PUGA III: Oldest Doper

Idle Thoughts, just a correction. I don’t have four kids, only three. My post probably lent itself to misinterpretation.

By the way, I’m as struck as you are by the fact that no one has shown up with more than four.

Not sure is she’s still around, but I remember a poster named “bigsister” who had 5 kids. I’ll see if I can look her up somehow.

A little digging turns up this post. Not sure if that meets PUGA regulations or not. She hasn’t posted in a while either.

Thanks (I guess). I’ve been using computers and been online before a lot you guys were even born. :smiley:

You’d be surprized how many of us geezers were into computers back in the early '80s; Apple II, Sinclair, Commodore, etc even before PCs. Ah, progress!

My first computer was a Timex Sinclair. Pretty much useless. We were all really impressed when we got Commodore 64s at the base, so that we could watch the flight test parameters in realtime!

So who’s older: You, or David Simmons?

Yeah, the Sinclair worked well for it’s time, but that stupid membrane keyboad, ugh!

Gee, I don’t know. David, are you there? I’m at the age where hardly anybody is older than I. Ugh again.

Growing older may not be ideal, but it beats the alternative!

I would much rather be in my 20s – with the life knowledge I have now. But I think about the things I’ve lived through. I was born in the Space Age. I remember watching the recovery of Apollo 13. I remember a time without computers. I remember cars before efficiency was such a priority. I saw many of the TV Land shows when they were first-run, and others that nobody’s heard of today (e.g., It’s About Time). I was a teen when Punk came round, and when I went out I listened to New Wave. I remember the Cold War in the '70s and '80s. Pancho Barnes was still alive, and dad was good friends with her son, who I knew before he was killed in his P-51D. I’ve seen Chuck Yeager in person, and dad picked him up in the desert once.

I think of how my father was a child when Bonnie and Clyde and John Dillinger were committing their crimes. How he was born in the year Charles Lindbergh flew across the Atlantic. He was a young man when waterskiing was the hip sport.

David Simmons flew B-26s in WWII, a dangerous life-threatening job in a horrible time. But he’s got the memories. I can’t speak for him, but those memories must be terrifying, nostalgic, humorous… the whole gammut. And that time will never come again. His experiences and his thoughtful posts make him one of my favourite posters.

You, KlondikeGeoff, have your own history. I’m afraid I haven’t seen many of your posts, but I’m sure you have stories to tell.

‘Ugh’? I can relate, though I’m a little over half your age. But the older I get, the more I appreciate my elders. Especially when they are young at heart.

I’m almost tempted to email David Simmons to alert him of this thread. :stuck_out_tongue:

Paging Spingears who is about 2 years older than David Simmons .

The doper Ezstrete may be in the running as well. He’s a WWII veteran.

My father was a WWII vet and told some excellent stories of fighting in the Philipines. Mom would leave the room when he talked of the war but I was always fascinated and listened to whatever stories he felt like telling until the day he died. It was interesting that even when Alzheimer’s was raging it’s worst battles within him, he could recall tales of his days as an infantryman in WWII.

I have a good friend whose father flew an aircraft bomber in raids over Germany during WWII. I love every one of those tales he tells us from time to time. I love sitting with Mr. Frank over a few beers and listening to him talk. I feel like I should be taping what he says but I know he’d never allow it, so I don’t. The man still attends reunions of his squadron every year.

When I was in Seattle back in May, there was a reunion of a group of men who served on the same battleship back in WWII. I talked to a few of them and listened as they recounted tales of their time at battle in the Pacific. WOW! Such fascinating men.

I joke about being an old timer here at the age of fifty-one. Yet, we have the likes of David Simmons, Spingears and KlondikeGeoff who have lived such rich and full lives and continue to take big bites out of life day by day. I only hope that I can be that way here for years to come. Here’s to our wonderful contingent of “older” dopers. Your presence enriches the lives of all of us in ways you will never know.

Interesting comments, Johnny. We did exchange a couple of posts on your thread about your new Arriflex. Hope you are enjoying it.

Meryy Christmas, dadnap it, everybody! :slight_smile:

I saw that. :wink:

Incidentally, I’ve decided to sell it. I got it so cheap I’m sure I can make a profit. And I’m getting bloody tired of not flying. I’ll use the money to get current in the Robbo.

Just posting to say, WOW. I’dda never thunk that four would put me in some kind of PUGA catagory. Not knowing what a PUGA was until now helped that effort a great deal.

OK, as long as I’m the oldest Doper, at least who will admit it, that has posted here, might as well let you guys see what an old fart looks like on top of a mountain. This was taken last year.

Here’s the geezer

I have 5 kids, so I think I win this one. As of today, ages 16, 16, 14, 12, 10.

I think I also win oldest living relative. Me grandmother-in-law is 107. She’ll be 108 this April.