Are You an ATS Geezer?

Oh, yeah, I agree, BT. I feel about 20 most of the time.

But when I'm in a debate with some 16 year old, I feel like a bully sometimes. All the experience and larger vocabulary gives us geezers an advantage many times.

Sometimes I feel like a geezer. I am only 28, so I wouldnt consider that anywhere close to geezerdom.

IMHO, you breach the geezer plateau once you get over 70. This may be able to be challenged as my 91 year old grandma has taken an uncanny liking to the internet.

Maybe I can get her on ATS?

You are so lucky! I've been trying to get my 83 year old granny on the internet in years. I tell her I'll email her much more often than I write letters, but she won't have it. She was terrified of the CD player my uncle got her for Xmas a few years back. I had to teach her how to use it -- "This is the play button, Granny, and here's the eject button. Now you try."

We may not be geezers in real life, but considering the board's membership seems (so far) to be made up of mainly 20 and 30 somethings, I claim the right to geezerhood. Anyway, I've been on the internet since about 1989, when my boss the lawyer had us hooked up to the Lexis Nexis. 'Way back in the bad old days before there was all this cool layout and graphics. Just BBS typing. And no fancy smilies either, just : )


[edit to correct smiley to archaic form]



[edit on 5-7-2007 by MajorMalfunction]

Hey, wadda ya know, a thread I fit into!

Cough--wheeze-cough.

I've not made 50 yet but I'm well past 40.

The young whippersnappers don't bother me though. I can usually run circles around them all day.

Oddly enough its usually folks older than me that seem to have more stamina. I often wonder where they get all their energy!

Heres how I feel about getting older. Dont need no rockin chair

Anyway its nice to know there are others my age here. I had no idea.



[edit on 7/5/07 by makeitso]

Well, then, I guess we need to establish the Honorable Assembly of Geezers.

HAG for short.

Are you a HAG? I guess I am.

Originally posted by benevolent tyrant
If you still are excited by the prospect of what tomorrow may bring, you are young at heart and young in spirit.

Which, unfortunately, doesn't do much for my lower back and knees.

Of course, the big advantage in never having been a great athlete is I don't notice that much of a decline.

Hey! I'm a geezer! I'll be 60 in September.

The one interestng thinig I've found about geezerdom I can best relate in a true story.

A couple of weeks ago I was talking to a friend of mine who is in his mid-thirties. I asked him if he know how it feels to be a 59 year old man. He said, "No". I said, "Yes you do. It feels inside to me just like it did when I was twenty".

On the other hand, it's like I tell my wife... I may not be as good as I once was, but I'm as good once, as I ever was!


If we ever start a geezer club, someone u2u me, because I will have probably forgotten about it.

Originally posted by MajorMalfunction
Oh, yeah, I agree, BT. I feel about 20 most of the time.

But when I'm in a debate with some 16 year old, I feel like a bully sometimes. All the experience and larger vocabulary gives us geezers an advantage many times.

When you say "debate" and "some 16 year old" in the same sentence, all I can think of is my own 16 year old step-son. More often than not, it's anything but a debate. The "debate" usually turns into an argument of sorts. Am I really being a "bully" when I say "NO" to his suggestion that there is nothing wrong about a 16 year old drinking "a few beers" (read this as "getting drunk to the point of puking one's guts out just because "all of his friends are "allowed to drink" by their cool and "progressive" parents)?

Being a "geezer" does, indeed, give one an advantage over those who are younger. Experiences -- good and bad -- serve to educate and it does give one a broader perspective about life. Nevertheless, I do keep in mind, always, that one does not necessarily need be old to be wise. Being older simply means that we can share those moments when were being incredibly stupid in the hopes that the young can learn from our own foolishness.



[edit on 7/5/2007 by benevolent tyrant]

The last time I looked at the board demographics, I was pretty surprised to see that the average age is not that low. Still, I do have the perception that I am as archaic as the butter churn.

I sent an apology to benevolent tyrant for confusing his sex, but I think there's a benefit in not knowing.

In a community like ATS we have to leave our preconceived notions of sex, sexuality, race, and age, at the door. We judge each other by ideas and input solely based on what a person writes.

I told a 12 year old member a few days ago that his input was just as important as mine, and if he hadn't announced his age and sex I would never have known. Even at 12 he comes across as an intelligent person with valid ideas that should have the same consideration as anyone else on these boards.
He was concerned that his age would mean that we wouldn't listen to his input, but I assured him that that was just not the case.

One of the great things about ATS is the neutrality and anonymity the members have.

It promotes equality....

Geez, you guys are old enough to be my grandparents . I kid, I kid. My mom is almost 60 so don't fret. I don't think there's really anybody here over 65, but I guess its a possibility eh?

Our member Occam is in his 70's, though he hasn't been around too much lately.

Originally posted by biggie smalls
Geez, you guys are old enough to be my grandparents

. I kid, I kid. My mom is almost 60 so don't fret. I don't think there's really anybody here over 65, but I guess its a possibility eh?

Oh, there are people here who are 70'ish. One person admitted it and i forgot who that was.
Lots of us are Dinosaurs, between 30 and 50. Lots and lots of us.

Well good for them. I'm glad there are older people who are as addicted to researching as I am.

I just wish my fellow teenage-twenties age group had more of a mind to look things up as opposed to watching reality tv or sports.

I can't even begin to start how saddened I am by my age group. A coworker of mine and I were discussing this...Our age group has nothing to stand for. We don't really organize/protest, we are dumbed down in school, and most of us don't even care.

Am I gonna have to start a revolution on my own

Hey, just turned 42 last week, but i seriously still act like a 20yr old. Drives my wife nuts.
Hehe.
You know before i joined this site i thought all internet forums were the domain of kids, teenagers, young adults and nefarious hackers and pedophiles. Such a relief to find a site with so much diversity of ages, genders, beliefs, race etc. And on the whole who all get along even when not agreeing with each other.
Glad to know theres at least a few around my age here.

Just goin for a nanna nap, ohh my achin' hip.

mojo.

Originally posted by biggie smalls
Well good for them. I'm glad there are older people who are as addicted to researching as I am.


Am I gonna have to start a revolution on my own

I know you were kidding, but you know that the pen is mightier than the sword.
You just keep on doing, what you are doing. Try your best to engage people in your age group. Some of them might even come around!


Just a little advice from a guy who is just entering geezhood. (45years and counting, or ticking. LOL)

Originally posted by spacedoubt
I know you were kidding, but you know that the pen is mightier than the sword.
You just keep on doing, what you are doing. Try your best to engage people in your age group. Some of them might even come around!

You're right. I do try to engage as many as I can. Its just sad because one of my best friends is so closed off to reality that he would rather believe all he watches on FOX news than get his head out of the sand. I try to help him all I can, but all the effort in the world may not change his mind.

I see a lot of brainwashing going on in the media. Basically the television is one big propaganda machine. Radio isn't much better, but at least you can turn the channel and not necessarily hear the same sort of crap.

The pen may be mightier than the sword, but certainly not as swift. One must act fast if one wishes to oppose the kind of tyrannical powers we are facing now.

One of my favorite quotes: Walk softly and carry a big stick

[edit on 5-7-2007 by biggie smalls]

Does one have to be just an ATS geezer or can any geezer play in this sand box?
Turning 50 in September. (Man! that sounds old!) There are advantages to geezerdom:
1) Being a 50 year old female makes you invisible to the opposite sex (which, with my history IS an advantage).
2) When the kids are all grown and out of the house you don't have to worry about nutritious, color-coordinated meals or informative, pleasant dinner conversation. You can just open a bag of Oreos and stare at the kitchen light while popping one after another into your mouth.
3) When the youngsters gripe about having to take out the trash, I can remind them that I remember when we used PAPER sacks as trash liners and had to wash the cans out every weekend. Gives them a whole new appreciation for their chores.
4) When you're riding in someone else's car and the driver slams on the brakes, their arm automatically extends protectively in your direction.
5) People assume you're practically deaf so they don't bother to whisper and you learn all sorts of secrets and interesting tidbits.
6) People who are just being polite will invite you on outings they think you'll decline and you get a chance to show them you're old, not dead. "I know you probably have plans but a couple of us were going skydiving this weekend. Wanna go?" Hell yeah!
7) Got asked out by some 24 year old guy (who was hoping that because I'm older, I might be desparate enough to go out with him-long story but the punchline is that he was a jerk). As a 24 year old woman, I would have been all doey-eyed and giggly. As an old broad I could say, "son, I've got runs in my panty hose older than you."
Nothing wrong with being a geezer. I'm rather enjoying it. Would like a computer tutorial but I muddle through.
MM, are you signing up HAG's?

Welcome aboard, whitewave.

I think I'm going to have to start an official HAG thread now.

Originally posted by biggie smalls

I see a lot of brainwashing going on in the media. Basically the television is one big propaganda machine.

You're further ahead than most people of any age.
We live in a world controlled by mass media that would have us submit to the garbage they spew out.

Take your own path, but watch what they're saying.
It's important to keep tabs on what the enemy is promoting to the sheeple.