Greetings! I'm almost as old as you, and my first programming job was a work term in Fall of '77. Not yet retired, sigh.

This place is like any other on the Internet -- you get what you give. If you dig into the subject, do as much research as you can and are still stumped, ask your question, and show your work. Many folks will be glad to help you out. Ask a vague, poorly researched question, and things won't go as well. :)

I've been using Perl for a little over 20 years, and I have a pretty good handle on the language, but I sure don't know everything about it, nor do I know every last CPAN module. There's so much stuff out there.

As Larry would say, "Have the appropriate amount of fun!"