# "I know I'm showing my age." **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 2, 2008, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-im-showing-my-age/470775 "2008-11-02T22:25:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Stuffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f17d59/32.png) [@Stuffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stuffy)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2008, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-im-showing-my-age/470775/21 "2008-11-03T03:57:58Z")
> [@NinjaChick](#): > > I don’t get it. That was sixteen years ago, which is a not-small amount of time. I’ve got shoes that old. ---
**Author:** ![Stuffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f17d59/32.png) [@Stuffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stuffy)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2008, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-im-showing-my-age/470775/22 "2008-11-03T03:59:26Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > Seriously, I’m not even 30 and I have shoes that are more than 16 years old. My _dog_ is 16 years old; he’s starting to show his age. 🙂 Crap!! ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2008, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-im-showing-my-age/470775/23 "2008-11-03T04:49:28Z")
> [@kayT](#): > > “…having higher taxes on people who make a shitload of money seems perfectly fair to me.” > Captain Carrot, people who make more money already pay higher taxes. If you mean paying a higher percentage in taxes, how is that “fair”? You might want to take that up with… well, every American government since the 16th Amendment, and more or less all the other governments in the world over roughly the same period. ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2008, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-im-showing-my-age/470775/24 "2008-11-03T04:55:38Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > You might want to take that up with… well, every American government since the 16th Amendment, and more or less all the other governments in the world over roughly the same period. And Adam Smith and Teddy Roosevelt. ---
**Author:** ![Jaglavak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/85f322/32.png) [@Jaglavak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaglavak)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2008, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-im-showing-my-age/470775/25 "2008-11-03T05:04:45Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > I don’t get it. You’ve found a song from when we (those of us of the appropriate age) were in college linked to a bunch of photos from decades earlier. Is this supposed to be a sign of long ago? 😉 Dude. 1970 was half a lifetime ago. Back when they mixed their dino squeezins with carburetors. But it’s still a rockin tune no matter when it was written. ---
**Author:** ![straight\_man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/straight_man/32/3027_2.png) [@straight\_man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/straight_man)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2008, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-im-showing-my-age/470775/26 "2008-11-03T05:57:17Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Yes it is. It’s a tiny, insignificant, piddling amount of time. If you can remember something that happened in 1993, it means you’re around 20 years or older. It is NOT a long enough period of time to say that remembering it “shows my age.” Only a prattling retard would say that. It is possible to be able to remember Clinton’s first inauguration and still not even be old enough to drink I was going to tell you that you’re an idiot for thinking someone would remember an inauguration from when they were four… but then I remembered my elder sister doing that fake voting in elementary school when I was three. :smack: I’m nineteen now. Incidentally, for the Canadian equivalent, I exercised my right to vote in the election a couple weeks ago, and I don’t really remember the time before Chrétien was Prime Minister. And really, I’ve only been truly attentive to the Canadian scene since Paul Martin came into power, so I mostly think in terms of minority governments. Then again, I’ve only lived up here for a couple years, so… ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2008, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-im-showing-my-age/470775/27 "2008-11-03T07:35:34Z")
I’ve had the same boss at work for over 14 years. The start of the Clinton administration still seems like it was just yesterday to me. Ed ---
**Author:** ![Declan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2008, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-im-showing-my-age/470775/28 "2008-11-03T07:54:43Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > I just heard a bimbo news reporter mention that she remembers Clinton’s first inauguration, followed by “I know I’m showing my age.” Your looking at that comment in the wrong context, she is now entering cougarhood if she was not already there. Most of the girls that I have talked too , once they have past 25 seem to think in terms of Hudson, its game over man. Declan ---
**Author:** ![Carmady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f04885/32.png) [@Carmady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carmady)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2008, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-im-showing-my-age/470775/29 "2008-11-03T10:50:53Z")
> [@NinjaChick](#): > > I don’t get it. That was sixteen years ago, which is a not-small amount of time. Sixteen years is not long enough for the statement to make sense. All it shows is that she is at least around 20 years old… but that should be obvious by her appearance and job. Did she think everyone thought she was a 13 year old news reporter? The statement is stupid enough that I suspect she miscalculated the year of Clinton’s inauguration to be earlier than it was. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Booker\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/71c47a/32.png) [@Happy\_Booker\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Booker_1)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2008, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-im-showing-my-age/470775/30 "2008-11-03T11:20:33Z")
World War II is more distant temporally today than World War I was when I was a teenager. That’s the bit of perspective that makes mee feel old. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2008, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-im-showing-my-age/470775/31 "2008-11-03T11:54:45Z")
> [@Happy\_Booker](#): > > World War II is more distant temporally today than World War I was when I was a teenager. That’s the bit of perspective that makes mee feel old. The period before World War I might as well be the Renaissance in terms of politics, culture, and the world system: The world has ended _twice_ since 1910. (It ended in 1914, when Feudal Europe died, and in 1991, when the primacy of the nation-state died.) (It took until 2001 for America to fully realize what 1991 meant. We focused on the death of the Soviet Union to the exclusion of noticing one of the things that killed it: The Taliban and similar, international groups with a vague ideology and no stable home base. Prior to 1991 the world system was capable of keeping such groups in check, both by force of arms and the restriction of the flow of information. It is not a coincidence that the world ended in 1991 when the Internet fully went public.) ---
**Author:** ![Carson\_O\_Genic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cdc98d/32.png) [@Carson\_O\_Genic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carson_O_Genic)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2008, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-im-showing-my-age/470775/32 "2008-11-03T12:03:25Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > I still meet plenty of hot young chiquitas. But now they call me “sir”. Worried more about me diddling their kids than exploring THEIR linen. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2008, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-im-showing-my-age/470775/33 "2008-11-03T12:49:52Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > I still meet plenty of hot young chiquitas. But now they call me “sir”. You know what shows my age? When I see some young pretty girl and realize that the day she was born I had already been jacking off to Playboy for some time. I’m thinking that might not be the best pickup line though: “Do you realise that when you were born I had been jacking off to Playboy for some years already? . . .” ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2008, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-im-showing-my-age/470775/34 "2008-11-03T15:25:17Z")
When I was a lad, I went door to door with canisters collecting coins for the Adlai Stevenson campaign against Eisenhower. Thats how much of it was collected. You would ask them to put coins in the slot. Campaign financing has changed a bit since then. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2008, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-im-showing-my-age/470775/35 "2008-11-03T16:17:03Z")
'ere, now, you had coins? We were sent out to collect shells and shiny pebbles, and were darn lucky to get them, too! ---
**Author:** ![shy\_guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a6a055/32.png) [@shy\_guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shy_guy)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2008, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-im-showing-my-age/470775/36 "2008-11-03T16:33:50Z")
I don’t think it’s that weird. I was eight years old when Clinton was elected and I just barely remember some Clinton-related stuff from back then (my earliest memory being, I think, “… while Bill Clinton plays the sax!” in the Animaniacs theme song). Heck, my little sister was _three years old_ when Clinton was elected. Anything pre-Bush seems like a hundred years ago to her. ---
**Author:** ![TroubleAgain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e480ec/32.png) [@TroubleAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroubleAgain)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2008, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-im-showing-my-age/470775/37 "2008-11-03T18:25:55Z")
The first presidential election I remember being aware of as a “current” event would have been the Ford/Carter election when I was in 5th grade. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2008, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-im-showing-my-age/470775/38 "2008-11-03T18:47:50Z")
Although not as advanced in age as some Dopers, I do recall JFK’s assassination and LBJ’s swearing-in. And I remember the 1964 election, Johnson vs. Goldwater. And I do remember Reagan as an actor. Sixteen years ago is a drop in the bucket to me. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2008, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-im-showing-my-age/470775/39 "2008-11-03T18:56:42Z")
> [@LouisB](#): > > **Jaglavak** , I’ve got a copy of _The Art of War_ in the bookcase to my left. I’ve found it very productive reading. Unless it’s an autographed copy, I think you are in the wrong thread. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f07891/32.png) [@Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Plastic_Ninja)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2008, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-im-showing-my-age/470775/40 "2008-11-03T18:57:14Z")
I have used “showing my age” as deprecation to my youth because so many of my friends are older than me. Usually I’ll say something more like “I hate to date myself like this, but I have to admit I skipped eighth period in high school to see the _remastered re-release_ of the original Star Wars in the movie theater.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-im-showing-my-age/470775.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-im-showing-my-age/470775.md?page=3)