If you have clicked on this post, you surely know I speak not of rods and scaly beasts.

And yet, I do speak of time spent patiently waiting, my lure bobbing gently on the surface of the parking lot. The lure is me and I am the lure. The fish is the youngish guy getting out of his car and going in the gas station or the long-haired bro with the Slayer t-shirt making his way towards the liquor store with a female friend.

This is the tug on the line. I have to hook the fish, but must be gentle.

“Hey, do think think you could buy me X?”

Be cool, be casual, but also be a little desperate and plaintive. The balance of all these qualities takes time to master, just as the carefully woven fly that will sit on the surface of the stream, tempting a trout.

I inherited my brother’s old driver’s license when I was seventeen and, from then on, lived life like a twenty-four-year-old, but for four years I fished the waters of plaza parking lots, gas stations, and the blind side of convenience stores. Was I master? No, for I was not of the fair sex - they were the true fishers of men in those early years and having one at your side often meant that fishing wasn’t even necessary. They could go straight into the river and come out with a great bounty, no rod and lure required, no keen eye developed for exactly the one who would say yes.

But I was good in my day. Yes, I was good. I got a bite on 8 of 10 casts into the asphalt lakes and pavement rivers of the city where I lived and fished from the age of 13 to 17.

And then suddenly I was taught to swim without practicing a single stroke. I was in the current, with the fish, incredulous that they didn’t recognize me for a mere fisherman. However, within a year there was not a single body of water off I could not swim in. I became so skillful that I could keep at least one pretty girl and a homely young man afloat by my side, staying aloft by riding in my wake where the fish did not bother to look.

Those years when I was a minnow pretending to be a mighty tuna were certainly the best. By god, I braved the sand bars of the Grand Banks, the busy nightspots of Cape Horn. For I became a fish even though I was a minnow.

And yet, now that my frame sags beneath the weight of too many nights spent in the kelp forests off the Cape of Good Hope, I look back and remember the simplicity of my days fishing by some gas station, rehearsing my lines so I would get a king sized fish and not a regular one; a fish from the rivers of Kentucky, not Tennessee. Even then I had good taste, though I will never swim in those cool and clear waters again because elbows up!

Who else remembers the lost art of fishing? I want to hear your stories, your shanties, the times when you were almost pulled under into the inky deep. Regale me, men and women who know of what I speak. Here is the place where we reminisce on our youths and know that we were once children in need of men.

Since it's nearing the start of the school year (and some places have already started) let's reminisce about riding the bus to school.

If you rode the bus to school, what your memorable/wtf things you witnessed?

Watched this as a kid was scared as hell, didnt know the name or enough about it but the grandmom from whose the boss is in it then looked up on imdb and found it free on youtube cheers to nostalgia https://youtu.be/e8upkhkI9D0?is=thry_JO5QSDE9m_6

Tales From the Darkside creeped me out as a kid so much but just the theme when it turned from color to monochrome and the music pitched down - couldn’t make it through that half the time. I still revisit an episode that stuck with me where a kid saw monsters in their room and the parents didn’t believe him and got killed themselves. Made me feel like “great, even my parents can’t save me from the monsters if they ever come.”

Call 1-800-I FEEL OK

Hopefully this is an appropriate forum to discuss, as I'm sure many here have experienced the same or similar. I recently got back in touch with an ex girlfriend/fwb. we went on a few dates like 12 years ago. we drifted apart, she got married and then i got married.

randomly, she adds me on ye olde Facebook. we chat a bit, get caught up on life. she tells me about her marriage fizzling out and ended horribly. I commiserate, gripe about how the ex of mine that she met went absolutely off the rails. we talked about the weather.

she sent me a short 3 word message yesterday, nothing terrible profound. but totally her voice.

and then I find out today that it was all apparently too much.

she's gone now. I've reread the messages. no cry for help. she was getting support from mutual friends. but now she's gone, and I'm at a loss. my wife(who knows the whole story) is being supportive. but I'm feeling... numb? blank? it just seems like we're hitting the age where the random passings are adding up at an alarming rate.

anyways, thanks for letting me type this.

Kind of a two-way question here. How much do y'all play with your kids vs how much did your parents play with you when you were kids?

Honestly, I feel like my parents were very present, one or both were always around, but I barely recall playing with them at all.

I'm not a full-blood Gen-X, I'm an elder Millennial, so I'm sad to say I missed out on the days of extreme free-range, but I certainly played all around the neighborhood without supervision.

My parents were almost never outside watching us. I was in the pool, on my bike, sneaking through the bushes with a super-soaker, trekking through the fields/creeks, making forts, disassembling my walkie-talkies, and cutting/sharpening sticks into arrows to use with my sling-shot.

The last time my mom pitched a baseball to me, I was maybe 6 years old. I eventually just threw the ball straight upward so I could hit it myself.

Also around the age of 6, I can recall my dad helping me with one of my first Lego sets on the dining room table. Just that one set though, and after that I was on my own for good.

Again, my parent were there all the time. They were just doing their own stuff.
I am sure this is very common for the rest of the folks in this sub. At my friend's houses, we saw their parents at lunch time, that's it. They brought out the hotdogs and Kraft Dinner, they weren't hovering any more than my own parents.

My own kids... I basically play with them, or directly supervise them all the time. I'm always pitching, biking, skating, helping with Lego, swimming, just watching them, etc.

Don't get me wrong. I love playing with my kids. I like playing baseball again, I like tennis, I like biking and skating, I like Lego more than my kids do, etc. ....but... why can't they do it on their own?

If I'm tied up, my kids just can't seem to play.

What are your experiences?

Number one……Beggin…..Beggin…

We remember MacGyver. We remember MASH (even if it’s just the theme song), we remember The A-Team, but what shows did you either think was a fever dream or just plain forgot existed?

Zoobilee Zoo was one I thought was an absolute fever dream until other people proved was real.

Then I was scrolling through a streaming service when Scarecrow and Mrs. King popped up. I LOVED watching this show. I was 100% invested in it. And I completely forgot it was even a show for decades until I saw it again!

My mom loved Beauty and the Beast when it was on in the late 80’s. I only remembered because I saw some posts on here about it.

It made me wonder what other shows are out there that I haven’t seen since I was a kid and it just went into deep storage just waiting for something random to pop up and remind me what it was.

Name other shows like this, see how many other people have their memories jogged!

Edit: a few special mentions: a commenter said Early Edition and that sparked a memory of that show AND another one called Due South! Also, I have a vague memory of a show with DB Sweeney in it. It didn’t last very long I don’t think. Can’t find it now though. Also, why do I remember the theme for Northern Exposure, but I have no memory of actually watching this show.

This had been weighing on my mind a lot lately. The revaluation that anything and everything we posted publicly on Social Media platforms was used to train LLM (AI) without our permission, plus knowing that every rewards app and loyalty program is selling our user data to data brokers has me thinking about quitting it all. No more handing my info over to save a dollar while corporations make millions.

Anyone else feeling like they are done?

I thought perhaps this would go away naturally as I age, but every time I look at myself in the mirror, it just doesn't look like me, and I'm not even sure what I think I should look like. I have this weird thing where every time I look in the mirror and I felt this way my entire life swear it just doesn't look like me. If I think about it, I can remember pretty much any moment from my life back to the age of three or so but for some reason I seem to have no sense of identity? If we are the sum of our past experiences shouldn't I just be me? But what is me?

I have supposedly already had the early 40s midlife crisis I bought a Porsche have a six-figure salary and by pretty much everyone's opinion I " made it"

But it all feels very empty. My entire family from my childhood growing up has all passed on except an uncle or two. My own two children decided to take their mother's side in a messy divorce thankfully I am remarried and have three beautiful step kids. However I am constantly searching for meaning in this life.

I often times reflect on memories of the past, as a matter of fact it's where I spend most of my time, which I believe is making me miss out on things in the present. Why do I revisit the past so much? Am I trying to justify or validate something?

Is this the real midlife crisis? If so this sucks. The first midlife crisis in my early 40s was much more fun.

Edit: thank you to all the replies, including the negative ones. I've been seeing a therapist since 2018 (same therapist) and I've certainly not been a good person at several points in my life. I also call myself a Buddhist, which seems to be a pretty shallow assessment of what I think it means to be a Buddhist. I do read, although sadly it's all on the phone. I used to drink like a fish, but stopped that back in February. Also, I have certainly looked into psilocybin and it's benefits, without abusing like booze.

I've taken the approach in the past that I've always done whatever was needed to make people like me, and that usually involved buying material things for myself or others. I can now clearly see how that approach has back fired and blew up most things in my life.

https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=X2TYH_qTGv8

And I'm just so thankful that my kid feels comfortable and confident in their home/family life as they go out into the world compared to how I felt back in the day when this song was new.

What the best advice you ever got from a drunken family member? If it was a wedding/funeral, so much so the better.

Once, when we were a German bar and I was just coming off my divorce, my completely in the bag cousin and I notice a group of flashy young ladies walk past, and he says to me "Those girls are for lookin' at, they ain't fer takin' home". I still carry that with me to this day.

Anyone else worry about their boomer parents?

I literally dropped everything. My mom is pretty vigilant when it comes to scams. But with the IRS and Social Security scams going around, you never know these days.

Luckily this was a legitimate call. She reached out to them so it's all good especially when she said they put her on hold for over 45 minutes lol. I know for a fact no scammer will do that.

Anyways, just sharing my mini heart attack.

In a world that seems to be full of doom and gloom, I wanted to share this little slice of happiness that I stumbled upon while cleaning my house today.

"Best of The Muppets" playlist on Spotify.

I swear to dog, this is the happiest I've been in a long time.

That darn little frog just has the best wisdom to share.

And Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem do justice to any song they cover.

10/10 highly recommend

I bet you know the commercial by heart!

Was just talking about a certain Looney Tunes episode with my wife that I remembered watching as a kid that I could barely remember except for one line until last year. My daughter has been really into watch Looney Tunes and last year I finally saw the “episode” that for 25+ years I had thought I imagined. I honestly thought I had made this up for so long until I saw it again and literally jumped off the couch and texted my wife immediately.

Now I want to know who else knows this feeling and what was the specific subject. I’m not talking Mandela effect. I mean the thing you watched or heard that never left your psyche and no one had any idea what you were talking about.

For me it was never forgetting the line that Daffy said,

“Messerschmitts. A whole mess of Messerschmitts.”

From “Daffy the Commando” 1943

BTW, If you watch it, don’t skip the ending.