As an old person, I would like to hear from other old people about stuff - let’s make this apparently abandoned lemmy community lively and fun.
I am a ‘boomer’ (according to USA culture) in my society (UK) I am just ‘old’.
According to typical profile of ‘boomers’ by non-boomers we are scum of the earth and spawn of Satan. I am not sure its true but I am intrigued enough to wanna try it!
Here’s my profile: UK citizen, born early 1960s (‘late boomer’), feminist, socialist, environmentalist, vegetarian, and atheist - in all of that stuff was typically the only one in my family/school/community so I was a pioneer/lonely kid. I grew up weird and indefatigable and incorrigible - just like a battleship (a navy joke).
Grew up in poverty. First in my family to go to university - a posh one, had a scholarship, made friends who went on to rule the world (knew future Empress of Japan, knew Prime Ministers, ambassadors, popes, CEOs - all sorts). If you read this, you’re one or two persons away from all the world’s elite. No, I am not elite or rich, sorry, no begging letters please. I worked mainly in STEM but stayed interested in arts and humanities. I am still a Leftist and have gotten Lefter as I got older. I am now retired. Still waiting for the revolution.
Fellow oldies, please introduce yourself, if we hate each other’s politics maybe we can bond over sharing anecdotes about our haemorrhoids?
Let’s be old and loud and make our presence felt - in a good way. If you’re over fifty or feel like it, I invite you to make this your home from home!
Good afternoon! Fellow Boomer / Gen Jones here, born in the early '60s in the UK. I am an atheist, socialist and sci-fi addict. Never went to Uni, worked 43 years (both employed and self-employed) in financial services, and have recently retired and moved with my wife to the Welsh Marches. I have three children, one of whom still speaks to me.
My wife says there are three topics I am not allowed to discuss with visitors for fear of driving them to boredom, so here’s my chance! They are:
The Titanic (and other early C20 ocean liners)
Julian May’s sci-fi / fantasy novels
Netflix’s DARK.
Hello!
You made me chuckle - 1/3rd of my kids still talks to me. I shouldn’t laugh but ‘name one thing that defines C21st living…’ Ha!
I am a big sci-fi fan too but have no telly (by choice, I just can’t watch one without irritation - I listen to podcasts because at least you can do other stuff while listening so it feels less like being hijacked by a pub bore). But every birthday, Christmas or whatever, all the parcels are dvd-shaped because no one believes I can live without seeing the latest cult tv series so they force-feed me their greatest hits of the previous year - I gave watched some weird stuff over the years. I haven’t heard of DARK but it’ll no doubt turn up in my stocking sooner or later ;-)
I have not read Julian May but I have certainly seen her movies which are cult classics. I tend to read the sci-fi classics - stuff which is now called ‘literature’ like HG Wells War of the Worlds, Time Machine. Ursula le Guinn Left Hand of God. William Golding The Inheritors. My sister was very into the fantasy side of sci-fi and comic sci-fi - Terry Pratchett’s Discworld and such. I’ve read a couple of his books which she recommended and I like his word play and dry humour. ‘Give a man a match and he will be warm until he burns his fingers, set a man on fire with a match, and he is warm for the rest of his life’ (quoted from memory) - one of Terry’s aphorisms that made me laugh.
I am intrigued by your interest in Titannic - you are going to have to explain that. Is it the disaster that intrigues you, the engineering, the economics of trans-Atlantic passenger transport, salvaging the wreck? When I was a teen, I was mad keen on going to sea and enquired about becoming a cadet in the merchant navy (never fancied the RN, did not want to kill) but was torn between the executive officer career path or engineering. Titannic disaster is something I ponder as bad engineering or bad seamanship or corporate wickedness. In the end, went to university as I got a scholarship and was more or less pushed that way by the adults around me. It was one of those crossroads in life where you make a decision (at 18, knowing nothing of life) and afterwards you wonder were you a fool.
It’s not fair just having one life - we need much more time than we get and we build up all this experience only for it to die with us. I would design a different universe if I were god.
Good evening!
DARK is a Netflix original show, so one can’t buy the DVD, sadly. The only spoiler I’d give you is that it’s a German time travel show, only 26 episodes long, and simply the best thing I’ve ever seen on telly. The plot is riveting, the acting and casting superb and the soundtrack is my go-to playlist. We watched it with English dubbing as my wife is dyslexic and hates subtitles. If you can find someone with a Netflix login and a spare TV, I’d heartily recommend it!
I read Julian May’s ‘Saga of Pliocene Exile’ and her linked ‘Galactic Milieu’ series in the '90s and loved them, but quickly moved on to other novels. When we were visiting the States for a friend’s wedding in 2016, we found ourselves very near the Mount Washington Hotel in New Hampshire, which is a major location for the books in the GM series, so we diverted there and I spent several hours roaming around the hotel. It re-sparked my interest in the novels so I re-read them and even ran a Twitter feed for 18 months, telling the SPE story on a day-by-day basis. I ended up with nearly 30 followers! 😁 I also love Terry Pratchett, as well as Douglas Adams and my all-time favourite, Roger Zelazny. (My grandsons - who I don’t get to see - are named after two characters in Roger’s ‘Amber’ series of books.) I don’t watch terrestrial telly but still stream series I like. I’ve never got into podcasts but I do love YouTube!
Titanic … where to start? As a teenager, I read Clive Cussler’s ‘Raise The Titanic’ which got me into the story. I then discovered other less famous wrecks, such as the Empress of Ireland, the Morrow Castle and the Britannic (Titanic’s second sister). However, it’s the Titanic that still grabs me the most. She took nearly 3 hours to sink and went down with minimal listing; this allowed many cameos to be played out, showing the full range of human emotions: bravery, sacrifice, cowardice and stupidity amongst others. The setting and time frame allows us to ponder how we would have behaved in that situation. There is still so much to learn about the ship itself as well: we still don’t know if her centre propeller had 3 or 4 blades; what was the true identity of the ‘mystery ship’ that ignored her calls for help; exactly how did the collision (technically an allision) occur and what is the true extent of the damage, now hidden below the sea bed. All of this on top of her stellar passenger list, the technological marvel of the ship itself, the ridiculous weather that night … I could, of course, go on. I hope this gives you a taste! If you wanted a really good book that explores the story in depth, I’d recommend ‘Report Into the Loss of the SS Titanic - A Centennial Reappraisal’ by Sam Halpern and others.
We may only get one life but I am ambivalent about losing our experiences when we die. Rarely do I see the younger generations refer to their elders’ experience, assuming we are all outdated and have nothing to offer. And truly I feel my brain is getting full … I’m not sure I can fit many more experiences in! As I age, I feel more and more useless to those around me and I doubt I’ll be terribly sad when my time comes. I just hope my wife dies first so she doesn’t have to be alone. If I were god, I’d ensure that couples die simultaneously.