[CloudHound]

I young lady offered me her seat on the tube a year ago. I was 65 then. It took me weeks to recover.

You catch me in reflective mood and thinking about early years when my baby face looks stopped me getting things other guys had.

Girls mostly.

Now I look into the future with dismay just hoping my good health and income continue long enough to have some more flights in my beloved Stinson.

[Propwash]

Now I look into the future with dismay just hoping my good health and income continue long enough to have some more flights in my beloved Stinson.

My advice is not to look into the future. Getting old is natural, it happens to everybody if they are lucky enough! I regard myself as fortunate to still be here, having had one or two close scrapes with mortality (the violent kind) in the past and now live every day as it comes. I find it hard to believe how fast time flies and worrying about what might happen just wastes what I have left. I treat every day as a new adventure and take pleasure from all kind of things I would never have believed when in my 20's 0r 30's. The only thing that really matters is your health.

A relevant example is yesterday. I went for a walk around a local cemetery. That might sound ghoulish but it is well kept, very peaceful and colourful, has hard, dry paths when the fields nearby are very muddy, and has some interesting headstones chronicling local social history. There is a small CWGC enclosure within it which given the date I spent some time in. One headstone is for an RAF pilot, killed in 1940 the day before his 20th birthday. I don't have much to complain about in comparison.

PW

[T6Harvard]

@CloudHound

As the OP is about advertising.... I should think if you advertised 'good health, good income, own aeroplane' the girls would come running now?!

It is true that one may well reflect on how quickly time has passed from our exuberant youth to middle age and beyond, but so long as we have grabbed opportunities along the way, had a load of fun when we could and ploughed on through adversity when necessary, then the reflection should bring wry smiles and satisfaction, along with those wistful moments.

PS, 66 is the new 50

[PeteSpencer]

A relevant example is yesterday. I went for a walk around a local cemetery. That might sound ghoulish but it is well kept, very peaceful and colourful, has hard, dry paths when the fields nearby are very muddy, and has some interesting headstones chronicling local social history. There is a small CWGC enclosure within it which given the date I spent some time in. One headstone is for an RAF pilot, killed in 1940 the day before his 20th birthday. I don't have much to complain about in comparison.

PW

Our local cemetary has been on my route for grandchildern push-chair walks over the last 9 years : I agree with everything PW says; peaceful and beautifully kept, except that our cemetary is on the way into town from Chez S so makes a pleasant walk into the Abbey Gardens. At a prominent bend one can't help but be stunned by the tragedy of the beautiful headstone to a RFC pilot officer age 20, an only child who died in 1918 in the closing weeks of WW1.

Ironically the silence is only broken by the KC135s and C130s on their way downwind to land at Mildenhall and on fine summer days the training traffic into Rougham: Both sounds I accept and adore .

The smell of Yew and creaky old yew trees kindles memories from the dark and distant past when age 5, I attended a Cof E school in Exmouth: It was situated next door to a cemetary which was part of our playground: We used to line up on the raised headstone thingies and play buses.

Fine distant memories, but I have no idea where I've left my car keys..................

Peter

[ROG]

Propwash has the right attitude-
Jf you"re lucky enough to have good health( the main thing )-and the brain still works--make the most of it.
I set myself targets every year---to do something new, learn something. fly to another 10 new airfields. etc.
Age is only a number--though I must admit the numbers getting bigger.
As some people assume you"re doddery at 60 plus you can sometimes make the most of it by playing the pensioner card.----practice saying slowly-----but i"m a pensioner .

[PeteSpencer]

As some people assume you"re doddery at 60 plus you can sometimes make the most of it by playing the pensioner card.----practice saying slowly-----but i"m a pensioner .

Ain't that the truth: Our group has dragged itself into the 21st century and has created a website and passes stuff around via Dropbox, which I enrolled into last year:

Unwittingly I had not signed up to the freebie Dropbox but the Professional iteration: It was only when last mouth they helped themselves to £95 via cont DDebit that I realised my error.

Fortunately PayPal were onto the case, accepted that 'a pensioner' could not possibly have wittingly signed up to , or even have the remotest use for Professional Drop box and the cash was back in my account (and DD cancelled) within 48 hours.

Not so lucky for a refund on some cr ap Chinese toy for granddaughter which did not work and suppliers did not answer emails....

[Genghis the Engineer]

Buy Blitish !

G

[MachFlyer]

Age doesn’t matter it’s all about the health

[CloudHound]

Except the older one gets the bigger the bag of regrets at opportunities missed becomes.

[johnm]

Except the older one gets the bigger the bag of regrets at opportunities missed becomes.

Trying to catch up keeps you busy though

[T6Harvard]

Can't go back in time. No regrets, just try harder now, as Johnm says.

[Propwash]

Except the older one gets the bigger the bag of regrets at opportunities missed becomes.

Life is full of choices. At every crossroads in life we have to decide which path to take. Every decision has consequences. If we were able to go back and make a different choice, we have no way of knowing what the consequences would then be. Something viewed now as a missed opportunity might in reality have been close escape from something worse. The smallest, seemingly inconsequential change to something in history could have significant ramifications for what then followed.

At one point in my distant past I had an opportunity to go in a direction which seemed, at the time, very attractive for all sorts of reasons but did require some sacrifice. After much agonising I decided not to accept the offer. Had I done so, I couldn't possibly have met the woman who is now my wife. Nothing, however fulfilling, enriching or professionally satisfying would have made that a good decision.

The secret to a happy life in my view is to enjoy what you have, take pride or pleasure in what you have had, and never look back with regret.

An extract from the poem "Desiderata" is worth taking to heart as a model for living life:

"Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans . . . . . . . Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth."

PW

[malcolmfrost]

If you haven't seen it, the "Moondust" episode from Season 3 of The Crown is worth watching on this topic! I got something in my eye

[T6Harvard]

A lovely post @Propwash

We had Desiderata read at our wedding. It was a civil ceremony so we had to omit the line 'Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be' . We have a framed copy of the full version next to our wedding photos. Some say it is cheesy but there's a lot of the right sentiment in there.

[avtur3]

.... and at xmas you get a fuel allowance £100 or over 80 £200--certainly helps to top up the cherokee---You mean it"s not for the plane !!! ....

You might get even further this year, M-i-L has just had her letter for this year's award and for over 80's it is £300.