I'm also 43. Started messing around with recording while in college--1984, so <mumble, mumble, carry the 1> almost 25 years. Would stay up all night some weekends using the campus radio station's tiny production room with a friend who was also into music and DJed once a week (that got us access). There was an 8 or 12 channel console in there with a 4-track Otari deck, a Lexicon PCM-42, and an Orban rack mount spring reverb. The space was tiny--my friend would bring his Washburn Strat copy and a couple of pedals and I would have a borrowed Korg Poly-800 or, later, my 50lb Crumar Performer. It was a great creative outlet. Later the station engineer "upgraded" to a Tascam 8-track reel unit (forgot the model #). Not as good as the Otari, but more tracks was worth it.
In 1985 my friend got a Fostex 4-track cassette and I bought a DX-7. We continued to mess around with music together, but never got serious until our senior year when we started a cover band with a bassist friend and a drummer we "auditioned." We ended up writing a couple of originals and recorded them at the radio station at night. They got a lot of airplay there which was fun. We made the CMJ list a few weeks. In hindsight I probably could have picked up some cool things that were discarded from the station over the years. One of my other friends became the station engineer later on and also ran sound for many of our shows. At the time I was pretty clueless about gear.
It's only been the past few years that I've gotten back into recording in any kind of semi-serious way--this group is probably the main reason for that. However, it's still just a hobby for me.
A P