60 years young

[Teri Jean]

This Monday I will be 60 years old and have a couple questions for our more experianced sisters.

Last night The family and I celebrated my B-day a couple days early and it was fun. I recieved a lot of cards and a few gifts that were not necessary but welcomed. One was frilly panties and a black thong from a couple who do not know of my love of dressing. The thing is she, the wife, bought my size :heehee: and it was something I had thought about getting but hadn't as yet. It still was fun and exciting.

But here is the questions; As we get older do you have regrets for not starting your life as a CD sooner? That is if you have started later in life. The other question is; Being that some of us have started later in life do you feel that you have missed out on so much of the fun? They kinda go together but it is something that has raced through my mind lately, okay last night. I love the mini skirts and tight blouses/tops but these are really for the younger crowd and look out of place for a more experiance person. Okay older. There are so many outfits that are cute and yet more in line with our age but the frilly, shorter, sassier designs are so appealing.

I will quit rambling and ask for your thoughts.:hugs::love:Keli

[MAJESTYK]

I hope that Monday is a great day for you! Happy Birthday!
It's funny what some people percieve without realizing it themsleves. Enjoy the presents.
I do have some regrets I suppose, like I wish I had done more dressing when I had my own hair. It's really quite nice hair, wavy and curly, but alas now it doesnt grow everywhere it used too and does grow in some places it didnt.:eek: Oh well, I still feel happy that I still dress and I think now I'm better at it having had more time to observe the way things should look as opposed to the way I think they should be.

[kym]

the only regret i have at 38 years young is not coming out completely and embracing my feminine side at an earlier age, but with the way my family 's mindset was back then it would have resulted in me being homeless and no one to mentally support me.
BTW- happy birthday young lady, hope you enjoy every second of it:)

[TommiTN]

"One was frilly panties and a black thong from a couple who do not know of my love of dressing."

Maybe you only think they don't know? :D

To try to answer your question, yes, I do have regrets. I have been dressing for decades but it was a hit and miss thing and I didn't start going out until last year. I only wish I had the resources and support available to us now way back when. I daresay my life would have turned out at least somewhat different then it has.:daydreaming: But it's water under the bridge now. We must live in the present as we can't change the past or predict the future.

Oh, and happy birthday!!!

[Tina B.]

Keli, Happy Birthday!!!! Sounds like someone knows, or at least thinks you would love some panties. LOL...
Regrets, no life is to short to waste time on regrets. I started out very young, then put it away for many years, but it was all good, those years I wasn't dressing, I was having a great time being a macho type guy. Then The desire came back, and I started having a great time as a girl, I loved playing with makeup, and even liked being able to sleep with a head full of rollers, of course that was when I had hair up there that would hold rollers, that is past history!
Style for us old gals, I gave up Minni's years ago, but I love skirts that are full, made from delicate fabrics, and Bright prints. Length around the knees. And a plus, so many of the young women, don't wear hose anymore, even when dressed up, older ladies still do!
But I will never dress my age, I don't even know where to get a polyester pant and vest set, and I don't do Grey hair! ROFL! (but then my wife does not do Grey either).
Tina

[Eileen]

Happy Birthday Keli! For me and many others my age, transitioning at a young age was not an option. Still I look back on a good life and a wonderful life ahead of me. The past is gone and there is so much living to do ahead of me, I have no time to spend on regrets about the past.

Eileen

[Sasha Anne Meadows]

Happy birthday Keli. You pose an interesting question. I turned 63 in January. Didn't start dressing until age 50 when my lovely wife got me started. Regrets for not starting sooner? Yes. But living every moment of it now. Good luck.

[Karren H]

:bday2:

No regrets here....

[Katrina red nails]

Happy Birthday for Monday Keli. Yes i wish my dressing had burst forth to full flower earlier but alas we can't change the past just enjoy the future.

[Heather Dur]

Happy Birthday Keli,

Interesting question, and one I have been giving some thought to. Having started dressing at 10 years of age, now being 68, can't say I started too early. Would say greatest regret was all the time I have spent not knowing of the community of CDers out in the population. Believe it was through Compuserve back in 86 that I first realize that being a CDer was not that unusual, and that knowledge just grew as has the internet to present. Also the slight relaxing of sexual "rules" has allowed for more freedom dressing than was present in my youth. I am just sorry that all these opportunities came too late for me, but better now than never. So, as I am running out of time, take every opportunity that I can to enjoy life to the fullest.

[deja true]

Hey! Isn't 60 the new 40 or 35 or something?

There's no reason in the world you can't wear 'younger' fashions if you've got the mind too. Maybe a skirt that shows your butt cheeks is a little too short (it is for quite a few of the young un's, too LOL!), but above the knee'll still look good if ya got the legs for it. If you don't, then long, swingy boho stye is for you.

And as we've come to find out, a good makeup job can easily take 10 or more years off your looks. Attitude, girl, it's all about attitude.

Don't be a granny if you don't feel like it. Be a Cougar!

:)

Oh, Happy birthday, child!

[RWillow]

My biggest regret I wasn't born female, but there is nothing I can do about it now at 69 years young. I started dressing at 10 years old, I have been out only once for a Halloween party, my GF dressed me in one of her bathing suits and I won a prize. I am still in the closet after all these years. These days I am enjoying every day and trying to work up the courage to tell my wife. I don't regret a single day of my life.
Enjoy your birthday.

Renyta

[TommiTN]

"Hey! Isn't 60 the new 40 or 35 or something?"

Yup, unless you're looking for a job.:Angry3:

[denisecdfl]

You are only as old as you feel. You may not want to wear those minis and frillys out in public, but don't let that stop you. Wear them around the house and take some pictures for us to see. Have some fun - it will make you happier and feel younger. Enjoy yourself while you can.

[Laura Evans]

60 going on 40, been dressing since adolescents and remained in the closet until three years ago, that was when I met someone who has been open and 100% supportive of my CD'ing. I do wish I had been as open as I am now in my earlier years but all of that is in the past and not worth giving it much thought, I am where I am. In public I dress appropriately for a mature adult women but not what I would say is one of my age. I don't feel or act 60 and don't dress like what society may say I should dress. At home I may dress like the younger generation with the short skirts, etc but that would look too out of place in public. Happy Birthday Kelly.

[TerriM]

Im 60 also. Been dressing since 13 and going out since I was 29. We all have regrets. Things we should have done, things we shouldn't have done. All the years I fought my feelings of my femme side and finally accepting them. I often wonder if I had told my wife of Terri before we married would she had married me. As far as clothes thats a matter of personal taste.

Yours Terri

[Phyliss]

Yeah I could kinda get into the "Gee I wish I had started earlier" thing ,... but then I'd be that much poorer now what with all that shopping I'd have done.

Much too busy to "look back" anyhow.

Nature put our eyes in the front of our head to look ahead and our brains in the back to remember the past and learn from it, as we go forward in life.

A Very HAPPY BIRTHDAY to you

[Nicole Erin]

OK so being 34 I don't have all the life experience but -

I think at most any age and with any activity, we always think "I wish I had started sooner." Even teenagers who are into something like a sport say "I wish I had started training/learning sooner".

With CD'ing though - one benefit at starting to go out or dressing more at any age is it is something new and exciting. Yes after a time the newness wears off and it just becomes a normal activity.

So at any age you start, think of it as something new and exciting.
Plus when someone is mature like past their 40's, at least they don't have to worry about school age kids at home so really as you get older, you have more freedom from life's obligations and obstacles that some of us younger folks have to deal with.

I now know the #1 thing that a lot of older folks say and I take it as advice - they always seem to say "I wish I had enjoyed life more, spent more time with friends/family, done more of what I always wanted, etc...

[sterling12]

I'm fifty-nine, so I will have to face sixty years on my next birthday. We can't take a train into the past, we can't change anything. Often circumstances put a limit our future considerations too. So....the logical inference is live your life for today!

Many of us finally come out in our late forties or in our fifties. I suspect some of the reason is because we see our time is now finite. We want to do some of the things that circumstances kept us from doing in earlier life.

Enjoy your gift to the max, as some of the other Gurls have pointed out, your only as old as you feel. If you have good health, that's everything.....enjoy yourself! Another trite saying, but oh so true; "Today is the first day of the rest of your life." Isn't it a pity that more people don't value life in that way.

Peace and Love, Joanie

[Susan Dee]

I think at most any age and with any activity, we always think "I wish I had started sooner."

Well put. I guess too that most of us more mature girls look at how open things are now, and wish that things had been that way when we started. Also if the web had been around earlier then we would have realised a lot sooner that we are not alone and there are so many of us.

But then we can't change the past and what's gone. If we can accept who we are and enjoy what life has to offer then things can't be too bad.

Learn from Yesterday
Live for Today
Hope for Tomorrow

Happy Birthday Keli !

[Lorileah]

Happy Birthday Keli I hope it is a wonderful day for you


I used to say that I only regretted what I had not done and that I had no regrets for what i have done. For the most part that holds true but now I do regret somethings I have done...you know how that goes.

Long story, probably not so short, is that I do regret not taking more control earlier and enjoying the wild younger part of being out and about. I have questioned this often. When I was young (in the 70's) it would have been fun to be part of the whole scene. (actually even though I loved the 70's I missed the greater essence of all of it...not one shot fired in the whole sexual revolution) I also believe that things might have taken a whole different course then and I may have become transsexual. The thing then is that the surgery was no where near as good as it is now and it would have been a major letdown. Of course the 80's had their own problems with us (as you know we are all gay::tongue firmly in cheek:: and thus the HIV thing was a speed bump) so dressing then was more of a no no.

All in all, the answer is yes I wish I knew then what I know now and had followed my desires instead of marching to societies beat for so long.

As my people say "we grow too soon old and too late smart"

[TommiTN]

Well said!

[Persephone]

Regrets, I've had a few, but then again, too few to mention . . . (Sinatra "I Did It My Way").

I'm sometimes sorry I didn't know then what I know now. It took me a long time to get to the place that I am, and, yeah, I sometimes wish I'd done some things sooner -- like gone out more when I still had my "pretty" -- but it's been a great ride so far and I like who I am now.

If I had advice for younger CD's, it would be "Carpe Diem" (Sieze the Day).

But hey, you're heading for my side of the hill now (I'm only a couple of years ahead of you) and I can only tell you that the past few years have been some of the best of my life and I'm looking forward to as many more as I'm granted.

Happy Birthday Keli!

[Melanie R]

Happy Birthday to you on Monday. My birthday is also this Monday but I turn 70. Now that is depressing! I would love to be 60 again and know what I have learned in the last 10 years. You have many years ahead of you so live life to the fullest - especially with your enjoyment of your femininity.

[BLUE ORCHID]

A sixty six years old with sixty years dressing I don't want to think of all
the money I spent over the years.
If I knew then what I know now I would I probably do the same thing
over again you know that [PINK FOG] thinggie how it clouds your thinking.
I am just thinking about the next sixty years of dressing low shoes
and an aluminium walker and a wool shaw wrap around my shoulders.
.................................................. .........................ORCHID

[SusanMarie]

:bday:

Regrets...no. When I think about some of my past choices, perhaps I could have done better. Heck, we are supposed to learn from our experiences. But, I chose what I chose, so to paraphrase a saying

Yesterday is history
Tomorrow is a mystery
Today is a gift
That is why it is called the present.
:)

[Teri Jean]

First off, thank you for the B-day wishes and the kind words. You make this girl so happy and that means everything.

I have a wonderful family and would not have changed a thing. I did the macho guy thing for many years and yet the pull to express myself and my feminity is there and will not go away. Thank God. By the way the frillys do fit, good guess. The other thing that strikes me in a way that is founded in truth is, every generation has those thoughts of what ifs and why should we be different.

When it comes to choices in clothes, it is so wide open and there are many great looking women, here and on the streets (no not ladies of the night) that dress very provocative and yet are of an age where they don't fit the norm as we grew up with. Yes the 60 of today is really the 40s of yesteryear. Tomorrow is the beginning of a new day and if time is on our side many more to follow.

In closing, I have not posted my picture as a guy but from those close to me and those I work with have said I could pass for a much younger person. That may be truthful and it seems they are being so but as many of you have said; look forward and not back because the past is cast in stone but the future is a blank sheet of paper.
Thank you again and love and huggs to you all. Keli

[Tess]

Glad that you are joining us seasoned citizens. I'm 64 and started dressing at about 12 so I don't think starting earlier would have made much difference. There are a few decisions I wish I could do over, but nothing really significant. Changing the big decisions would have only messed up a pretty good life.

[linnea]

Well, I do think about what might have been different had I started more thorough involvement as a CD earlier in life.
However, I try not to dwell on that because it doesn't help me. What helps me now is knowing that I can CD and have a lot of fun at it. I definitely wear frilly things (I'm older than you, by the way) and I enjoy a pretty lively CD life.
I wish for two main things: finding a way to tell my SO and finding more time to spend fully en femme.

[Tasha McIntyre]

I'm 42 at the minute, and have a couple of regrets. The main one is that I didn't have the salads to tell the wife a few years ago. The only other one is that, although I have been dressing since I was 11 or so, I left it until very recently to explore this curious little compulsion more deeply. Why oh why did I not try make up and hair until a few months ago :doh:

[Shari]

Happy birthday Keli.

Aside from living in the frozen northland, I have no real regrets about anything in my life or the order in which they occured.
Seems like all things came together for me as it was meant to be.

I think you've found some inner peace yourself.

Enjoy your day.
Shari

[Juanita O]

:bday2::Keli

[JoAnne Wheeler]

Well, I just had my 64th birthday a week ago today - I wish that I knew what I know now a long time ago - I missed out on so much - now I see an urgency to enjoy crossdressing as much as possible

Happy Birthday Girl - by the way how did they know ?

JoAnne Wheeler

[Michelle_Tokyo]

Hi Keli,

Let me add my very warmest wishes for a Happy Birthday for you.

I do have regrets but had I started sooner, the total lack of anything resembling the acceptance, options, hormone treatment, etc., would have left me at very much of a disadvantage to the me that came out some years ago. I guess what I regret is something over which I have no control., i.e. the when I was born because to be young and transgendered today must allow a world of possibilities many of us who remember milk deliveries in glass bottles do or did not have.

What I have resolved myself to though is that I look far better in a silk blouse and skirt than do the young ladies half my age who do not carry it as well. Or so I like to tell myself. ;)

Enjoy your birthday and your new black thong. Those my dear are ageless. :)

Hugs,

Michelle