Forever Old...

A few weeks ago, while DJing at PIN UPS, I made a silly comment about having an "Old Folks Home" Event one night. It was meant to be a joke, but our club greeter, Jeff Melendez, thought I was serious. He IMd me later in the week to ask when it would be, Jeff is nothing if not obsessed with finding the perfect costume for every event. I laughed, and said "OK, this Friday!" And so we did it, I knew the club would not be crazy busy, I mean who wants to be old in SL when we can all look '21 Forever', and I didn't even know if you could find a costume or avatar suitable. I was absolutely floored to find not only a great avatar for myself, but several others, not to mention assistive devices such as walkers and canes. Details about the costumes follow, but that is not the best part of the night.

Sure it was hilarious watching a bunch of Senior Citizen Avatars doing SineWave Dances, I was certain someone was going to break a hip, but the best part of the night was deciding what to do after the event. After the great Armidi VS. Facelight 3000 episode, I said to my partner Draco, what the heck, lets go test the Humor Sensitivity at Armidi!



We teleported in to a grey laggy stew, and waited patiently for rez. There we stood, in all our wrinkled and old glory, and we started to chat. In front of Armidi Beauty Draco began complaining about not finding the elastic waisted polyester pants, while I asked for the whereabouts of the ladies room as I had forgotten to wear my Depends undergarment. It was hysterical. Soon the lag tripled as we were surrounded by about twenty young lovelies, some horrified, some laughing, some not sure what to think. I was like performance art, the dialogue we shared back and forth, people were snapping pictures, and not once did we see a Customer Service Rep or anyone even remotely questioning our purpose there. One person commented that in all her months in-world, this was the most hilarious thing she had ever witnessed. I was glad to make people smile and stop taking things so seriously.



I couldn't get any pictures until about an hour after our arrival, by then the shopping masses had moved on, roaming the Armidian Landscape, what I affectionately call the Mecca to the Young and Beautiful, in search of the trappings of the fashionable avatar. But what really hit home for me, was not so much the fact that people found our avatars amusing, but that you really don't see anyone in-world looking over the age of 30-something. I can count on one hand the number that do look mature, and it made me wonder why. I know there are people in game that are of a mature age, my 67-year old father has an account he never uses, but I am certain there are many his age, and older, that are active. It's just an interesting question to me, in our real lives there is so much pressure to be young and beautiful forever, why do we fell that same pressure in our virtual lives?

Shopping Details -
On Her:
Costume - Aunt Esmerlada by DarkDharma Daguerre (Skin, Eyes, Clothing, Glasses, Brooch, Earrings Only)
Hair - ETD, No Bangs Bun (Naturals I) and Left Swept Bangs (naturals I) Both in White
Shoes - (Shiny Things), Flare Oxfords (Black)
Cane - [unpop], Cane (F)
Shape - Models Own
On Him:
Costume - Uncle Norman by DarkDharma Daguerre (Clothing, Glasses, Skin)
Hair - >FD<, Hair, Tom (Silver)
Eyes - Red Ruin, Blue Eyes
Shoes - KK Outfitters, Lo-Top Kool Kicks (Black)
Tattoos - TRUTH, Ink (Betty)
Walker - [unpop], Walker (F)
Shape - Models Own