# In which I am made to feel old **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 1, 2004, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-which-i-am-made-to-feel-old/277469 "2004-12-01T08:23:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2004, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-which-i-am-made-to-feel-old/277469/61 "2004-12-02T01:01:00Z")
> [@Left Hand of Dorkness](#): > > “It is sobering to consider that when Mozart was my age he had already been dead for a year.” --Tom Lehrer > > Daniel Damn you! I was all set to post that quote, and you beat me to it! 😃 Okay, kiddies, who’s Tom Lehrer, hmmm? ---
**Author:** ![Ilsa\_Lund](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a6a055/32.png) [@Ilsa\_Lund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ilsa_Lund)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2004, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-which-i-am-made-to-feel-old/277469/62 "2004-12-02T01:06:39Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > Damn you! I was all set to post that quote, and you beat me to it! 😃 > > Okay, kiddies, who’s Tom Lehrer, hmmm? A comedian/satirist/musician/all around personality. He declared political satire superenumerary when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973. ---
**Author:** ![wring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2004, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-which-i-am-made-to-feel-old/277469/63 "2004-12-02T01:17:15Z")
> [@MaddyStrut](#): > > After the race, I overheard one of my 22 year old officemates remark that she must be out of shape because it was difficult for her to keep up with “someone as old as MaddyStrut.” Yeah, I’m nearly wheelchair bound at 38 and all. :rolleyes: A friend of mine at age 35 went to _Rocky HOrror Picture Show_ at a moonlight madness showing, was in front of a couple of college students who were talking about some one living in their dorm who was like, gasp, **25** and like, what was he even _doing there_ ya know?" and my friend turned around and said “Waiting to die”… ---
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2004, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-which-i-am-made-to-feel-old/277469/64 "2004-12-02T01:45:06Z")
Heh, yeah, I do this to my parents all the time. The other day I was talking to my dad about the space program, and how he was about to start at an engineering school when man first walked on the moon, blah blah blah, and the last time he could recall anyone taking a huge interest like that in the space program was after the Challenger disaster. I had to remind him that, no, I didn’t remember it, as I wasn’t born until six months afterwards. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![dwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwyr/32/363_2.png) [@dwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwyr)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2004, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-which-i-am-made-to-feel-old/277469/65 "2004-12-02T03:08:40Z")
> [@gobear](#): > > I was born in 1961, but I prefer to think of myself as not “old,” but eternal, like She Who Must Be Obeyed (H. Rider Haggard’s deathless queen, not Rumpole’s wife.) Yes, but She didn’t come out too well at the end of the movie. Stay away from eternal flames, is all I’m saying. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2004, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-which-i-am-made-to-feel-old/277469/66 "2004-12-02T03:21:11Z")
> [@wring](#): > > I started working in 1977. > > Elvis was alive then ya know. He still is!!! ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2004, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-which-i-am-made-to-feel-old/277469/67 "2004-12-02T07:22:45Z")
It was late at night, I’d stopped into a grocery store for some aspirin or cold medicine or something. On my way out, I saw a group of teenagers hanging together in the parking lot the way teenagers often do - one of them had a pair of Incredible Hulk fake hands on. As I walked by, I nodded to them, and he said “They’re great, would you like to try them, _Ma’am_?” “_Ma’am_” I was just about to turn 30. I did thank him, but said “no,” and freaked out the whole way home. There was an 80s station for a while here…one of the tag lines was “Music from when you thought thirtysomething was about old people.” ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2004, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-which-i-am-made-to-feel-old/277469/68 "2004-12-02T14:34:35Z")
10 years ago, I mentioned “Star Wars” to a 20-something and she said 'What’s that?" ---
**Author:** ![DfrntBreign](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f6c823/32.png) [@DfrntBreign](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DfrntBreign)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2004, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-which-i-am-made-to-feel-old/277469/69 "2004-12-02T15:06:31Z")
A co-worker told about his number one daughter coming from her fifth grade music appreciation class. “They were playing this really cool old classical music. It was something that started with a B.” So, he’s thinking Brahms or Beethoven, maybe Bach. She says, “I remember! The Beatles!” ---
**Author:** ![DfrntBreign](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f6c823/32.png) [@DfrntBreign](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DfrntBreign)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2004, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-which-i-am-made-to-feel-old/277469/70 "2004-12-02T15:07:35Z")
That was ten years ago!!! ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2004, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-which-i-am-made-to-feel-old/277469/71 "2004-12-02T17:06:32Z")
The Teenaged Terror just turned 18 a couple of days ago. A few months ago, we were sitting around the dinner table and the topic had gotten onto music. SWMBO made a joking remark to the effect of, “Yeah, Paul McCartney was in a little garage band before he was in Wings.” And The Teenaged Terror says, “Who’s Paul whatshisname?”. We nearly wept… ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2004, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-which-i-am-made-to-feel-old/277469/72 "2004-12-02T17:07:55Z")
…along with the Baby Jesus! ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2004, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-which-i-am-made-to-feel-old/277469/73 "2004-12-02T17:23:12Z")
I just now received in the mail an invitation to join AARP. I am now damn old. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2004, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-which-i-am-made-to-feel-old/277469/74 "2004-12-02T17:30:35Z")
> [@tremorviolet](#): > > I went back to school to get a degree in engineering when I was 31 or so. I was a lot older than my fellow students (engineering students in particular seem to go right through, there were more non-traditional students in other colleges. This could be a reflection of the fact that higher education catering to working adults is heavily skewed away from subjects like engineering and computer science, and toward business and business-oriented IT programs. So engineering undergrads tend to be college age. ---
**Author:** ![supervenusfreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@supervenusfreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/supervenusfreak)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2004, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-which-i-am-made-to-feel-old/277469/75 "2004-12-02T17:31:42Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Ah, but the difference is in the coolness factor, modified for time passed. To us (I’m 33), the Monkees had some good songs. To THEM (the young’uns), the Monkees is a stupid name for a group (but Smashmouth, apparently, isn’t). To us, the Guess Who is kind of clever and they make good music. To THEM, the Guess Who is another stupid name for a group, and Lenny Kravitz (who sounds from the name as if he should look like Allen Sherman rather than a damn GOD) is da bomb. > > (How does someone half of whose genes come from Roxie Fucking Roker look that good, anyway?) His daddy must have been a handsome man… ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2004, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-which-i-am-made-to-feel-old/277469/76 "2004-12-02T17:51:20Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > There’s a woman here where I work who has gorgeous silver hair down to about her waist. She’s only in her 40s, from what I can tell, and it’s absolutely beautiful. > > I keep waiting to go distinguished like Phil Donahue, but I just keep getting this Reed Richards bleached temples look… It bothered me at first, but I started to really like it, plus my boyfriend showed me this picture of this absolutely beautiful model with white streaks in her hair (no doubt dyed!) I don’t know her name, but I figured it’s all in how you carry it. > [@NinjaChick](#): > > Heh, yeah, I do this to my parents all the time. The other day I was talking to my dad about the space program, and how he was about to start at an engineering school when man first walked on the moon, blah blah blah, and the last time he could recall anyone taking a huge interest like that in the space program was after the Challenger disaster. I had to remind him that, no, I didn’t remember it, as I wasn’t born until six months afterwards. :eek: Holy pogo sticks. I was ten years old…saw it in _school_. They took us out of class! > [@Annie-xmas](#): > > I just now received in the mail an invitation to join AARP. > > I am now damn old. I got one when I was **fifteen**. It took me until I was \*\*seventeen \*\* to convince them that, since I hadn’t even joined the working force yet, I wasn’t planning to retire anytime soon. is everybody in that organization senile? How much you wanna bet when I do retire and want to join they’ll say “You refused back in 1990 or so, shouldn’t you be _dead_?” ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2004, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-which-i-am-made-to-feel-old/277469/77 "2004-12-02T17:52:54Z")
I should point out that I was ten years old at the time of Challenger, not the rest of it. I’m not that old. Jeez. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2004, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-which-i-am-made-to-feel-old/277469/78 "2004-12-02T18:45:14Z")
I have friends who teach high school. One of them made an offhand comment about Chernobyl only to realize they had _no idea_ what he was talking about. My mom was in college when Kennedy was shot. Teaching high school in the mid to late 70’s, she brought him up in class and got “Oh yeah, he’s one of those guys who got assassinated back with Lincoln.” I’m sure that was extremely distressing to her. I’m working a few part-time library jobs while I hunt for the full time holy grail that uses my masters’ degree, and I keep forgetting and calling it a “card catalog”. The kids have no idea what the hell I’m talking about. (Here at the museum I actually use and maintain a real card catalog. I’ve pointed high school kids to it, not thinking, and they don’t even know what I’m pointing at.) I’m afraid I did it to somebody else this past week, though - like I said, I’m hunting for full time librarian status but trying to sneak in the back door in the meantime. I had orientation for this new job as a substitute circulation clerk at the public library, and the lady who came to train us on the circulation software looked oddly familiar to me. Her: Hey, do I know you from somewhere? Me: I don’t know, you do look awfully familiar. long pause Her: Did you used to be a little blonde girl, used the Landmark Square branch? Me: :eek: Yeah, I’ve got a masters’ degree in library science now. Her: (horrified and pleased at the same time, in an awful admixture) Thing is, she’d been there for 34 years - I’m 24 now, so she’d been a long-time librarian when I was a kid, even. Poor dear lady. I bet she went home and sobbed at the mirror. ---
**Author:** ![Good\_Egg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/96bed5/32.png) [@Good\_Egg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Good_Egg)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2004, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-which-i-am-made-to-feel-old/277469/79 "2004-12-02T18:54:29Z")
You’ve heard of that band, from another century; The Beatles? I, also, feel old. But take heart, we are **not** old, we are wise. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2004, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-which-i-am-made-to-feel-old/277469/80 "2004-12-02T18:58:15Z")
> [@Good Egg](#): > > You’ve heard of that band, from another century; The Beatles? I, also, feel old. But take heart, we are **not** old, we are wise. Please, please work that concept as hard as you can. We good folk in the generation right behind you on this escalator to Hell really want it to be well-established by the time we get to that point. We’re ready to exploit the holy fluck out of it… 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-which-i-am-made-to-feel-old/277469.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-which-i-am-made-to-feel-old/277469.md?page=5)