This is a thread for ILXORS IN THEIR 50's

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 need the med coverage

I am very much in a "is this gonna be my forever life?" place as well. Part of it's frustration with my publisher, who has not responded for a couple of weeks now to my emails about my upcoming book, but another part of it is getting itchy with the endless treadmill of writing about music generally. I'm starting to think more seriously than I have in years about Writing About Something Else For A Change. Sending three poems to a local literary magazine (no response yet) helped a little, and looking at some fiction projects with an eye toward self-publishing them is helping, too, because putting three older books out there will push me to finish a fourth that's fully plotted but only about 1/4 written. If my current "full-time" job lurches toward greater stability (which it might, soon), I will be in a position to make some decisions.

get well soon jclc.

running will come back soon enough. were you the person who recommended "what i talk about when i talk about running" on ilx? seems like you probly coulda.

possibly? as I am of the age to be on this thread, I do tend to forget a buncha stuff

How do you do, fellow 50 year olds?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMbxOUgPDsI

whatsuuuuuuuppppp … <coughs weakly>

Trayce, they didnt do a root canal before putting the crown on? I thought that was standard.

I never saw this before - they did say it was a better option, because its possible the tooth can still go south esp if I dont look after it. I dunno how that will pan out now - the tooth next to it just got pulled out completely lol. 3 days later and I still feel kinda run down and sore from it. There's another shitty thing about this age - everythign is so much bloody harder to recover from.

welcome, snoball! your orthopedic shoes will be arriving in time for your 4pm dinner reservation

Ugh tooth problems are the worst. Sorry your going through that, Trayce.

Thanks Sunny x I'm starting to feel better now. I really shouldnt have got drunk only 2 days after the extraction, ha ha. :(

I've experienced almost every dental thing mentioned in this thread: Broken teeth (w/ bonus infection), root canals, replacement of Classic 80s Metal Fillings, deep cleanings that required anesthesia, and even the laser gum surgery.

My daily hygiene routine includes: Floss, Perio-Aid tool, Waterpik, and finish with a soft bristle tooth brushing and some mouth wash if I'm feeling nasty. Plus, I sleep with a Night Guard because my jaw-clenching is probably caused the gum issues (if you get a Night Guard, consider occasionally doing your own enzyme wash with a vinegar/water solution). The only common thing I have never had to do with my teeth is braces.

These days when I go in for routine teeth cleanings (4x a year - two of them I have to cover out-of-pocket), it takes them like 10-15 minutes to do them (they still cost the same as one that would take 45 minutes, of course).

― beard papa, Thursday, March 14, 2024 6:25 PM (one month ago)

Fellow clencher and night-guard evangelist here. Absolutely recognise all of this, including the massive Eighties fillings now getting replaced because the teeth around them are finally splitting and splintering to pieces. I need to get a new night guard now because mine has split at the back. Before I do that, though, I need to get a THIRD root canal treatment and a crown which, I've been warned, might end up being useless because the tooth might be too far gone to support it for more than a few years.

Like you, I'm now meticulous about my dental hygiene and madly envious of people who don't have to be. We had friends over for a late night on Saturday night (dinner and Rummikub, because that's where we are now) and I spent most of Sunday watching films on the sofa with my night guard in, just in case I dozed off. That's how I broke a chunk off a tooth at Christmas, after all.

Did my annual physical last week and enjoyed this summary from the follow-up narrative from my doc: "well developed; well nourished; thin build; well groomed; no apparent distress" — I mean, for 54 I'm declaring victory. (Still waiting on cholesterol #s tho.)

(My wife says it sounds like a listing for animal adoptions at the local shelter)

Healthy coat

Everything being said about dental routines and suffering is painfully OTM.

(I lost my mouth guard, in my own damn house, a month or two ago. No idea where it could be. So far my jaw has been OK somehow.)

(I'm with a large Northern California-based HMO group and they don't seem to do annual physicals anymore, I wonder if I should request one.. think my last blood work was maybe 2021?)

I have a few late 40's/early 50's buddies that totally are afraid to go to the dentist, even if they have insurance.. I'm like 'Just fucking go, get it over with, things won't magically get better'

I actually take pleasure in the misery of a dental visit, I didn't have any sort of insurance in my 20's which is precisely when we should all have universal dental insurance.. our bodies were healthy but our teeth were fucked

I let my dental health lapse twice and paid for it in money and pain. Never ever again.

Or: Andy OTM

I like getting the annual physical, not least because in good years it's the only time I see my doctor and I like her to remember who I am. And I like the labs and screens, just making sure everything looks OK. I even agreed to a separate preventive screening my doc recommended — a "coronary calcium score" — to check for arterial plaque buildup. Not covered by insurance, it's like $125 and I'm sure she gets a cut for the referral, but what the hell. I like to know what's going on in there.

I go to my doctor about four times a year but haven't been to the dentist in decades. Sometimes I worry about it but then I say fuck it.

I have been blessed with (mostly) good teeth, which aiu is party genetic and also breastfeeding can help? thanks mom!

still had a litany of horrors starting with braces, and I am missing a back molar currently cuz I cannot afford a $4K implant.

dental care is imho the starkest example of class differences in the US

really that should read:

"dental care/insurance is imho the starkest example of class differences in the US"

yeah, it's always baffling to me that the teeth were medically separated from the rest of the body many years ago: their own offices, their own insurance systems, etc.
Like what if we had to get podiatry insurance, or spleen insurance?

Dentistry wasn't considered a medical field until the late 19th century.

They're luxury bones. Only the rich and lucky are allowed to have them; if your teeth are in bad shape the assumption is that it's your own damn fault for not taking better care of them

Toothpaste is bone soap.

The fact that none of these manly-man grooming companies has yet put out a line of toothpaste called Bone Soap (or advertised toothpaste with "Polish Your Bones") is baffling to me.

'Hey fellas, get your chompers pumping with Axe BONE SOAP - now in Sinful Cinnamon Schnapps flavor'

yeah I could see that working

Would try White Russian flavored bone soap

'Super Whitening Russian', you mean

really that should read:

"dental care/insurance is imho the starkest example of class differences in the US"

― I painted my teeth (sleeve), Tuesday, May 7, 2024 9:29 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

When I first went to my current dentist, it was for a dental emergency (filling fell out) AND I didn't have insurance. They were super nice about it and apologetic about charging me the cash rate, but then when we got insurance again through my wife's job suddenly they were VERY happy to see me because I was worth a lot more money to them. It's all so weird, what a dumb system we have.

whenever I go in for for a cleaning, I get a statement from MetLife - 'THIS IS NOT A BILL: You dentist billed $234 - we paid out $179 - you owe nothing'

It's all such a weird racket