Tomm Willians

GhostRider62

This cynic says it is doubtful.

Sometimes it is the crazy on someone's eyes more than the firmness of one's biceps. Two young punks drove by me screaming and threw a beer bottle at my head. They stopped and got out coming at me. I grabbed a large branch and told them it's go time M'fers and went right at them. Into their vehicle and off they went. I had a second similar incident this year and after the cra cra settled, the reality is quite simply we older folks don't stand the best of chances against a determined, younger attacker and certainly not two of them even if we have a touch of cra cra going for us.

ofajen

Ten years ago, I had never seen a dead armadillo on the side of the road in our area.

Otto

Steve B.

My body worked better. I had a hard and physical career (47 years) as a stage electrician. Lot of lifting, lot of climbing, ridicules hours at times. Many of the injuries suffered over that time have come back to haunt me, bicep tendon damage, L thumb damage, ankles are a ness and cause significant balance issues. I'm lucky the epidural for my bilged L5 did a wonderful job of reliving the pain I suffered back in December.

delbiker1 

Seriously, there really is nothing I miss about being younger. I've been there and done that. I prefer to look at what I can do, what I have, and what makes me content today. I was going to say happy, but contentment is my happiness. One thing I avoid at an advanced age, getting caught in conversations that are all about what is wrong in one's life, especially physical ailments. They become childlike contests about who suffers the most. There are no winners at that. Bicycling is still my thing, still what most brings out the child at play that is still part of me. I want to hold onto that.

Bob Ross

Oh man, yes! When I was in grad school in my early 30s I routinely survived on 4 hours sleep/night.
...and that was often after 5 or 6 beers/night!

...or in my case, being/feeling 100% indestructable. The things I put my body through as a youth and young man were, in hindsight, ridiculously stupid. How did I survive?!?! And yet I never spent a night in a hospital until I was in my 50s.

oh god yes, ^^^this

Ah, well, speaking of "childish" ...the first thought that crossed my mind when I read the thread subsject line was "the complete absence of responsibility"

Of course, I don't miss the complete absence of money that seemed to always accompany the absence of responsibility, so in truth I'm pretty happy with the trade-off.
But there was definitely a sense of carefree, let's-just-let-life-happen-and-see-where-it-takes-me, I WANNA EXPERIENCE EVERYTHING! that filled my younger days and that now and then I look back on with a slight sense of wistful longing...I think the "100% indestructable" thing was part of that.

.
.
.
.
But mostly I just miss it not hurting so much when I stand up or get down on the floor.

OldTryGuy

In my case it's on the other side of 8 years ago tomorrow or last Tuesday at almost 65, can't remember exactly because that Tuesday afternoon is the day I had my Orchiectomy surgery to begin my Experimental (as in 1st in the World) PCa, Prostate Cancer Treatment. EVERYTHING in life began the steady-continual decline from which there is NO RECOVERY.

For a short time I still maintained a respectable level of physical exertion and achieved goals I had the ability to fulfill; however, the times required to do so sadly increased thus reducing my enthusiasm and the desire to do again.

arex

I miss being able to walk without looking like an arthritic sasquatch.

canklecat

Everything. Why lie? My health took a nose dive right around age 50, with chronic pain from injuries after being hit by cars twice in less than 20 years, so it's hard to find anything good about aging.

The only advantage I've found to being older is maybe a little more patience. But that's due more to a lack of energy. I was usually pretty low key and patient before.

79pmooney

I miss the greener grass on the other side of that fence. (And yes, it really was was greener. Much more water. Now I don't even see or hear sprinklers. )

AJW2W11E

Well there's still some humor in this. At this age we become smarter. I'm watching my young neighbor tear apart his car and rebuild it to speed it up,spending wads of money. fully knowing that he'll be bored with it this time next year. Watch some couples after they first meet and kind of have a sense how it'll all turn out. Of course, someone in his 80's is watching me on my bike and laughing about how stupid I am, should be swimming.

MagnaRota

Honestly, I don't notice it. Mostly because by the grace of God I've had pretty good health. (Grace= you didn't earn it, you just got it for no reason.) Also because the typical things I do experience are nothing new. If my knees or feet or back hurts, it's really no worse than they did when I was 18 after being out all day playing football with no equipment or getting into fights or doing stunts and all that kind of risky male behavior. So I just put on my 80's music and carry on like I did then.

I even crashed a bike bad when I was 13. High speed on the road, a car stuck out too far at an intersection, brakes sucked so I couldn't stop, couldn't safely pull around because of traffic and slammed into the door. Caved in the car door and pretzeled the wheel, but managed to hold onto the bars and I must have gotten a greenbranch fracture in the wrist. Made it home walking the bike on the back wheel, and I didn't tell my parents I hit a car or that I was hurt because I would get punished for getting hurt, so no medical attention and that wrist hurt like hell for 3 months, all the time. So any time something hurts now, I just feel like I am 13 again, that's all.

PeteHski

I think that's just an illusion to make us feel better.

Jtmav

Is pointing and laughing the same as smiles?

locolobo13 

Pretty girls smiling at you..

They stopped smiling at me somewhere in my late 30s or 40s. One day in my mid 40s after a good workout, walking down the street, I noticed several of the young girls smiling extra at me. Later I found out why. The barn door was open..

Bob Ross

I've probably told this story here before: On the day of my 49th birthday my wife and I were in a coffee shop mid-ride, and a friend from our cycle club walked in. This guy's probably ~20 years older than me. My wife tells him "Today's Bob's birthday!" and so this guy says "Happy Birthday! How old are you?"

I tell him "I'm forty-nine."

He says "Well, enjoy it...because after next year it's all downhill."

...

The funny thing is, he was right! Immediately after I turned 50 all sorts of aches & pains cropped up that I'd never had -- or at least never noticed -- before.

MinnMan

I didn't have any significant health declines near 50. Those that I've had (still quite modest) came in my late 50s.

BUT psychologically, it was turning 50 that hit me. I'm not much for landmarks or numerology, but turning 30, turning 40 didn't really affect me much. Turning 60 didn't affect me much either. But turning 50 was the point when I needed to make my peace with a whole lot of realism.

gthomson

I guess it's naive of me to answer this when I'm only 55 and those who are my seniors would probably say, "you ain't seen nothing yet" but I definitely miss the things that I can't write down in this forum w/o getting kicked out Of the girls that still smile at me now, I'm sure they are smiling for some other reason than I'm smiling at them.

I think the old me is worrying more than the young me ever did. Any illness that has been in my family DNA has me thinking about it and wondering when my time will come. I also would really like to start relaxing and enjoying life more and do the things I want to and not beat to another drum as I run the treadmill of life. Time is running out and I don't like to think that I spent my life schooling, working, making ends meet to finally kick up my heels on my comfy chair and then croak from a heart attack. What a waste.

pdlamb

It'd be nice to have the body of a 40 year old again. It'd be nice to have the hearing I had at 50. I'm glad I had my cataracts out, I can see better now than I could at 30.

But then there's this:
Every time I have to get down on the ground or the floor it seems so far away. And getting up is almost as hard. What happened to my flexibility??

50PlusCycling

Lots of stuff, like sharper senses of smell and eyesight (though my hearing has improved, if anything). I miss being able to eat lots without it going to my belly, and not having to regularly pluck excess nose and ear hairs was nice. In my younger days the Latin ladies in their bikinis used to whistle at me as I rode by the beach, and my Spanish was good enough that some of the things they yelled out would make me blush.

Robert7659

I miss screaming children, angry wife and pushy in-laws.

andrewclaus

Nothing at all. I had my most active years after age 50. I hiked the Triple Crown trails, toured across the US by bike, after finishing my career as a firefighter.

Now in my mid-sixties, I do find myself taking more rest days, but I enjoy them.

rumrunn6

used to eat cheesecake

tyrion

I miss the faster recovery time of my younger days. And the hair.

CAT7RDR

I miss when obsolescence was not built into products.