quadell wrote:
Dang! Another one too young for me!
-Melin
All in all, I’d also put a vote in for that list’s purpose being to make boomers feel old rather than to dis the '81ers. I mean, what virtue resides in having an 8-track (other than the retro-coolness factor, of course), or only 13 channels? The only constant is change, and I would say that the list attempts to prick the soft envelope of complacency that surrounds some smug boomers.
Now, as a boomer myself (1947) I’m sure my parents generation could have produced a comparable list with ease: “Beer has always in cans,” or “‘T’aint funny, Magee’ means nothing to them,” or “They have never had to crank for the operator,” and so on.
My point wasn’t really that it was insulting, but that it was inaccurate. It was more like my little brother and his friends than me and mine.
Oh, well. Don’t really care anymore.
Innocent! I’m innocent, I say! That was all a scurrilous rumor! 
-Melin
(who in a previous life went by “Mindy.” I wouldn’t try it if I were you . . . .)
My near-husband is 15 years younger than me. Which is alot, nearly a generation. And I am constantly realizing the little things he ahs no clue about that I am SO OLD I remember…
dial telephones
no plastic garbage can liners… man, was I thrilled when THOSE showed up
Schwabs (I live in Hollywood)
The first consumer CASSETTE recorders and players…another deeply thrilling invention.
And FOOD? How many of you guys remember a time when there were maybe 5 types of bread, fresh produce was limited to 1 kind each of lettuce, tomatoes, a few fruits in summer (remember when watermelon was a penny a pound? I do) cabbages, green onions, a squash or two, etc? Ice cream came in about 4 flavers, two brands, the only sugar-free anything was “Dietetic” for people with diabetes, virtually everything came chock-full of preservatives, and frozen foods meant Swanson? Stouffers was downright exotic! I read somewhere recently that the average number of different products and brands in a large grocery store has grown from something like 5000 to 50,000. All to the good, except that every time they come out with something that I really like, they discontinue it as soon as I discover it. With all those products they are still aiming for the LDC.
How many of you can imagine Midnight Cowboy being rated X?
Word processing! (Not computing!) WOW!
And let’s not forget…anybody besides me learn how to use computers when the dominant operating system was CP/M?
It never ceases to amaze me that my two closest friends and I have been so for nearly THIRTY years! Longer than my sweetie has been ALIVE!!! AAAAAAEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!
Yeah, I feel old.
Stoidela
Boycott shampoo! Demand REAL poo!
GL;
You’ve jogged my memory. I do now remember Mork appearing on Happy Days. But the line form the original list said (paraphrase), They don’t know who Mork was or where he was from.
While he did appear on Happy Days, he certainly wasn’t from Happy Days.
“I think it would be a great idea” Mohandas Ghandi’s answer when asked what he thought of Western civilization
Quad, I’m nine years older than you, and I remember the exact moment I found out the Berlin Wall came down. I was about 23 years old and we’d been hearing about what had been happening in Hungary and Poland, and then it extended to East Germany, and everyone in Spain spent 24 hours scared as shit about whether the Russian tanks were going to roll. Then we all went to sleep (no CNN in Europe at that time) without knowing what was going on. Woke up, no big deal, went down to the newsstand and picked up La Vanguardia, the leading Barcelona newspaper. The paper had the news that the Wall had come down. Went straight upstairs and told my wife, “The Empire is dead”. No kidding, and that was the best line I’ve ever been able to come up with in my life. But you can’t imagine the fear in Western Europe in the spring of 89 if you weren’t there. Fortunately, everyone was wrong and the USSR couldn’t invade like we all thought they could.
Think of it this way, Cessandra - in 20 years you’ll be making a list for the next generation:
- They don’t know what the Y2K fuss was all about.
- They don’t know who Monica Lewinsky was.
- They’ve never driven a gasoline-powered car.
Others?
This really is a case where where the older generation longs for the way things used to be. I can remember my parents saying that they had to walk 3 miles to school in the snow and up-hill both ways :). The truth is that as you get older we all look back and think that those were the best years of our lives. It was easy when we were young, no responsibilities, no bills, and an afternoon snack when you got home from school, PB&J sandwiches. Those were the days. But as we grow up we are forced to comply with the norms of all the other adults in the world.
When anyone starts talking about how the “best” years of their life were in High School or even college, I turn to them and say NO. Life is what you make of it!!! If you wish that you were having a great time now in your life, MAKE IT HAPPEN. Reminiscing is great but only you have the power to make yourself happy.
In the past several years, I have take on several new hobbies flyfishing, kayaking, Mt biking, camping, astronomy, and as a result best some of the best people in the world.
This is not much of a flame, but oh well.
Your parents only walked 3 miles? Mine walked 10 miles. And had no shoes!