Getting old

[Snapolit1]

As I start to head towards the sixth decade of life, I certainly don't feel "old," whatever that means. Yes, the knees are achy and the back is stiff, and all that usual stuff. But what really concerns me is what I see almost inevitably happened among people as they age. . . . they just to seem to slowly get stuck in a rut over time and stop trying new things. It's why a certain unnamed political party and TV network always seems to be focused on the "good old days" when everything was so so much better than today. Everything is shit and boy is that sad. It's like people get to a certain age and think "ok, now I need to stop listening to new music . . . stop watching new movies. . . stop taking adventures." I find it all very depressing. When someone my age tells me there is no good music anymore and it is all crap and how all they listen is The Who and The Rolling Stones, I just shake my head. There is ton and tons of great music today. But you stopped looking for it. I have kids in my 20s and they introduce me to music and podcasts and new celebrity types. Yeah, some of it stinks. But some of it is super smart and better than what I was listening to at their age. But most of my friends seems to be already of the mind that everything cool stopped happening years ago. My wife and I have many friends who are just stunned that we still go to ROCK CONCERTS. Same people who say oh baseball is terrible today, football isn't what it used to be, basketball horrible, and everything else just sucks too.

Obviously people shook their heads in dismay as to the younger generation and everything they stood for in the 20s, 30s, 40s, etc., etc. But why?

I spoke to a much older once guy and he said to me "as you get older you just get to a point where you feel like you've done everything you want to do." Shit I hope that's not where I end up.

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by Snapolit1

As I start to head towards the sixth decade of life, I certainly don't feel "old," whatever that means. Yes, the knees are achy and the back is stiff, and all that usual stuff. But what really concerns me is what I see almost inevitably happened among people as they age. . . . they just to seem to slowly get stuck in a rut over time and stop trying new things. It's why a certain unnamed political party and TV network always seems to be focused on the "good old days" when everything was so so much better than today. Everything is shit and boy is that sad. It's like people get to a certain age and think "ok, now I need to stop listening to new music . . . stop watching new movies. . . stop taking adventures." I find it all very depressing. When someone my age tells me there is no good music anymore and it is all crap and how all they listen is The Who and The Rolling Stones, I just shake my head. There is ton and tons of great music today. But you stopped looking for it. I have kids in my 20s and they introduce me to music and podcasts and new celebrity types. Yeah, some of it stinks. But some of it is super smart and better than what I was listening to at their age. But most of my friends seems to be already of the mind that everything cool stopped happening years ago. My wife and I have many friends who are just stunned that we still go to ROCK CONCERTS. Same people who say oh baseball is terrible today, football isn't what it used to be, basketball horrible, and everything else just sucks too.

Obviously people shook their heads in dismay as to the younger generation and everything they stood for in the 20s, 30s, 40s, etc., etc. But why?

I spoke to a much older once guy and he said to me "as you get older you just get to a point where you feel like you've done everything you want to do." Shit I hope that's not where I end up.

I just turned 50, and I agree with everything you just said. I doubt I've done 10% of what I eventually want to do. I'm grateful I have a daughter in her 20's who introduces me to new stuff all the time, even if I don't get it at first.

She still can't get me to play video games with her though...... mostly because they frustrate me because I'm just not any good at them.

My own parents still go on adventures. They hike, kayak, bike, travel, plant elaborate gardens in their yard, go to concerts and plays during times that allow it, and keep active all the time.

We disagree on some things, but it's generally respectful.......and even when my dad and I get heated on certain things, we finish it off with a beer and a handshake.

I hope I'm smart enough to continue that philosophy as I get older.

[steve B]

Sort of headed for 60 myself..

I'm sort of split between the two outlooks. Some new stuff is amazing, some... not so much. And often all in the same object.
Like a cell phone, which in many cases is good at a lot of stuff, but sucks at being... a phone! Good enough sound quality to play music, but phone calls can still be like cups and strings.
Great at internet, sort of, as long as the website is adjusted for mobile.
Yet oddly, my desktop that has in comparison nearly unlimited resources can stream stuff, while the phone that has limited memory, bandwidth, etc. has to download even simple games the desktop plays in the browser... Who the _ made that decision?
And I wish I could find a way to charge people upwards of $500 maybe even a thousand for a device that will be "old" at 3 years, and terribly obsolete well before 10 years.

Sports are different for sure, we are getting to see some amazing players, especially in football.
But for all that, Basketball seems to be going the soccer route with a lot of acting and refs who cant even take a simple "Who? Me?" from a player.
Between 92 when the first dream team showed what basketball could be, and say 1996 when dream team 2 had devolved into a bunch of set pieces for the stars (The game I was at one guy missed an alley oop dunk on three consecutive plays.. nope, no theatre there.)

Baseball is getting into the NFL thing of massive yearly rule changes. Some of them strictly amateur softball.... double header games are only 7 innings.. extra innings start with a runner on second?!
And while the platers are great, the angst over any pitch on the inner part of the plate, let alone inside and off the plate and maybe even high in the zone?
Ok, if you can't dodge, you could get hurt, and with the money these guys make if it cuts the career a year short they lose millions. But it's still pretty weak..

Football is an odd one, some of the rules seem wussy, but then, it's less usual to see retired players nearly crippled or worse. And as another positive, we're getting to see a bunch of historically good players for a lot longer.

They still play hockey? I knew once they started playing in places that don't have naturally occurring ice it was all downhill. Now get off my lawn!

Of course cycling has to join in. A decades long tradition of throwing water bottles and bidons (the bags full of food they get along the route) all emblazoned with the sponsors logos to the crowds has been abruptly ended, with fines for disposing of things outside certain areas where the teams have guys with trash barrels stationed. Nobody is sure that if a bottle gets tossed and bounces off the barrel because the guy doing 25mph may not be all that accurate, and ends outside the zone ... does the rider get fined? The team? The guy holding the trash can? (who probably makes darn near nothing already. )
They say it for rider safety, or the environment... but it's not like the fans let any of that stuff stay on the side of the road.

Some of todays music is very good. I can't think of anyone like a Hendrix or Clapton, or any one of maybe 50 other bands/performers. But the new ones also haven't really had the time, and are playing in an era where maybe rock and pop bands aren't really seen as being "special"? I certainly don't think we'll see anything like the Beatles arriving in the US for the first time.

And that gets to another interesting thing.
The way we view things and sell things is very different from when I was a kid. The stuff we can buy is sometimes way better!
But perhaps because it IS better, and is fairly cheap and abundant, it's no longer "special" and it's not sold as anything special.
Take matchbox cars.
The first few I bought, there was a display with one of each in that years lineup. Once you'd selected the one you wanted, the clerk would get one out of the cabinet. It was a bit of a big deal! (Ok, maybe for a 5-6 year old. probably a lot less so for the clerk)
Then HotWheels came out, on a card with a badge! But you just picked one off the hook and took it to the register. (Johnny Lightning too, which I really liked better)
Eventually Matchbox caved and went with carded little cars, and that specialness was lost. Or changed. Maybe the kids 10 years younger saw the selecting one from the pegboard as "special"

My kids are 8 and 10, and show me stuff they think is cool. And some of it really is. My older daughter showed me some wonderful art restoration videos, and just yesterday sent me a link to a video about a very rare Nintendo DS game used by McDonalds in Japan to train the crew. And how this guy managed to buy one with the needed password, get it to the US through covid restrictions on mail and travel, plus a bunch of other stuff, and finally make a video about playing it. Which turns out to be the second, as the other guy who had a copy managed to hack the password after a few years and posted his video a couple days earlier. Cool stuff.

One of he better hobby days was taking her to a big stamp show and getting to see a hobby I've enjoyed for decades through a new set of eyes that saw a lot of very "ordinary" stuff as new and exciting.

Look! this one has an extra bit of paper! Is it special?
Yes, that means it was on the edge of the sheet.
Wow! really? So we can tell where it was because it has a bit of extra paper?
Yep, pretty cool!
And so on, for most of the stamps in the little envelope.
Many shows around here the club runs a "fishbowl" a quarter for a small envelope with around 20 stamps in it, and maybe a prize ticket. Fun stuff. Maybe it would work at a card show, but most don't allow anything like that because of the 90's dealers running dice games.

[steve B]

Didn't intend for that to be so long. Ah well....

[Snapolit1]

Originally Posted by steve B

Didn't intend for that to be so long. Ah well....

Nah, totally enjoyed reading.

You mentioned about so many things today are different and just taken for granted. Think of all the choices in restaurants today. Even 25 years ago, in most parts of the country you would be hard pressed to find anything even closely resembling real asian or other ethnic food, or to even find ingredients to make non US food in the supermarket. I remember even a few years ago people started going gaga over avocados, like someone just invented them.

I would never argue that everything is great today. Modern culture has a lot of garbage elements. Mostly the obsessive "look at me" nonsense on social media. No, no one cares what you had for breakfast today. They really don't. And it's not important. But being around my kids and their friends doesn't fill me with despair like it apparently does for many older folks. I see a lot of great things in the current generation that give me great hope. And there is so much amazing art in so many areas. The only depressing thing is when I see some insane you artist and realize they weren't born yet when I was already from school and already years into my career.

[Peter_Spaeth]

It's a timeless phenomenon. I am reminded of Herman Hesse's Steppenwolf, where the narrator, a classical music purist, cannot adapt to the music (and mores) of the Jazz Age -- or can he?

And of my Dad, also a classical purist, who HATED the music my brothers and I listened to, which happened to be the classic rock of the 60s and early 70s. He never did get it, thought it all sounded the same.

[steve B]

Originally Posted by Snapolit1

Nah, totally enjoyed reading.

You mentioned about so many things today are different and just taken for granted. Think of all the choices in restaurants today. Even 25 years ago, in most parts of the country you would be hard pressed to find anything even closely resembling real asian or other ethnic food, or to even find ingredients to make non US food in the supermarket. I remember even a few years ago people started going gaga over avocados, like someone just invented them.

I would never argue that everything is great today. Modern culture has a lot of garbage elements. Mostly the obsessive "look at me" nonsense on social media. No, no one cares what you had for breakfast today. They really don't. And it's not important. But being around my kids and their friends doesn't fill me with despair like it apparently does for many older folks. I see a lot of great things in the current generation that give me great hope. And there is so much amazing art in so many areas. The only depressing thing is when I see some insane you artist and realize they weren't born yet when I was already from school and already years into my career.

It's funny about the food.
I live in a smallish city with a fairly large Asian population. There are tons of choices, to the point that it's a bit difficult to find an old fashioned non-chain non-trendy place that serves typical "american" food. If I want a nice normal burger, I'm mostly out of luck. If I want a burger made from cattle fed in some cattle shangri-la with goat cheese, free range organic bacon etc, I can get it. But it would pretty much blow the fun budget for the month.

I'm amazed at the stuff the kids have easy access to, and how well it's explained.
A few years ago my oldest was watching science videos. One night she asked
"Daddy.. tell me about... (as I'm thinking oh C___ here comes the question I'll try to dodge and defer to mom... )
Quantum Physics..

Wasn't expecting that.

So tonight I sent her a cartoon I saw on facebook. A vetrinarian coming into the waiting room saying "Mr Schroedinger I have good news and bad news about your cat"
And she totally got the joke.

At 10 the jokes I got were more likely to be three stooges, or something.

A different world for sure.