I restarted at 59. The key is to be careful using your memorized youth technique on your current body, I promptly hurt my back. So a good warm-up and stretching before the game is very important. Also I changed my top spin to be more compatible with my back, using the
" Chinese " technique where the power comes from the hip, not the back (with a coach).
As for the blade, I started (and overpaid ;-) ) with a slower one (Butterfly Timo Boll control) with Butterfly Sriver on both sides (which I had also played in the 1970's - SuperSriver on the forehand
), and changed later to a faster (and cheaper) one after about a year (Yinhe PD 437 Limba/5x Ayous/Limba, with Yinhe Moon & Uranus Pro from princett.com). The Butterfly Viscaria is probably too fast in the beginning (it is a Koto top / external carbon blade), for me even after 2+ years it is still too fast/crispy, together with the Tenergy tensor rubbers.
For the rubbers, the Nittaku FastArc G-1 (best-seller at tabletennis11.com), Rakza 7, and Yinhe Moon are roughly equivalent for me (except for the price, Yinhe Moon is $12.50 at princett.com). You can read the blog at tabletennis11.com for lots of reviews of rubbers & blades.
For the blade, I would go with Limba top in the beginning, and either no Carbon/ALC/ZLC or "internal" Carbon/ALC/ZLC (= 2 layers of wood over the Carbon). So for example any 5-ply Limba/Spruce/Kiri combo will do. 7-ply Limba/5x Ayous/Limba are a little faster & stiffer and better for close to the table play (e.g. the Yinhe PD437, $27). Also note that the balls are slower and bigger now so the Limba/5x Ayous blades are manageable for mere mortals now.
Also for Limba top blades it is better to varnish them before glueing the rubbers on, tabletennis11.com does it for you on request (and also glues the rubbers).
I also recommend to start with taking lessons from a coach and get the technique in shape. Also at our age knees, ankles, and hips are weak spots so any extra mass (compared to our youth) is not good for the health given the rapid movements in table tennis in the heat of the battle.
Also if you intend to play attack, you will have a hard time against the 20-50 crowd. So I decided to use short pips backhand (and play like Mima Ito) to at least not be completely mainstream. This has worked out so far. Other more senior players consider long pips backhand but the problem with that one is that a good attacker can beat it.