I still play it

Growing up, I heard the word ain't very little because it was stigmatized speech.  English teachers actively taught against its use, even saying that it wasn't listed as a word in the dictionary.  Twenty years later I began hearing it more often.  I think there were two reasons for that, one of them not being that English teachers had destigmatized it.  First, my circle widened greatly, and I was exposed to a greater diversity of people.  Second, there was a movement among linguists against the prescriptive nature of language and in favor of describing the varieties of language found.  Sociolinguists in particular began referring to standard English as presitge English.  The war was on.

I still don't hear it that often so when I do hear it, ain't is noticed.  I take note of the people who use it and the situations in which it is heard.  As far as memory goes, the amount of use and the situations of use are the same as when I was growing up.  I also understand a language principle much better.  Whatever our speech was as a youth tends to return after age 40, after one's ambition in the workplace has begun to subside.  The term "linguistic marketplace" was coined in the 1970s to speak of the effect of marketplace on one's economic situation in society.  By the time the next decade arrives there is a comfort level in life that one has achieved about all that is going to be achieved in a person's economic circumstances.  It is then, when people regress to using ain't if they used it as a child and teenager.

I never used it in my youth, so I still don't.  It's not a part of my psyche of being comfortable, and I never had to fight against it during my most ambitious years to get ahead with my money.   So, when I hear it from adults, I know it marked them in their youths, and it helps identify them as being from certain areas and educational levels.  Language is still a game, you know.  And I still play it.