4 minutes ago, Mike Lister said:

Given current times and events? I'm happy to be over 70, seriously happy.

Yes.

Given geopolitical events.

Given environmental trends.

 

I must agree with you, wholeheartedly.

 

I consider myself extremely fortunate to now be over 70.

Absolutely.

 

 

We might also ask ourselves:

 

Are we BOOMERS the very first generation to be THANKFUL that we are old?

 

 

I mean, just for one....

 

I am SICK AND TIRED of waiting for the BOMB to go off....

 

 

Personally, I still very much wonder if I will live out my natural life, even though I am old.

We first began worrying that we might not, sometime around 1962.

 

This constant worry is always with us.

 

 

How much more difficult must it be for someone just turning 17?

 

Someone turning 17, this year, might have 90 more years to think about the Doomsday Clock.

 

So, would I wish to be in their shoes?

Someone 17?

 

The answer is no.

 

I am thankful to be over 70.

 

But still....

 

Sometimes, I wish I were 17....

 

 

6 hours ago, GammaGlobulin said:

Posters who hit 1,000 post counts without achieving at least a 1.00 "like" ratio, especially in a short period of time, should be either be removed or be limited to no more than 5 posts per day.

your ratio is below this threshold. 

19 minutes ago, stoner said:

your ratio is below this threshold. 

Yes.

 

But, actually...

 

I think I, as most everybody here, am surprised that it is not significantly lower.

 

Somebody up there must like me....

 

 

As Newman says...

 

At least I ain't yellah...

 

 

 

1 minute ago, GammaGlobulin said:

I think I, as most everybody here, am surprised that it is not significantly lower.

pity for a dollar ? 

11 minutes ago, stoner said:

pity for a dollar ? 

Pocket of Miracles?

 

Apple for a dollar?

 

 

I would take the 17 no prob with what year this is. Just happy to skip the first 16 years of life and only have one year left till legal age.

It would be the cherry on top if I could take with me what I have learned in this life to that 17 yr old body but if not no prob either ????

2 minutes ago, GammaGlobulin said:

Apple for a dollar?

not crazy with current inflation rates.

I have no idea what it is like to be 17 in 2023. I am 71 and happy being that age, but then again I am in good shape and have a wonderful lady partner and enough money to enjoy life. I don't need anything else. 

I'm in my late seventies and it would be nice to turn back the clock.  However i dont think a teenager today would enjoy life

As much as i did in my early years and beyond. 

Depends on your outlook. With all the stuff going on I am glad I am not 17.

13 hours ago, QuantumQuandry said:

Is this a trick question or something?  I thought I was pretty clear.

 

Only downside is my wife would get in trouble for being a pedo.

And you would have no money unless she pays for 17yr old boys. 

7 hours ago, GammaGlobulin said:

We might also ask ourselves:

 

Are we BOOMERS the very first generation to be THANKFUL that we are old?

 

 

Not so much that but our early years were so enjoyable less traffic, no need for fear walk to school alone 5yrs old, play in the streets, woods, it was just fun, well for me in the UK anyway. I was just lucky maybe. We were latchkey kids. Mum and Dad out working.

70, no doubt. Not a good time to be a youth in this world. The issues facing them are far greater than we faced. And social media ruins many lives. I cannot even imagine a scenario where Twitter (not X!), Instagram or TikTok would improve a single youths life. 

 

Also, not a good time to have kids. Please, please spare them the grief. 

My answer is 70.At this point a person who is 70 in 2023 has experienced the best of what society had to offer From where I sit the future in this life has a lot less to offer,which would be dispiriting for a 17 year old.

17 now I'd still be sh8t with smart phones. 

No way I want to be young again.

But this current generation is a self entitled generation,never been disciplined

 

I hope the recession comes along 

14 hours ago, QuantumQuandry said:

It's a simple answer for me, 17.  Time is the one thing I can't buy more of.

Where are you shopping?

19 minutes ago, georgegeorgia said:

 

I hope the recession comes along 

Always a pleasant thought - just go back to telling your co-workers they are going to die

My guess is that no 17 year olds want to be 70 and most 70 yr olds don't want to be 17

5 hours ago, GammaGlobulin said:

Yes.

 

But, actually...

 

I think I, as most everybody here, am surprised that it is not significantly lower.

 

Somebody up there must like me....

 

 

As Newman says...

 

At least I ain't yellah...

 

 

 

recently re-watched this... 

As we all get older we become wiser !! 

37 minutes ago, 1FinickyOne said:

Where are you shopping?

Pattaya.  Time is always in short supply, here ????

I've been 17, but not 70....but I suspect growing up in the 1950s was a lot more fun.

 

When I was a kid, we were still free to go about things as if society was safe. Walk to school, play sports after school, eat dinner at whomever's house we happened to be at when dinner time came. There was a local gas station run by a guy who loved to ride his old Indian motorcycle, so he left his station self-service. You bought gas, opened his till, put in your money and took your change. Outsiders just assumed the station was unattended, so didn't know the system, and left when no one came out to service them. Locals knew, and we were honest. Couldn't do that today.

 

We had good TV news with real journalists. We learned things in school like math and penmanship and history without any associated 'presentism'. When we were curious about something, we went to a library, poured through the cards, then looked to see if the book we wanted was in the stack or out on loan. We didn't live inside our phones, and when went out for a vanilla coke with friends, we talked with them. As a society run by old school liberals, we were on a path to be truly colorblind.

 

Then the Boomers gave way to the Participation Trophy Generations, where actual talent gave way to inclusiveness...except color and ethnicity have come back in force. We are Black or White or Brown or gay or "cis" first and foremost. Fat is beautiful, even though it's butt ugly and unhealthy. Be careful, 17 year olds, or you'll get cancelled.

 

A 17 year old in 2023 does have the great advantage of almost the entire body of human knowledge a few keystrokes away, but instead of going after muons or the works of Aeschylus, he/she goes after banal TikTok videos, chasing "likes". Horrible. And while each succeeding generation tends to hate the music of the generation after them, there really is a legitimate argument that EDM, techno, house and trance are absolute rubbish.

 

I think the world of 2023 is potentially more boring (unless one is a self-starter), but I don't think it is any more bleak than Vietnam, Biafra, lynchings, the '67 Middle East War, the '73 Middle East War, 1970's Kampuchea, Black September, George Habbash, Angola, the 1990s in the former Yugoslavia, the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, the Kennedy assassination, "Silent Spring"...and certainly no more bleak that what 90-100 years olds faced with the Great Depression, WWII, the Holocaust, etc.

 

 

15 hours ago, GammaGlobulin said:

Wait!

 

Are you telling us that you would be willing to be 17 in 2023?

 

Are you sure?

 

I'm trying to be as serious as I have ever been, here.

 

Do you mean that you would actually be WILLING to be 17 in 2023???

 

 

 

I would LOVE to actually be 17 in 2023. 

Instead I only feel like I'm still 17 (I can still wear the same sized clothes and can probably skateboard, snowboard, BMX, etc about as well as when I was 17).

What I can't do anymore is walk into a nightclub and pick up hot young white women. 

I'm basically invisible to most white woman under 45 (aside from my very hot 38 year old white GF ???? so not being able to pickup younger white women isn't actually an issue, although it definitely would be be if I was single).
 

26 minutes ago, Walker88 said:

I've been 17, but not 70....but I suspect growing up in the 1950s was a lot more fun.

 

And while each succeeding generation tends to hate the music of the generation after them, there really is a legitimate argument that EDM, techno, house and trance are absolute rubbish.

Are you sure you're not 70? 

Lots of old music is great, but EDM, Techno, House and Trance are awesome!

1 hour ago, georgegeorgia said:

As we all get older we become wiser !! 

Based on my observations of old guys in Thailand, they weren't exactly very smart to start with.

They just get fatter, grumpier and fixated on how "it was better in the 50s"   

They also seem to lose the ability to dress well or keep themselves looking well groomed.  

10 19 and 90 best ages