> CP wrote --
>> most of my life, my best friends were 20+ years older than me (so I'd have
> intelligence & wisdom to learn from; my peers were & are, shallow & dumb
> *sigh*)
> I always preferred to be around older people as well.
> I have always been interested in history, and not the big stories, but
> "what was life like" whenever.

Exaxtly; this is what it means "to learn from history" -- learn the whys &  wherefors, not the when/where/who of it all. . .

School history focuses exlusively on the later, which deletes the former,  leaving all of us due for the "must repeat it" & most often the least likeable  parts. . . *sigh*

> Too many people think history only started when they were born.
> While "everyone" my age was interested only in what was going on at the
> time I was more interested in what happened before and was the cause of what
> is.  Not just that something happened, but what brought it on.

That's the key -- what wwere the key influences & causes (how else are we going to know what the power-seeking sociopaths are up to today? Hmm. .  .coincidence?)

You & I, & others, spent our time learning, rather thAn amassing influence,  position,. & power, so our main job remains just to be a warning bell that  nobody believes nor even understands.

> As for music, I liked what was popular at the time, but also older music,
> from the early 1900s to the (then) present.
> Same with movies, and everything else.
> I haven't had an interest in pop culture in many years.

Makes sense -- those seekng just the profits (those who own the entertainmemnt  industry, all participants & players included) want it simpler & simpler, as  that's more easy to control.

Make evertuything the same & copyright challenges become a matter of finding  out what part of your industry the judge owns shares in.  Anythig can be  cjhallemged & every challemge can be refuted, depending on which end of the  challenge that the oldest money's on.

> I was reading recently about current celebs, for example, and have no
> idea who they are other than some "mega star".

Likewise -- I can erecoignizea few names & sorta know their area, but only  becauise I lolve doing croissword puzzles, even though more are devolving to  pimping the names of entertainers (I include athletes in this category)

>> >> You were dating a North Viet girl?
>> > Shh, no one was supposed to know about that.  :)
>> 
>> How's that happen? Sounds like an interesting story
> That was a joke son, I say that was a joke.  :)

Okay, a joke. . wink-wink, got it! Haha haha.

>> *LOL*  Not your fault for choosing a branch whose training was more amenable
> to comfort, eh?
> When I got my letter from Uncle Sam and given 30 days to make up my mind
> or have it made up for me, I thought about which branch to join.
> I wasn't interested in the Marines, to tough and ruled them out at once.
> I have a fear of heights so that ruled out the  Air Force.  (My brother
> had been in the AF).
> I wasn't interested in marching and eating beans in a rainy rice paddy so
> that ruled out the Army.
> I always liked the water and going places so decided on the Navy.
> Besides, they had snappy looking uniforms.  :)

This is why the trope is of the sexy girls trying to meet the sailors, eh?

My dad wore a Royal Canadian Air Force uniform when he & my mom met -- she  loves how he looked in the uniform & that's why they got married (her version 
*LOL* Along with how when he asked her to marry him, she never answered until 
in front of the mayor(the rules in France were that a couple must be married by the mayor to live together, even on a Canadian base)

The planning went on, & so the engagement was valid & active.

Apparently they met in the Navy transport ship's cafeteria(mess?) & my dad told her, after an hour of conversation, that they'd be married within 2 years (beat it by 4 months, it turned out)l she laughed to herself, as she didn't like him  much then.

But they had over 60 years together, all told!

GP>> & I'm surrounded by the "Me Generation." *sigh*
JM> Yep, today its "all about me".  And so many of the kids today have all
> sorts of mental and emotional problems and one dare not question them.

Yup, & these problems continue on ointo adulthood & others look at them &  think, "So I can be that morally & ethically lazy & still be considered a  functioning adult-- cool, why try harder?"

WhenI ewas young, we smacked the loudmouthed lying kid upside the head a  fewtimes in the wschoolyard, whether he was autistic or not. (hey, you're in  with us, you're one of us & we treat you the same as any other of us--we didn't need empathy/etc. training to think in terms of equality); these kids, autism  or not, grew up knowing how to behave in a society.

You promise something, but then renege, you got a pretty serious beating (for  8-year-olds); now you don't pull that crap off as an adult -- a wonderful  sysyem that got shut down with the "there's no excuse for fighting, ever."

Thankfully most of us duly ignore that when it's important, like when our loved ones are under attack or even plausible threat.

But the basic playground give & take was interrupted & ruined/lost/forgotten.

& now look around, eh? Lewdity, crudity, & rudeness everywhere.

I was extremely crude & lewd, but not in front of adults, nor girls -- I had  that basic respect taught to me at home, as you did.  Thankfully I had a little sister so my dad taught me the difference in how we treat them vs a little  brother.

>> I don't recall if you've said -- are you married? Have kids? Grandkids?
> Nope, been lucky there.

*LOL* I userd to figure it that way, too, but eventually  I wanted to have what
my parents had, but with the chance to make a few tweaks I believed(& still do) would improve things (it has, somewhat--not nearly as much as I thought was  mutable by my actions/choices; I'm happy with my situation; I'll have someone  to blame, if I want, on my deahbed,for anything, & I have children who will,  hopefuly go on  succeed better than I, at improving the world we live in, & who will, hopefully, be even happier at age 55 than I am now!)

So far, so good. . . I'm proud of all of them, as much as it is my domain to be proud (not of their accomlishments--that's theirs to be proud of), but of my  making the choices that got us all, as a family, to 2022, breathing, & with  endless possibilities ahead.

My son has made the observation, when I've mentioned times I nearly died, "If  you had died, them none of us would be here."; I'm just happy he still  considers that to be a negative. I wouldn't have been that sure at his age.  (jhust exited thecold war -- no A-Bomb drills, but we learned what to do, if it ever happened; we were far from any likely targets--my biggest worry was, & a  bit is, fallout from nuclear missiles being shot down overhead somewhere )

> I nearly got married a couple of times.
> The first time the girl broke up with me after planning our wedding, etc.
> I asked "Is there someone else?"  She replied "That has to be"  :)

?? IOW, shewasstating her comlpete doneness with the you & her thing, not 
necessarily because of someone else, but maybe so, eh?

My last GF,. before my wife, with whom I was planning to wed, had a way of  responding to the discussions that gave me pause.

I approached her one day, whewn it wasquiet & asked her point blank if she felt she'd be happier if we backed up a stage (to friends with benefits, without  commitment for the future); she wet-eyedly nodded yes, & I said, "Done deal."

I figured it was somehow my job to do this clarification of her feelings.   Must;ve been, as she got a lot hapier, as she'd once been, until I met someone  who was someonedeswireable & with whom we chose to have a marriage & kids.

When I let the former know that awedding dae had been set, she said she  couldn't stay friends, as it was too painful to see me having, with another,  what she had hoped for to have with me (women are goofy!  Beautiful, but  goofy!)

I kept an eye on her a bit longerm, through a mutual friend & kind of felt I  dodged a bullet -- she's okay, but it wouldn't have worked for us as a couple.  No regrets. I'm in the life I chose for myself, through a series of tiny  choices along the way. (My dad also taught me personal responsibility--another  thing today's generations have no clue of, especially those elected!)

C'est la vie! ("La vie")

> I've never really cared for kids.  I can take them in small doses only.
> I've come from a long line of bachelors and spinsters.  :)

Bachelorhood is genetic -- if your father didn't have children, chances are you won't either!

--- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-6