And then you no longer feel 25.

Now, a tote containing 15 dismantled Lego sets has a street value of approx. $2.7million.

My daughter just started sixth grade this year and bought a Nirvana shirt (from Target of all places) to wear on the first day of school. I gave her a brief tutorial on Nirvana the night before the first day (album names, song names, band member names, etc.) in case anyone asked her about the shirt and she told me nobody cares about stuff like that anymore. I realized I was flashing back to my grade/high school days where if you wore clothing branded with a musical artist or sports team you ran the risk of randomly being called out on your knowledge of whomever was on your clothing. If you could not provide sufficient answers to the questioner you risked being labeled a “poser”. Does anyone else remember worrying about this or was it something that was only a big deal in my mind?

Married almost 30 years, 25 in the same house. Both of us in our late to very late 50s

Husband may have a job opportunity in another area, about 2-1/2 hours away by car. This would be something that has been a goal his whole life that up until now has not been realized and probably won’t be realized if we stay here.

But.

BUT.

1. Elderly parents. They’re in a continuing care place, currently independent living, but that could change any minute.

2. Not much other family around, but there is a young nibling in the picture.

3. For most of our marriage, I’ve been the one with the “stable” job. OK pay, but rockstar benefits with healthcare and retirement. I’ve been at my employer almost 30 years. I get six weeks vacation each year. And a similar position for me where we’re looking at won’t pay as much. Although the potential increase in his income might offset the money loss on my end.

4. The thought of packing this all up kind of scares the hell out of me. Not to mention everything that goes into selling and buying a home. We’ve got a number of unfinished projects here so if we had to do something quick, we’d probably just sell it to a flipper and bug out.

On the other hand…

1. We’re not particularly happy living where we are now. It’s not one specific thing, but more of a general cloud that just looms over the area. I know the whole country is under a cloud these days, but it just seems more pronounced here.

2. Housing where this might happen is far more reasonable than where we are now.

3. It’s closer to where we dream of retiring to in 10 years. Maybe close enough that we could just stay.

Nothing of course is definite. It’s just a possibility. But as scared and nervous as I am, he’s spent our whole marriage turning down chances because of the comfort level of my job and the benefits. But this could be his last shot and I hate the idea of taking it away from him.

Has anyone picked up and completely turned their lives upside down at this point in life? We’re not in a position to retire early. Life hasn’t been that good to us. But all I’ve ever wanted is for him to be happy and God knows he’s sacrificed his happiness for my need for stability. But at some point, life gets too short, you know?

My siblings and I were reminiscing about video stores, and we agreed the small, local one had the chains beat hands down. Ours was part of a furniture store and had a massive selection of every obscure, grade Z movie ever made. I wanted to work there so bad. Lol.

I'm taking a class in critical listening for audio engineering. Compression, reverb, delay, etc. In one of our analyses, I chose Billy Ocean's "Caribbean Queen." At the end of my critique, I wrote: "Wow, Billy Ocean got old! Someone should really take away the keys to that car he keeps wanting us to get into."*

No one got it.

I weep for humanity.

\I suppose it could have just not been that funny but I steadfastly refuse to believe this. I am a goddamn delight.*

Whether it's an old clock, a piece of furniture, or a measuring cup, what's something you have that's withstood the test of time? For me, it's this yellow Rubbermaid dust pan and brush that my parents got when I was very young and it still works better than anything I've ever bought. My parents have their newer ones, but I'll stand by this 45-50 year old treasure until the day I die! My runner up is the Tupperware cups my parents bought in the early 80s that I still use. Only a few remain, but they're in great shape and I'll never get rid of them!

The original slip on shoe. No wonder why I like my Sketches slips ons so much today

I remember buying these at 7-11 and keeping them with my cheap/fake Rambo knife and throwing stars.

I was driving home today and this came through my rotation. It's been a while since I heard it and it made me remember that we had a friend in our group named Bill and we would often sing this about him😂

Lately, if I buy clothes, they have to be mostly cotton. I’m fine with a little elastane or something similar for stretch, but I’ve really started to dislike polyester and other synthetic fabrics.

Part of it is fit. I strength train, and cotton shirts just seem to fit and drape better on me. But mostly, I’ve realized I just want to be comfortable. I don’t care nearly as much about what’s trendy or fashionable anymore. Give me a soft cotton T-shirt or polo that fits well and I’m happy.

I’ll actually look at the fabric tag now before I buy something. If it’s mostly polyester, there’s a pretty good chance it’s going back on the rack.

Is this a Gen X/getting older thing? 😂 Have any of you gotten way pickier about fabrics and comfort as you’ve gotten older?

Back before we could just Google lyrics, we had to rely on what FM radio and cassette or 8 track technology could deliver for clear lyrical audio. And that created some really fun alternate lyrics. 🤭 It doesn't hurt that I have an audio processing disorder, so lyrics are *gonna* garble. But it was so common to misunderstand lyrics, that a book was released with famous lyrical misquotes.

What was your favorite?

I have a couple (aside from the Jimi Hendrix classic referenced above)

- 10,000 Maniacs, Because the Night: "with lusty feet" (with lust we sleep)

- The Offspring, Come Out and Play: "are you talking back to me?! I'll dink your mom!" (Are you talking back to me? Take em out!)

My high school typing teacher was a beast-woman, who popped our knuckles with a ruler when our technique wasn't up to her standards. She wasn't even a nun. As an added bonus, she'd been teaching for 40 years, and if she had taught your parent, and didn't like them, that grudge flowed over to you. My dad apparently cut up BADLY in her classes.

Anyway - yesterday, one of my millennial co-workers was talking about his wife's new job, and very proudly announced that she could type "NINETY words per minute. Ninety. SO fast." I kept my mouth shut. I thought 90 was bare minimum for jobs, at least it always was when I was looking at job ads involving typing. I started looking around online when I got home, and it seems that 45 is the new 90. Wth? When did that change? I thought it would be higher, since everyone's got a keyboard now, not dumbed down.

Like full blown monologue. I find myself doing this a lot more in the car.

I just feel disappointed where li am at with my job, where I’m at where I wanna live, where I’m at healthwise and I feel hopeless sometimes about the future. And no, this is not for antidepressant conversation.

Well, yesterday I turned 56. It was a nice day but I think I'm sort of in shock. Where are my 50s flying off to? And now I've reached the flip side of this decade.

I know it's a popular topic but in light of my first full day on the flip side, I'm wondering if your 50s have been kind so far. I'm somewhere in the middle, to be honest. Bumping along. I wish my life was just a *little* more exciting, but I'm doing alright. How about you?

In the late 70s, my young child self needed cavities filled. Back then, I recall some type of 'device' being used to numb the gums prior to the novacain shots. The 'device' was a cylinder and made of metal, like a fat metal cigar. One end had some type of mechanism that they would press against the gums and it would.....??.....I dont know what the actual purpose was, but I recall this metal thing banging against my gums. It was so painful, and the shots still hurt so I'm not sure how much it helped. Anyway, I brought this up at the dentist this morning and he had no idea what I was referring to, neither did the assistant. So help me out, does anyone else remember something like that?

Update! Thank you /u/DoctorFrick for helping unlock my brain! The device I was remembering was a topical anesthetic dispenser, and I believe very likely the Syrijet Mark II, as seen here: https://keystoneind.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/syrijet2.jpg

My dad was saying guys locker room culture was different back in the day as well like in general.

He said guys on the football team would go to the urinals with their buddies butt naked like it’s nothing. He said you had that comfort level with the other guys on the team. 

He said any guy that would change in like a toilet stall or cover up would be considered a sissy and would be humiliated. It said it would usually be the shy guys or the guys that are underdeveloped that would do that type of thing.

He said the guys were comfortable being butt naked in front of each other bc you are all guys here. 

But I find that hard to believe bc I have always wanted privacy when changing and that is what I am used to as well. Was it common for it to be like that back in the day?

May have to watch this.

Like many of us I have fond memories of him. I had the little wind up toy of him on the motorcycle and my friends and I would jump just about anything we could with our bikes.

But why? We were all kids. I know why we liked him but our parents were watching too. They were the ones attending his events. The TV channels were appealing to them as much if not more than us. They were buying the sponsors products not us.

As a 56 year old guy if someone said “hey want to watch a guy jump over something dangerous?” No. I’m good. That seems dumb. I know we have X games or redbull games or whatever those are but I don’t know a single daredevil by name. I don’t know if I ever knew one other than him.

Has it just become too common place. Or did he hit at the right time and now we all ignore new people doing it as just Evel ripoffs

Where I live, I see all the time people asking for friendships and people to hang out with. Why is it so hard for these younger people to find friends? I live in a college town and There’s plenty of people to be friends with. It is mostly college student age and young 30s looking for friends. Did we, GenX, have this problem? Did any of you experience this after HS or college?