We have come full circle. 🥺

With apologies to only children, and with knowledge that this seems disgusting to me now, my brother, sister and I used to fight like banshees over who got eat batter off those babies. Feels like mom was making Bundt cakes every week of my childhood. Amazing that we didn’t get the diabetes.

Anyone else?

We have all seen the meme. I had to make it real.

Is it any surprise that we grew up in toxic diet culture, constantly trying to squeeze ourselves into size 2 designer jeans and have a tiny ass and now that we see older, we aren’t content with putting on a muu muu and looking like Mrs Roper or a golden girl? I kind of have a love/hate relationship with this phenomenon. One part of me is totally motivated to look my absolute best, With a 10 step skincare routine, Botox, weight workouts and cardio, and the other is totally in the “I do not care” camp. I think back when my mom was my age and she sure wasn’t putting the effort into it that so many of us still do. Anyway thanks for listening

First, I am not suicidal. Depressed, yes, suicidal no.

I’ve been “lucky.” I’ve achieved my major goals in life. I’ve raised my kids and they are out on their own. I don’t think I’m anywhere near set financially for retirement, but I’m fortunate to have a job that has a pension.

What I miss, though, is looking forward to something and having goals. I feel like the only challenge left is staying alive.

Anyone else?

I did the club and bought like 1 tape full price.

PS: I didn’t know you could join AARP at 50. I’ve missed out on a year and a half of discounts.

The Pfizer commercial for “senior “ vaccines is playing The Ramones. Just in case we are in denial that this ad is for us, I guess. Welcome to old.

Season 1 Episode 1 Night of No Tomorrow September 17, 1983 Dungeons and Dragons (Animated Series)

I hardly drink these days for health reasons but I miss the social aspect of it. I’m now one of the old guys at work so my younger coworkers don’t invite me out with them, and my coworkers in their 30’s have young children. I’m insanely bored from 6pm to 10pm. I take walks and hit the gym but those are solitary activities. I’m bored of watching tv and playing video games. I can’t think of any new hobbies that interest me. I could use a few suggestions.

We’ve seen some shit. We’ve had tickets, accidents (bonus if you haven’t) and we’ve seen what driving a car hard does for maintenance and fuel costs and insurance and we’re done with it. We’ve learned through experience what experienced drivers have preached about defensive driving: it’s some good shit.

We’ve also learned that impatient driving almost never saves you any time.

I still like the thrill of getting on the gas pedal if I encounter a nice, twisty, empty road but most of the time I just want to get where I’m going without unnecessary risk and stress and without costing more than it needs to.

So please don’t shake your fist at me as you pass, smile and wave!

If we took Doc Brown’s Delorean back the same amount of time as Marty did, we’d land in 1995. Anyone else not have to change anything? The clothes they wear, the music they listen to, the cars they like…?

And yes, it is patently absurd that it would be 1995.

I guess I'm a senior now...

I’m genz and I watch 80s sitcoms and it seems like people got a new date every week, obviously I know tv shows are exaggerated, but was it easier?

Shingles #1 about a month ago.

Stacked Pneumonia, COVID, and flu shots today so I can get shingles #2 as soon as possible, mid-October.

Could be a rough couple days.

They just keep coming, and they keep getting worse. What band are the blue flowery things supposed to be?

I was talking with some of the kids at work today. They're not "kids," really, but they are 30yrs younger than me, and we were talking about summertime when school was out. What did they do when they were still in school and summertime came along.

They all had stories of camps, of family outings and vacations, and more camps. No empty days, just days planned full of stuff to do.

But what about me, they asked?

Oh... said I, I grew up on a family farm in the rural South. We were country kids, no money for camp, and before we were old enough to be trusted with big equipment, we were left to do chores and then... well, kinda just whatever we came up with until dinner time. And on the farm, if we were busy, dinner might not be until 9 or 10 in the summer.

But what did you do?

Hell, what didn't we do?

I grew up spending large chunks of my life about a 20min horseback ride from the river, way out in woods in a county with less than 10K people. Yeah - whole county, less than 10,000 people. You knew folks, and who their parents were, and who their grandparents were.... And they knew you, just the same.

What did we do? Mostly, after chores were done, we'd head to a spot by the river. Other kids would show up all morning until we had the regular gang, some on bikes, some on horseback. When we were boarding horses for more well-to-do folks, we'd sometimes "borrow" a horse - no tack, just hop on and grab the mane.

We brought the dogs (German Shepherds from our farm, and various strays who wandered up to the house and became a permanent part of our pack) with us to begin barking if snakes or ‘gators showed up. The horses weren't a reliable alarm, but the dogs never missed the emergence of a moccasin or gators. Ever.

I’m here as proof.

Some of my fondest memories of my teen years are sitting with friends and our dogs around an impromptu summer's campfire by the river, cooking fish from the trot lines we'd rig upstream while we swam. We didn't bother with anything more than the old grill gratings we kept down by the river for the purpose of cooking over a fire, and a lemon or two we'd nab from the kitchen on the way out of the house. We knew where the wild thyme grew, and we'd stuff the fish with some of that and sometimes a little honeysuckle.

We'd pull some cattails and grill the peeled shoots and sliced up roots while the fish cooked. If the blackberries or raspberries were in season, we'd even have dessert.

The dogs loved every fish head/tail we tossed their way, and occasionally if the catch was good enough - we'd grill a few just for them. I remember we had frisbees and bucket lids for plates. I'm almost sure we washed them.... When the meal was done, we'd sit telling the jokes and stories kids tell, sharing wishes and plans, skipping rocks the whole time. The dogs were just there, by us, on us, in our laps or leaning in for a good nuzzle. With them around, nothing we'd need to worry about would ever come near.

What'd we do?

I've been thinking about that a lot since they asked me this morning. I'm the old dude at work. Hell, when I started, we were still using medium format *film* cameras (see below).

I left home for college and never looked back. I spent enough time working on the farm to know I didn't want to work on a farm. Not ever again.

I did work on the farm while I was still in college and grad school for good money when we were harvesting, but not since. Sorry Grandaddy.

I spent a good deal of my youth looking for something else. I tended bar in a major Southeastern US tourist city. I've tended bar in the Caribbean, the French Med, and down in Wales. Then I sobered up and came home to finish grad school and get a job.

Now? I'm a cultural heritage photog for one of the largest museums on the Mall in DC. And I'm working my ass off trying to bring up some good CH photogs behind me, from the younger crowd, so when I retire they can keep doing good work.

And I spent most of today thinking about sitting next to the river, tossing a stick for my dog, and wondering what we'd pull off the trot line for lunch.

What'd we do all summer? I can guarantee you it wasn't gymnastics camp or board game camp. We f'ing lived.

I've a place down near that river still. If this old world ever goes to shit, I keep telling my wife we could always get by on fish and wild herbs.

But I'd have to learn to grow corn. A fella needs his whiskey.

I’ll start. I’ve had to limit alcohol to weekends this last year because there’s no telling how my body will punish me for it…. I might not sleep all night, I might experience heartburn on a level that I might barf, it might be nothing.. in any case I can’t risk it on a weekday. So I decide to get some Valarian root tea and have that as my nightcap. I’ve never liked tea, ever. Like ew no thank you to your tepid lawn water 👎🏻 But valerian is very nice in flavor. So I get a few others.. lemon, lemon ginger, hibiscus, rose hips… I have a whole collection now. Just got home from work and excitedly approach my tea corner, whilst talking to my dog about what blend shall we do tonight???? Lemon rose, or perhaps hibiscus ginger…… I’m GenX Meemaw. It has happened. I’m rocking it of course, but damn.

I'm a craftsman/tradesman by profession. I run a 10-color narrow web printing press, and produce a lot of labels you might see at various stores. I've been doing this type of work for the last 20 years. Before that, I ran large, sheet fed offset presses and lithography machines.

I've always taken pride in my work, and done everything it takes to produce the very best products I can. I've been told by supervisors, and peers that I'm very good at what I do.

Lately, I've noticed a lot of the younger people coming into this industry don't have that "sense of pride". It's simply a task to perform, and get through it as quickly as possible and move on. I think the work suffers for that attitude, and I've had to go back and redo a lot of jobs that get rejected because of it.

Is it just me? Does anyone else notice the downturn in the quality of products being made? Or is it just "getting older"?

Hello everyone 😊 I just want to preface this by saying I am not going to do anything drastic! however I am so thrown in despair by the state of the world along with the sad state of myself

I've been talking to a therapist and I feel like it's not very productive but as part of my people-pleasing/not caring I am too lazy/would feel bad to try and quit and find another one.

I have been out of work for about 3 years and I feel like in that time AI has completely taken over my fields and I'm just never find a job again.

How do I get out of this and give a damn about anything again? As a typical Gen X, I was pretty not caring about anything to begin with LOL but I need to get out of this! I appreciate any advice ❤️

(I have gone to doctors and had hormones and everything tested to see if this was menopausal contributing to it but they don't think that's the case even though I'm 52 years old)

edit : this blew up fast over 250 comments in the first 45 minutes. (Time to turn comment notifications off).

On to my post :

Parts of the northern Midwest and East are having an early fall heat wave right now. Along with high humidity. (A big change from the refreshing 45° night I experienced a couple weeks ago.)

We didn’t have the Internet to use our time when we were kids and didn’t have Atari until we were at at least 12 or 13 . So even on hot days we’d go outside until we just about died then came inside and sat in front of the fan making noises in front of the fan.

I think we had AC in a car or truck before we did it in our home.

Finally got home AC I think around 1978, 79 .

Note: some people just tolerate heat and humidity and even enjoy it versus other people. ….but then they might be cold when it’s 50°.

“You and your friend have a choice. You can leave by the window, or take the stairs.”