Who's the Oldest Active KSP player?

[Hotel26]

@Kerbalsaurus recently asked "Who's the Oldest Active Forum Member?" and I thought: "well, that must be me: Rip Van Winkle".

Turned out he meant something different -- but then I found I just had to know..

So, "Who is the Oldest Active Forum Member KSP player?".  I am going to define old as "of decrepit age"; and active as meaning "plays KSP every week".  Don't really care whether you're active in the forum.  Just whether you can still command the Flight Director's desk at Mission Control...

To play you just need to enter the year and (optionally) the month of your birth.  (Sorry, anyone under 18 is strictly excluded from participating.)

I'll likely keep a leader board here of everyone weighing in who is older than me.  You can add a single-sentence comment to it, if you like.

Everyone (over 18) is welcome to weigh in and maybe I'll make a histogram (of the youngsters).

1. Don't feel shy about your age.
2. No fibbing.
3. Cheering: good.
4. Jeering: bad.
5. Same month/year counts as a draw.

Notice I'm not promising to do anything (if it turns out to be too strenuous).  This is one of the things you learn when your life expectancy gets to be as low as mine: "conserve energy!".

I proceed now, bravely, to the next post (merged) paragraph to get the ball rolling...  (and maybe now I can get some respect?!)

Yes, we have a badge:   (for those as or older than me)

                                                         

rmaine, October 1951, "inspired me to apply for an astronaut job"
Hotel26, June 1955, "KSP is what gets me out of bed in the morning -- and keeps me late returning"
 

Edited May 4 by Hotel26

[RevanX_LSR]

Are you allowed to do some research and credit other people who are particularly old?  Maybe a separate category?

 

I will not put my username and age for reasons not worth mentioning.

[Hotel26]

16 hours ago, RevanX_LSR said:

Are you allowed to do some research and credit other people who are particularly old?

Dunno.  I admit last Wednesday night when I suddenly got really curious about whether it is I^[1], Hotel26, who should draw the sword Excalibur from... is the Oldest of Them All, I didn't think anything through very carefully.

Can you do it without doxing, or otherwise embarrassing, anyone?  If so, have at it...

[1] loud, booming, theatrical voice 

Edited October 9, 2023 by Hotel26

[Voculus]

December 1978. I doubt I'm the oldest, but I'm not a kid anymore.

[Hotel26]

6 hours ago, Voculus said:

December 1978.

Very respectable!

6 hours ago, Voculus said:

but I'm not a kid anymore.

Precisely why you should get respect. 

[swjr-swis]

I was born between Apollo 14 and 15, which makes me a Copernican (for those that practice seleneology). So, in case you ever wondered what happened with CSM-111 and LM-9... well, now you know.

No badge for me, clearly. But respect to the old farts.

 

 

[Hotel26]

9 hours ago, swjr-swis said:

But respect to the old farts.

Be it known by proclamation: The Royal Plus-One Order of Merit has been awarded.  -- King Farthur

 

[panarchist]

December '68 - when Apollo 8 orbited the moon - the first time mankind made it past LEO and changed SOIs.

On 10/4/2023 at 7:55 AM, Hotel26 said:

I proceed now, bravely, to the next post (merged) paragraph to get the ball rolling...  (and maybe now I can get some respect?!)

Yes, we have a badge:   (for those as or older than me)

                                                         

Hotel26, June 1955, "KSP is what gets me out of bed in the morning -- and keeps me late returning"

Honestly you should get extra kudos for predating the Space Age.

[Hotel26]

2 hours ago, panarchist said:

Honestly you should get extra kudos for predating the Space Age.

Hey, I guess I did.

I will tell you what the best thing about being this old is...

...one Monday morning, the whole school all being gathered into the assembly hall to watch, live, Neil Armstrong set foot on the lunar surface -- and being 14 at the time: which means I most vividly remember the whole experience and all its excitement.

I will add that my country at that time also predated color TV (1975).    So we were pretty lucky to see it at all.  (Not that the transmissions were in color; just that technology was backward there then.)

And I predated TV in my country (1956) also.

Edited October 28, 2023 by Hotel26

[Kerbart]

August 1969. Just too late to catch the Apollo 11 fun. Or, in reality, manned US spaceflight until the space shuttle. I did remember Skylab re-entering the atmosphere, and Soviet cosmonauts setting all kinds of long duration records, which looking back, looks insane when you realize how cramped those Salyuts were.

[rmaine]

October 1951. And I recall listening to the Apollo 11 landing on the radio by a local poolside with some other high-school friends. Even inspired me to apply for an astronaut job some years later (1978 I think it was). I made it down to Houston for the interviews, but didn't make the final cut.

[AlamoVampire]

1981. im either a millennial or very late gen x depending on how you draw that line. either way, 43 this year. 

040005042024

[AtomicTech]

I'm super young! I'm from '06!

[Hotel26]

36 minutes ago, AtomicTech said:

I'm super young! I'm from '06!

My son turned 18 just 2 days ago.

[Lisias]

24 minutes ago, Hotel26 said:

My son turned 18 just 2 days ago.

My son turned 18 7 years ago... (man, I'm feeling old...)

[LameLefty]

July 1968. I was a bit over five months old when Apollo 8 orbited the Moon. Looking back at the earlier posts I’m not the oldest, but I’m certainly older than most.

[Jacke]

Well damn, @rmaine, @Hotel26, you're older than me.  But I think I'm next, at August 1960.  When this was #1 on the charts:

Spoiler

 

 

[Klapaucius]

I was born in 1970, but I feel old in a peculiar way. I was the last child and a rather late one for the time--my mother was 39 and my dad 42.  And, my father was a relatively late child.  My paternal grandmother was born in 1895. My grandfather (who, alas, died a month after I was born) flew a SPAD in WW1. I am the only one I know of my age with a grandparent who flew in the first world war. My father was drafted in '45 but Japan was defeated before he got shipped anywhere.

So, I identify with an older generation. 

[Hotel26]

4 hours ago, Klapaucius said:

My paternal grandmother was born in 1895

This is something!!

                                                                    

I had a boss 'JR' (still a close friend) who was born in 1940.  His father was 50 years old when JR was born.  And in turn, the grandfather was also 50 when his son was born.  So, circa 1840.  So he had a couple of stories he told that were just eerie after-echoes from the past.

An Oregonian, his grandfather had lived somewhere like Omaha and was a cattle rancher.  He would drive cattle to Taxes for sale.  His bride, Katie, was 'mail-order' from Ireland.  They met for the first time at the train station when she arrived (not long after the Civil War had concluded).  (Someone attempted to 'make her acquaintance' as she alighted and found a six-gun positioned under his nostrils.)  They eventually moved further west because their middle state was getting 'crowded'.  Then a decade or so later, the grandfather came home and said, 'Katie, let's start packing the wagon in the morning.'  When she asked why he said, 'I saw smoke on the other side of the valley' (meaning a new settler).  Which is how they came to Oregon.

I was at a Black Angus in Phoenix in 1988 on a business trip, having lunch with JR and I said, "you know, I'm going to get married again and start a new family".  Well that crazy plan took until 2004 and my youngest son was born a month before my 50th birthday.

By the way, all of the story-telling now in progress in this thread is "On Topic, Houston" because it is what Old People do, apparently.    (My wife says I am showing my age because I'm happy to go up to strangers and have an extended (unnecessary) conversation with them now.)

Edited May 5 by Hotel26