Curious about age of members. I'm 71

Re: I'm 29, for the 43rd time

Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)

I say, “when I turned 39 I gave all my birthdays to my wife”. Never aged a day after that.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Re: Curious about age of members.  I'm 71

Paul Leuba

77 and counting!

Paul in Hunt Valley, MD

Re: Curious about age of members

Thomas M Colligan

I was born in '52 and have been working wood since '91. I had given up one black hole, competitive rifle shooting (high power, National Match) for another black hole.

Re: Curious about age of members.  I'm 71

William Duffield

I'm 73. I started woodworking with wood shop and mechanical drawing classes in high school (mid '60s). That wasn't something you were supposed to do if you were college prep. I got serious again about woodworking in the mid '90s and started building furniture.

Age is how you feel

John K Jordan

Worked a bit with the excavator yesterday. Finished editing a video.

Hauled a bandsaw to a demo at a club I"d never visited before last night, got home at midnight in the pouring rain.

Early this morning: feeding young peacocks, llamas, and mini donkeys, scrubbing out watering tubs, rescued a guinea who got herself trapped.

This afternoon saddled up a new horse, did a little ground work, then rode trails for a couple of hours. Working through some "issues" with her.

My lovely bride and I had our 51st anniversary earlier this year. That should give a hint of my age.

JKJ

79-1/2, playing with house money

Only 62.

I see we have a couple of old guys here..

Jerry Nicholson

I saw a couple of 86s so they are a lot older than I. I'm only 85 but I try not to act my age. Other than woodworking class in the 9th grade, my first woodworking project was a corner table shortly after I got married - 63 years ago.

Jerry

Re: Curious about age of members.  I'm 71

roger lance

74 and counting......

69 next month

David Yoho

Probably started woodworking as a side business about 1980. It morphed into building custom cabinetry and furniture as well as refinishing and restoring old furniture. I basically worked two fulltime jobs - one that fed the family and one that fed my soul.

I retired from my factory job in 2013 and figured I would go full bore with my woodworking. That got side tracked after purchasing our river cottage along the Potomac River in VA. Keeping up with two homes keeps me busy. I still do some woodworking now and then but my interests have turned to mechanics and small engine repair.

I think I am at that age where my mind wants to write checks my butt can't cash! While I'm still in good health and able to do the things that need doing, I'm realizing Father Time is sending me a message.

Looks like I’m in the bottom 3…

Jason Roehl

…at 47. I saw a 30, and a 44.

I guess you could say I did my first woodworking when I was a child, sharpening sticks with my grandpa’s pocket knife. Or, there was “Industrial Arts” class when I was in 8th grade, the first time I got to use something bigger than an electric drill (planer, drill press, radial arm saw, band saw that I remember).

I can’t say I’m much of an active woodworker now, but I have some modest tools tucked away in the garage. Perhaps some day life will afford me more time and opportunity to put them to use. I do have a stairwell in progress—getting swapped from ‘70s dark-stained pine to hickory, then I’ll put down an unfinished hickory floor in the living room, dining room, and stairway landing.

Jason

Re: 80

Larry Clinton At Frankfort, (Central) Indiana

Can't complain - got the normal age related issues, some of the things that happened years ago decide to pay me back. Funny how when my shoulder starts hurting I remember the time I was thrown out of a car window in a wreck or back issues remind me of lifting a boiler and slipping on ice, etc. :>).

Hoping my wife gets better so I can do a little woodworking again...

I'm 80.

Larry Barrett

My Dad was a woodworker and a good craftsman, so I picked up a lot from watching, then doing. Had shop class in grade school and used a lathe to make a lamp from a bowling pin.

I'm 90

Paul Blackwell

Looks like I have all you youngsters beat as I turned 90 last March. Mentally I'm lots younger, and am generally healthy except for a knee with arthritis. I still golf in our group, play poker every month and have been retired from Xerox as a mechanical engineer since 1994. I have run the gamut in my woodworking interests from furniture for the home, a period where I made and sold clocks (stopped making them when people expected me to fix them when they stopped working). I make smaller things now, Christmas gifts (we have two great-grandkids), and many models of antique cars, trains, etc.

85 and counting

Re: might add

John Pappas

Been here since Day 1 of Wood Central.

Re: Curious about age of members.  I'm 71

James Runchey

I'm about to turn 89 and don't do much except keep the recliner warm these days. I did make some shelled peanut bird feeders earlier this year, that's about all.

THE WINNER!

Jerry Nicholson

#NM

Re: Curious about age of members.  I'm 71

Frank S

I'm 77. Been woodworking since Dec 1966 when my bride gifted me with a 1/4-in. electric drill for Christmas. Been making things in wood for her and our girls ever since.

I'm 80 and going strong

johannaj

I have been blessed with good health, so I plan to have at least 10 more years of woodworking! Once I finish these two dressers I do not want to make anything else that's big and heavy.

Re: 80

John K Jordan

>>>Can't complain - got the normal age related issues

Larry, best wishes and prayers for your wife's recovery.

Your "normal age related issues" comment reminded me of a day many years ago when the three young boys were all somewhere else for some reason.

My wife and I were sitting at the dining room table enjoying the quiet and a cup of hot tea and I waxed philosophical: "This is what it will be like when we get old. Except we won't have any money and everything will hurt!"

Part of that turned out closer to the truth than I imagined! My Lovely Bride has had multiple surgeries, one leg in a cast at the moment with three long titanium screws visible on the xray of her foot, she just got over a shingles outbreak, and glaucoma has provided many challenges. (But so far we've avoided all the pandemic issues, unlike some we know, God rest their souls.)

I've had my share of surgeries and problems but feel pretty good now although I did seem to have a lot more energy back when I was 70...

Racing a teenager up the hill from the barn does take more effort. Kids seem to be getting faster these days!

JKJ

77 and still seeing the green side of the grass

Re: Curious about age of members.  I'm 71

Colin Barnstable

Wow! At 68 I am one of the younger members. My father, grandfather, great grandfather and great great grandfather were carpenters in England so perhaps love of woodworking has a genetic component. My own trajectory was different. After a couple years of woodwork in school I had to give it up to take Latin (for the Oxford entrance exam). After seven years at Oxford, five at Harvard and five at the Rockefeller University in New York City, I ended up with a tenured faculty position at Yale - but more importantly a house with a basement to start collecting tools. In 2006 became founding chair of a neuroscience department at a PA medical school, did that for twelve years and now have the luxury of no administration, just research and writing. We built a house in 2007 and I have made about a dozen pieces of furniture for it. Fortunately, Pennsylvania has such a rich supply of beautiful native hardwoods. With umpteen grandchildren appearing I have also been making cradles, changing tables, chests etc. The list of things I have been asked to make keeps growing so that will keep me busy for the next decade.

I am 61

Mike L

Not sure when I found WC, but I have been here for awhile. Started woodworking with my Grandfathers and my Dad. I have done this in one form or another for as long as I can remember.