Any young men on this forum

[monica e. hall]

Evening, Jim. Just draining the glass and stubbing out the f~~ .... as you'd expect.

They found a crypt in London some years ago under a bombed-out church site, with coffins and bodies just chucked in any old how, with no respect - from the 18thC, I think. Oddly, but because it was a rich neighbourhood, a lot of them proved to be very old - in their 80s and 90s. But their disposal doesn't suggest they were much missed ... I expect they had outlived their descendants' patience. Everyone else then, as you say, died decently at a younger age.

Oh, well ...

 

[Adam Went]

Monica is right about the human body but that doesn't always make allowances for accidents outside the norm of the human body or a thorough lack of fitness.

I played just about every sport possible during school, and I still do play a fair bit of sport but not as frequently or with as much intensity - played 4 sets of tennis yesterday and I literally can barely walk today.

Likewise, my left knee also gives me a lot of grief from time to time but that's due to an unfortunate motorbike accident probably about 12 years ago.

However it is largely true that age is simply a state of mind, I have huge amounts of respect for people who are still willing to get out and have a go at competitive pursuits into their 40's, 50's and beyond, rather than be conformist and retire at 35.

The short of it is that it's clearly best to be as fit as possible and make as much of that as possible while you're still young.

Cheers,
Adam.

 

[Michael H. Standart]

>>but maybe warship decks are a particular hazard, I don't know.<<

I do. 3" thick class B nickle steel armour plate vs kneecaps.

Kneecaps lose!

An additional 12 years waltzing around on concrete floors is no improvement.

 

[Michael Kestner]

>Monica is right about the human body but that doesn't always make allowances for accidents outside the norm of the human body or a thorough lack of fitness. <

Agreed. I was in a car wreck a few years ago and messed my back up pretty good. No matter what kind of therapy you go through you're never the same afterwards. Losing weight definitely helps though! I don't understand how someone can be 75-100lbs overweight and complain about back problems. You'd think it'd be obvious they can do at least SOMETHING about it. I kind of landed in the shallow end of the gene pool as far as joint problems go anyway, but when I started dropping the pounds I felt a lot better. I figure it's a lot easier to change my habits now while I'm still young and not set in my ways!

> I have huge amounts of respect for people who are still willing to get out and have a go at competitive pursuits into their 40's, 50's and beyond, rather than be conformist and retire at 35. <

Me too Adam. We have a guy at work that we affectionately refer to as the "Old (insert expletive here)". He's in his early 60s, a pretty advanced age for a field where most people burn out in their mid to late 40s. He's former navy, black belt in Tae Kwan Do (and competed til recently) and could probably still stomp any two of us on his own. He's probably in the best shape out of all of us!

I was never athletic, and I used to be a fiend for fast food and junk food. A job where I have to be on the move my entire shift and where I was forced to learn about GOOD food was a godsend, although I'd probably drop another 30lbs if I could quit drinking so much soda.

Like you said, age is as much a state of mind as it is anything else, I refuse to grow up any more than I absolutely have to!

 

[Robert T. Paige]

Here is one from an ancient poster on this forum. I suppose I haven't grown up either as far as "Titanic" is concerned.

My first interest was in the 1953 version of "Titanic" - the one with Clifton Webb, Barbara Stanwyck and Robert Wagner - who was about the same age as I at the time. LOL. Saw it on the big screen while on Liberty in San Diego. Afraid I can't even begin to match up with Michael Standart's Sea Duty though. My Sea Duty was a bit tame in comparison. I did do a bit of walking on steel decks in the USN and concrete floors in the FAA. But no knee cap problems - yet. (Knock on wood.)

However, I always enjoy both the 1953 "Titanic", 1958 "A Night To Remember" and the 1997 "Titanic" versions. You can always "fast forward" past "Jack" and "Rose." I have DVD's on all of them and they look even better on my new HDTV.

IMHO Audrey Dalton was a lot better looking than Kate Winslet. LOL.

 

[Michael Kestner]

A Night to Remember is my favorite as well

 

[Bob Godfrey]

Ah, now that's a good idea, Robert. An academy award for the best looking lady in a Titanic movie. I have the envelopes here. And the winner is ... Honor Blackman for ANTR. Simply the best. Better than all the rest.

 

[Jim Kalafus]

Under certain lighting conditions, Thelma Ritter is quite fetching, Bob.

 

[Adam Went]

Michael:

Ah, sorry to hear about your accident, the back is one of - if not the worst place on the body you can injure as it affects so much. Not only that but there's a lot of places out there who point blank refuse to employ anyone who has difficulties with their back, etc.

Certainly a scary wake up call when something like that happens as well, eh?

Yeah, nobody wants to get their backside handed to them by a kung-fu grandad! Good on him though.....always love watching those charity matches and the like where the retired international sportsmen come out for a hit. It's all fun and games most of the time but if the game gets a bit close, the competitive edge comes back out in them and it's great viewing....most of them are still really good too. You don't lose your skills over time.

Anyway it's always good to network with people of a similar age and interests, maybe we should have our own little coterie... ;-)

Cheers,
Adam.

 

[Bob Godfrey]

Jim: Well, in my distant youth we used to rate ladies in terms of how much beer consumption was required in order to see the attraction. And Thelma was strictly an 8-pint gal. But much as I enjoy a drink I'd rather have spent the night stone cold sober with p~~~~ Galore. Let others sacrifice themselves by going down with the ship - for me, it's Honor before glory every time.

 

[Michael Kestner]

Adam : It certainly removes any illusion of your own immortality! I was fortunate to have good insurance and be able to recieve good treatment, so long as I stretch regularly I'm usually okay.

>Anyway it's always good to network with people of a similar age and interests, maybe we should have our own little coterie... ;-) <

Agreed! Not many people our age are interested in history in any form, let alone Titanic. I attribute my interest in Titanic, and steam preservation in general, to the older gentlemen I had in my life as a child, most of whom have sadly passed away in recent years.

 

[Jim Kalafus]

Bob. The winsome Thelma Ritter and Tucker McGuire, the actress who brought a level of elegance, delicacy, and beauty to the role of Mrs. Brown in ANTR (and was, in fact, ALMOST as easy on the eyes as the original) were the center of many a man's thwarted aspirations during the 1950s. Pin-ups. Magazine layouts. An aura of 'you can look, but you will never possess' surrounded them like a fine perfume, and men responded. That is not to belittle Honor Blackman in any way, but hers was a more subtle beauty that crept out at you and then struck you suddenly, making you wonder how you never noticed it before. ANTR was awash in world class beauties ("That man over there- he's smoking!" "My jewels. I must have my jewels" "Kindly help me out of this boat" "And me sleepin' soundly for the first time since Queenstown") and Miss Blackman so frequently gets overlooked.....

 

[Jim Kalafus]

Here, you can see how she kind of got lost in the sea of Titanic-film pulchritude.

She had a subtle, but nevertheless present, kind of attractiveness, as opposed to the 1950s Thelma Ritter/ Tucker McGuire/Marilyn Monroe bombshell type of presentation. Imagine, if you will, how devastating she would look with Ritter's hairstyle and McGuire's hat.

 

[Bob Godfrey]

I've been drinking heavily since opening time, Jim, and Thelma is growing on me. Haven't had enough yet to get excited about Ms McGuire, but the night is young.

And if you're thinking of putting in a vote yourself, please note that actresses eligible for the maximum allure award must have appeared in at least one Titanic movie. So try to get The Last Voyage out of your thoughts.

 

[monica e. hall]

Yes, yes, Jim - but shame on you. We can all compare women decades apart, and from different films. And even though I'd really like to look like Honor still does now, I'd like to sound like her even more. That low, smoky growl ..

More worrying is Godfrey's confession that he used beer goggles in his youth, though I think I can testify to the fact that he has, perforce, abandoned them in later life. But this is terrible. How many poor girls succumbed to his inebriated blandishments just because he blearily thought they looked a bit like Honor Blackman, and they believed it? And how many irritated, but lovely, women booted him out for being a sozzled idiot? Well, don't ask me, I wasn't there.