, that's exciting. In other ways, well, I certainly envy JFK and Jim Morrison every once in awhile, especially after I've been picking up rocks.

I was just thinking about my first concert which is still fresh in my memory, and how going forward the same amount of time I'll be 70 years old. Still younger than Harrison Ford is today!

My dad died at 72 but my mom is still cruising along at 89 so I’m hoping I’ve got a few decades to reread some shit.

i have a mentor who's like twice as old as me, so knowing him is kind of like seeing a preview of my possible future, but even still it kind of boggles my mind that i could live another forty years - like, what the hell are you supposed to do for forty years??

Still younger than Harrison Ford is today!

Ford is 75 now, I'll be that age in 2049. So I'm the same age as Rick Deckard.

Also I'm in better shape than Deckard because a) I no longer drink, and b) I'm not getting beaten up by replicants all the time.

many xposts to Jon. Godspeed to things getting better for you soon. My feeling is we make harsh judgments on ourselves and our capabilities as we get older and, tho i can only speak for myself, this certainly isn’t fair and often isn’t even correct.

if i revisit what material evidence there is of my thoughts and capabilities from say twenty years ago, when things felt so intellectually fluent and bright i’m both pleased that they just exist but also feel they can be lacking in things i now feel i have. not intellectual fluency perhaps, no, definitely not that, but experience. how is experience apparent or defined? i wonder whether it’s actually the stylistic effect of having to grind the no longer fluent mental gears a bit more. having to work against all the impediments, both material and emotional or intellectual that age brings.

like the formal constraints of poetry, maybe these constraints, as much as they feel they incapacitate us, make for better work. less marvellous maybe, but better.

regardless, wishing you and yoursvery well for 2018, and hope we get to hook up again at some point in the year.

Oh I forgot, I outlived my dad this year. :(

yeah that's weird, my dad was killed in a car accident and I realized I was older than him, very surreal

My dad died at 56. But he was a bad diabetic (Type 1 since age 3 or so, smoked, drank, was generally sedentary), and I'm better behaved than he was (don't drink, don't smoke, try to go for a walk now and then), so I figure I'll break his record.

it's always crazy to me the number of people who have been on here for 15+ years--lots of us in our 40s who've been on here since we were in our 20s. Blows my mind.

(although I was in my 30s already back in the early days)

I would have been...29 when ILX began, and now I'm a couple of months from turning 47. Hm.

in at 26 i believe.

I think I started posting in 2004 or 2005, so I was 33 or 34. (I did take a long break, and have had several periods of mostly lurking, though.)

I'd've been 35 I'm pretty sure, I'm kind of a noob

I've been here for just over a decade, so 33 as well.

I asked my mom (who is a little over 70), if you could go back in time, knowing your current health and how you generally feel, would you change any of your behavior or exercise more or anything? Now, granted, she never smoke or drank, but she basically said she wouldn't change a thing except maybe eat less meat.

Hmm, it seems I was 42 when I started here, now am 56

I was 29 when I first started posting here too.

I am now 72 years old.

I know, you're all like But how? and I'm all, Yeah, I know!

Having no other remorse healthwise when you're over 70 other than having eaten a bit too much red meat are real goals. God I'll just put myself in the deadpool for this year.

Yeah, okay, holy shit, I just realized that I was like 26 when I first started posting here, thanks so much for the extra reminder of oldness.

this thread is amazing.

unperson what's your podcast??

in real life i'm in my 40s but on ilx I'm always 28 btw, this is just a cameo

unperson what's your podcast??

Interviews with musicians, 45-60 minutes long, once every two weeks. Next one comes out on Friday.

http://burningambulance.blubrry.net/

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/burning-ambulance-podcast/id1296224800?mt=2

for real though, do we have 60+ ilxors?

Yup. I'm 63 and counting. I have strong suspicions about a few others, but I seem to be the only one who puts a number out there.

I was mad for newsgroups back in the 90s but now at 47 I find ILX to be the Platonic ideal of an online community.

and shit, only a little over 3 months from being 48

Reading this thread with trepidatious anticipation; I'll be joining you in 17 months. I was 21 or maybe just 22 when I started posting.

I am thy father's spirit, doomed for a certain term to walk the night

57

yay oldies

I was 29 when I first started posting here too.

― pplains, Monday, January 1, 2018 6:29 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Me too. Eleven years. Jesus.

So I turned 40 and it was p good. Despite my thread revive and "oof" post I'm excited for my 40s which I think this will be my best decade yet.

People generally think I'm a lot younger than I am and often guess anywhere from 28-32 which I've always taken as a compliment but lately I've begun to wonder if it is indicative of some kind of immaturity on my part and not just the fact that I look young. I don't know. My worrying about this is probably more a projection of my own fears of not being adult enough than anything else because most of the time I don't really feel that much different than I did when I was 18.

People used to regularly express surprise when they'd discover that I was roughly a decade or so older than they assumed but within the last couple of years the reaction has been more along the lines of 'yeaaaaah, that seems about right.' It's been...humbling.

I used to get stopped for police line-ups with 40 year old blokes when I was 21. Once one of the filth reassured me in a very sensitive manner: "don't worry you look older than your age, lad"

xp

yep, that's been one of the fun differences between my early 40s and late 40s

Middle-Aged Lunch OTM.

we're close to our "twenty years of ILE" bash

Yup. The exact 20th anniversary of ILX as a whole, starting with the birth of ILM, will be in about two years and seven months or so.

All of you hush and let me enjoy looking young thing while it lasts, dammit. ;) Also, I noticed little crows' feet for the first time recently and was kind of excited about it so it's not something I'm stressing about too much tbh.

hello I am 41

First posted here approximately 15 years ago – was 17 at the time. This place begins to make more sense once you hit 30.

ENBB, you might be the youngest 40something in here, so congrats.

I've always been told I was an old man ("born in a leisure suit," as my father used to tell people.) I embraced it back then, but now that I'm actually turning into an actual old man, it's not as cute anymore.

We were watching a mid-morning showing of Pulp Fiction on AMC yesterday. Between the Old People Personals commercials that were running in the breaks and that whole "Wait, you just ordered a five-dollar milkshake????? dialogue, I felt like I was 100.

Ha the five-dollar milkshake????? dialogue thing occurred to me sometime over the last year and made me feel ancient too. Don't think you could get one for under that at a diner around here now.

Hello I am 41 2! I've been here approximately forever.

I think this decade is going to be the best yet. This getting older thing has really brought the benefits, ime.