We need awards... So far, Ace of Penquins qualifies for this beauty:


Now for hood, I'm open to suggestions, I pray I'm still WOFFING in 33 years! You are an inspiration, sir!



(Err, Russkly, I didn't meant to belie your post... Just having a little fun!)

No worries, mate!

I'm 35. So that pulls the average down a bit.

I'm absolutely amazed how good the people here with advanced numbers of years are handling the game, installing things properly, playing games in the first place, handling the forum etc.
If I think about my parents, I have to come every other day explaining or doing computerrelated things for them, doing updates, installing or deleting stuff etc.

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hood, 93

We're not worthy, we're not worthy!

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I hit 79 in April.

Looks like Hood is the lead of the "Old Gezzer" squad.

Hood, tell us something about your background.

That would be cool! I suspect that most of us senior types spent some of our career in IT fields and so have acquired computer skills well before most in our age bracket. This may answer Creaghorn's position.

Hood is 2 years older than my father! I'd love to hear how he got into it, his background, etc. I was thrust into it by my age - now I always had an affinity for flying, and wanted to be a pilot, but educationally, I started on slide rules, learned programming on punch cards & teletype, and so was in that "transition generation" as computers became more & more ubiquitous. But his generation went most of their careers before that happened - bless his heart, he was 63 in 1985, so pretty much ready for retirement before the PC became a household institution.

Dear sir, when you have a minute, please share your story!

57, but my wife and daughter tell me that I have to start acting my age!

Resist at all costs!

Tell her no, you'd rather go to Heaven!

I am fifty, rather mature person, but my wife and daughter think I am stupid silly man wearing TIR with headphones and trying to shoot down imaginary little bastards on my LCD screen .

Id like to mention a little bit about "Hood" or Keith as he,s known by me. He,s a 93 yr old Aussie who is one of the most generous men ive ever met.He had a new version of Trackir 5 a while back and was getting rid of his older Trackir 4,i asked him about it (cost wise) and he would,nt have a penny for it. I offered to pay postage from Australia to here in the UK and again he would,nt hear of it.I recently sent him a WW1 postcard of a Sopwith Pup that i knew he would love,..he did,he replied to me and said how thoughtful it was of me to send him a postcard and that being 93 a lot of his old mates had gone and he didn,t get many Christmas cards..it bought a tear to my eyes,he still flys and i commended him on his latest Alb kill..I hope he doesn,t mind me writing this..Thank you once again Keith "Hood" a true gentleman

56 here, so fairly average by the look of it.

I hope he doens't mind either - I'd be honored to send him a card, as would most here, I believe. This year, the one of US Christmas stamps sets is "A Charlie Brown Christmas" so I'd hope he'd enjoy a US card bearing one of those.

The WOFF Christmas card list... now how could we do that without raising privacy concerns?

67

the fact that there are so few younger folks sadly is no surprise. Doing grad studies at a university after retiring from the Army and doing a bit of teaching in history I found the vast majority of American high school grads have never even heard of WW1, or much of anything I might find something other than propaganda. NOT the fault of the kids, they were actually very interested if approached correctly, just not what is taught now.

That is sad, but unfortunately true. I have teased "Ace of Penguins" upthread for his youth, but really I appreciate his maturity - as you said it is rare among people our children & grandchildren's age.

Then, too, they are seduced by easier, flashier games that are more immediately gratifying, despite gross distortions of reality. That, and constantly having their phones and sociual media to deal with.

But to attempt understand and develop sympathy and appreciation for what it was really like to be in a mortal fight 10,000 ft. in the air takes some growing up - and probably a stunning reform of American "education".

I once dated a girl who'd never heard of the US Civil War. Furthermore (and I always preface telling this by stating I am fully aware of the jokes that could be made at my expense ) she did not know how long an inch was. I said “Just show me with your fingers.” She refused because she literally had no idea and didn’t want to look dumb. She was 23 at the time.

JFM, I used to work with a lady that didn't want me to ruin the movie 'Gettysburg' by telling her how it ended.

39 here. Teacher for 12 years. I am experiencing something odd these days, young kids in my classes are more and more unable to keep their attention on anything more than ....a minute? 2? This is increasingly noticeable year after year. This society, social networks, Internet, tablets, Youtube, has changed the mind of the young people in a way never seen before. Videogames we see these days are the answer to their hyperstimulated, irreflective easily frustrated minds. To them I must be the freakiest person in their small world beacuse I like WW1 aeroplanes and because I read books with few pics. For many of them life is instant gratification or is nothing at all. That and and their smartphone, something they love more than any other thing...
Flight simming is not something remotely appealing to them. They love squad based multiplayer shooters which agitate their hormones like a beater.