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Ageing & Growing Old

Are you growing older?

  • Yes, I am

    Votes: 82 61.7%
  • No, I'm getting younger

    Votes: 28 21.1%
  • Sorry, I don't understand the question

    Votes: 16 12.0%
  • I'm a Mod; I think adding silly polls to chat threads is pointless

    Votes: 7 5.3%

  • Total voters
    133

rynner2

Gone But Not Forgotten
(ACCOUNT RETIRED)
Joined
Aug 7, 2001
Messages
54,631
It happens to most of us, but gradually, as you become aware of increasing frailties, etc.

But sometimes you get a blast from the past which brings home how much water has flowed under the bridge...

In 1968, I was working for the Marconi Company, building the No. 2 satellite dish at Goonhilly. I have several pictures of the construction.

And today I came across this news story:
GOONHILLY SATELLITE DISH TO BE DISMANTLED


11:00 - 15 February 2006
One of the oldest antennae at a Westcountry satellite earth station is being dismantled. Antenna 2, the second "dish" to be built at Goonhilly, near Helston, 38 years ago, has reached the end of its operational life. Engineering teams have begun the task of dismantling the huge landmark structure which weighs almost 1,000 tonnes.

Parts of the antenna, such as the transmitters, have been recovered for use by some of other 60 dishes at the station.

A ten-tonne, ten-metre long screw, which was used to elevate the dish, will be recovered and put on display outside the Goonhilly Visitors Centre.

Alan Bradley, Goonhilly Earth Station manager, said: "When it was first built, Antenna 2 had an expected operational life of about 25 years. The fact that it has lasted much longer than originally expected is a tribute to the quality of its construction and design. But the weather has steadily taken its toll on the metal structure. It is no longer feasible to maintain it."

Mr Bradley said: "There are no plans to remove any of the other 60 Goonhilly dishes.

"All the other antennae, including Antenna 1, which has been granted listed status, continue to play a vital role.

"The demand for satellite communications continues to be very strong."

Antenna 2 has not been fully operational for over a year.

Mr Bradley said: "For most of its 38 years, this aerial has provided transatlantic communications.

"During that time it has been used to convey not only thousands of telephone calls, but live TV pictures of historic events, including the Olympics and global events such as Live Aid."
WMN

(Mention of the Olympics reminds me that while at Goonhilly, I saw some of the first ever satellite images of the Mexico Olympics, received from Telstar by Goonhilly 1. The clips were short, as the satellite was only visible for short periods, as it was in a low orbit.)

Anyone else got any 'growing old' moments?
 
My growing old moment was when i heard a person asked their date of birth in a pub, saying "1984". I thought for f***s sake nineteen eighty blimmin four!. I can recal whilst in my teens in the late 1970's wondering about whether or not i would ever reach that mythical year that bowie sang of and Orwel prophecied all too truthfully about. **

**(security cameras watching our every move, forced identity cards we have to pay for, public smoking bans, and the big brother internet pervading every niche of our lives, even if we have no computer.!)
 
Gemaki said:
My moment came when I read the above post.... I graduated in 1984!!! :shock: :cry:

Young chicks. My Fave! Hey! I'm a young chick too! Magic! :D
 
Blimey!
My first marriage was started, finished and divorced for a year by 1984.

Then again, it was the year of the last, truly free festival at Stonehenge at which I attended. Hawkwind were headlining, minds were free ...

Sorry - I drifted off there. That's another "getting old" moment.
 
Stormkhan said:
Blimey!
My first marriage was started, finished and divorced for a year by 1984.

Then again, it was the year of the last, truly free festival at Stonehenge at which I attended. Hawkwind were headlining, minds were free ...

Sorry - I drifted off there. That's another "getting old" moment.

Okay. You win Stormkham (rynner don't count - he's lost it). I am your long lost son. Hug me and kiss me and tell me you love me.
 
TheCavynaut said:
The 30th anniversary of Punk rock can't be far off. :(

That's a definite 'one foot in the grave' moment.


I went to see the Sex Pistols when they briefly reformed in 1996, and I was thinking only the other day that even that was 10 years ago now. How depressing. :nooo:
 
My daughter has started to ask what life was like in 'the olden days'.:(

I had a growing old moment when I was thirty two, when realised that my second cousin who finishing school was exactly half my age. It was probably the defining moment when I recognised my mortality.
 
TheCavynaut said:
The 30th anniversary of Punk rock can't be far off. :(

That's a definite 'one foot in the grave' moment.

That brings to mind the Reeves and Mortimor song:

I Remember Punk Rock

You know, I remember punk rock ,
Like it was only yesterday,
Oh Mr Buzzcock on my shoulder singing in that extra-special way.

Oh yes, I remember punk rock I recall those melodies,
By the Clash, The Adverts, Wire, Eater,
not to mention ATV.

Well, the Generation X sang so sweetly,
While The Pistols ate their lunch,
The Damned had tea with The Lurkers,
Whilst X-Ray Specs enjoyed brunch.

You know, I remember punk rock,
Like it was only yesterday,
Oh Mr Buzzcock on my shoulder singing in that extra-special way.

Well the The Vibrators sang so tenderly whilst 999 had soup,
Richard Hell had The Slits round for coffee,
And The Slaughter and The Dogs round too.

You know, I remember punk rock,
Like it was only yesterday,
Oh Mr Buzzcock on my shoulder,
singing in that extra-special way.

I felt old the other day when one of the girls I work with mentiond that she was born in the year I left school.

I now understand why my mother started crying when I came home from school and told her we were doing "The Beetles" in history!
 
liveinabin1 said:
I now understand why my mother started crying when I came home from school and told her we were doing "The Beetles" in history!
No, she was crying because you didn't know that you study beetles in biology, not history! Sorry.

I agree with what most are saying. Like everyone else, I have a 20-year-old brain inside the body of someone approaching middle age, and I am still shocked when I see that some person on the TV (footballer etc) was born in the late 1980s. I find the concept of any adult being nearly 20 years younger than me very hard to take. How can it be possible?
 
Ye Gods, what a maudlin thread!

I've a stone's throw from 30 and i'm starting to feel like this. Carpe Diem may well be a platitude, but it still holds some truth.

Onward Fortean Soldiers! We'll all be over the hill at some stage ,but at least some of us will be trying to roll back down it!
 
Oh, you mean stumbling on our weak ankles, falling and rolling down the hill... in the slush and mud. Yeah. Done that.
 
Hmm, the Mods moved my post, which resulted in me not getting any email notifs about all these new replies...

I came back here to post this timely piece:
How long have you got to live?
By Alice Fordham

A new lifestyle questionnaire for the over-sixties could offer clues about the time they have left

EVERYONE knows that the Grim Reaper is approaching, but by answering 12 easy questions, you can now find out how fast.
American scientists have developed a test for over-50s designed to answer the question: will I still be alive in four years? Risk factors including age, gender and disease are analysed, and the likelihood of imminent death calculated with, the scientists claim, 81 per cent accuracy.

The quiz, funded by the US National Institute on Ageing, awards points for every answer that indicates age or weakness. The greater the total score, the more likely the respondent is to die within four years.

You accumulate two points just for being male, and further points for being over 60 or having a low body mass index. Two points are added for smoking and for infirmities such as cancer and diabetes.

Once your score reaches 14 points, the chance of dying in the next four years rises to 64 per cent.

“It’s a very natural human question of ‘What’s going to happen to me’?” said Dr Sei Lee, of the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Centre, who helped devise the quiz. “We also know that doctors are very cautious about giving prognostic information because they don’t want to be wrong.”

However, the worried middle-aged have been urged not to panic after taking the test at home.

Dr Kenneth Covinsky, another co-author, noted that a doctor could help to put a high score into perspective and suggest mitigating action, such as giving up smoking. Detractors have said that the test is not comprehensive enough.

Dr Donald Jurivich, 52, geriatrics chief at the University of Illinois, criticised the test for ignoring family history. His answers gave him a low score, but he remains uneasy because both of his parents died prematurely.

Obesity is another factor which seems to have been overlooked. Dr George Lange, 57, is significantly overweight, but found his score was surprisingly healthy. Neither blood pressure, nor cholesterol level, had been taken into account.

Dr Lee countered by saying that in fact low weight is a greater sign of risk in the elderly, as it often indicates illness, while a family tendency to premature death is less relevant among the over-50s.

The study, published yesterday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, followed 11,701 Americans from 1998 to reach its conclusions.

The test’s authors claim that it is designed to “try to help doctors and families get a firmer sense for what the future may hold”.

However, some people are cynical about the test’s likely uses. Dr Anne Moloney, a British geriatrician, said: “I’d be cautious about such tests if they were going to be used as a way of rationing resources in public healthcare.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0, ... 08,00.html
Quiz here:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0, ... 38,00.html
Click the link there, and then enlarge the image.
 
Just did the test. Apparently I have a 96% chance of hanging around to annoy you all for the next four years! :D

(Although like other critics I find the lack of any reference to obesity rather strange.)

BTW, Mods, I think Growing Old is the Human Condition! 8)
 
Ah, you know, I can still remember when ryn. was a mod*. Then we all moaned at him for squishing threads.

He was usually right though.

Now where does that leave the issue of this squishing? :D

*I was just a tiddler then without a hair to sit on . . .
 
When I realised that I started my uni course 11 years ago....11 years!!!!!
 
JamesWhitehead said:
Ah, you know, I can still remember when ryn. was a mod*. Then we all moaned at him for squishing threads.

He was usually right though.
Well thank you, James, for those kind words.

Newer members may wonder why I became un-modded. The answer is that my computer at the time died, and I couldn't afford a replacement, so I was away from the board for over a year.

On my eventual return, there were already new mods in place, and I was happy not to have the hassle!

When you get to my age, there are more immediate problems to worry about (just to get back on thread! 8) ).
 
I've just remembered its 18 years since Ray Houghton put the ball in the England net (stuttgart 1988), 18 years, what the hell has just happened to the last 18 years. Sports events always do it for me i'm afraid heres a few more that might make people feel a little older today. Its 20 years since Liverpool won the Double (1986), its 22 years since torvill and dean won Gold, its 29 years since red rum won his last grand national. All events that i have very clear memorys of in fact the red rum one is for some strange reason the oldest memory i have. And for those of you who think that 32 is not old just wait til you get to 32, and those of you who think that 32 is still very young it maybe but i can't help feeling that years now seem to get quicker and quicker.
 
Has it really been 200 years since I became a vampire? How it flies mm... :twisted:
 
Im not sure if this is the place to put this, but reading through the posts I had my own little epiphany..
It dawned on me that Im just about 30 years old. WHat scares me about this is that I can remember a time when I thought being 30 was ancient!
I actually genuinely sometimes forget how old I am and I have to think about it.. I think I might be looking at the world through much younger eyes.
Also, is it normal to have the realisation that one day youre going to die? Is that morbid that have that thought?? :shock:
 
Also, is it normal to have the realisation that one day youre going to die? Is that morbid that have that thought??

Its all perfectly normal psychicsue and the older you get the more you will have the thought, i never ever thought about death up until i turned 30. Now i'd say i might have a good think about it once a month. Its nothing to worry (well not for me anyway) i'm of the point of view that it is the only certainty in life so there is no avoiding it. I would be more concerned about how its going to happen to be honest.
 
feen5 said:
Also, is it normal to have the realisation that one day youre going to die? Is that morbid that have that thought??

Its all perfectly normal psychicsue and the older you get the more you will have the thought, i never ever thought about death up until i turned 30. Now i'd say i might have a good think about it once a month. Its nothing to worry (well not for me anyway) i'm of the point of view that it is the only certainty in life so there is no avoiding it. I would be more concerned about how its going to happen to be honest.

I sort of agree and disagree simultaneously here.

Death is a certainty. True enough. But I think it is the emphasis you take on the meditations on it which is the crucial part here. Sort of like "Don't Fear the Reaper" - if you'll forgive a Blue Oyster Cult reference - think about living, as opposed to worrying about dying; there's only one thing that you can do anything about, out of that pair.

Back to the topic..

I think I felt it most acutely a while back when I was unsuccessfully chatting up a girl in a pub; she told me her age and I had the thought that I had LP's in my record collection older than her, that I'd bought new!
 
Niall114 said:
Back to the topic..

I think I felt it most acutely a while back when I was unsuccessfully chatting up a girl in a pub; she told me her age and I had the thought that I had LP's in my record collection older than her, that I'd bought new!
:rofl:

If I see a pretty girl with her mother, I usually fancy the mother!
 
Oddly enough, this is to do with records too:

Last night I visited a pub in another town, and a DJ was setting up his equipment there.
I strolled over to have a look - no vinyl, no turntables! :shock:
 
rynner said:
Oddly enough, this is to do with records too:

Last night I visited a pub in another town, and a DJ was setting up his equipment there.
I strolled over to have a look - no vinyl, no turntables! :shock:

Sure they all use i-pods and the like now :roll:
Or a laptop.

Makes you wonder who's actually dj-ing, the computer or the guy pressing the buttons.
 
I'm 27 and feel very old, particularly when chatting people up. It's sometimes sad to think that I am this age and have no property, some debt, a job I don't really like, no wife, no kids, an inability to keep a girlfriend for more than about nine months, a qualification I got when I was 20 and little opportunity to use it.

I'm also sad that I still have an urge to leave the country and bum around for years, I still like to go out and get wasted on a Saturday and snog random girls, I still ride a BMX and spend way too much money on records and have no pension. I should have grown up by now.
 
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