In which I am made to feel old

The BBQ Pit
101

Look, I know this is a Pitting and all, but seriously, what’s the big deal? Everybody’s every age, eventually, if they live long enough.

Personally, I have no problem being older (34) than These Kids Today. I wonder if some of my contemporaries are forgetting how much the generation above us lorded it over? Beatles this. Woodstock that. Disco this. Watergate that. They were there and we weren’t, so that made them superior.

I don’t do that to younger people*. The way I see it, if there’s a gap in their knowledge, I’ll fill it. How did I learn what I know about stuff from before my time? So because of me, one guy knows that U2 has been around since the early '80s, and has a copy of their first album. A girl about his age knows that Bush the Elder nearly became president eight years ahead of schedule when Reagan was shot.

But my shining moment was when George Harrison died. I was on another board that mostly has high school kids. One poster said something to the effect of, “Okay, so there was Harrison, Lennon and Sir Paul…who was the other one?” Instead of clutching my head and howling, I posted a bio of the Beatles as a group, followed by bios of each of them post-breakup. And before anyone asks, what they didn’t know was that there was such a group as Wings. ("‘Maybe I’m Amazed’? Yeah, I’ve heard it, but I thought it was just McCartney." I also sorted out someone who had been frustrated that she couldn’t find “Imagine” on any Beatles album.)

Knowing something that younger people don’t doesn’t make me old. It makes me someone who was born in 1970. Their taking stuff seriously that I’m not into doesn’t make them whippersnappers. It makes them people who were born in 1988 or whenever.

*Well, except once. But that’s because it was the first time I was in such a position, and it caught me offguard. 1997; getting a group together for the anniversary screening of the Star Wars trilogy. Comparing memories of seeing SW:ANH. One guy admits he’d never seen it in the theater. “Because I was one year old.” Well, god forgive me, but I laughed. Only for a minute, though, and he was okay with it once I explained why: “Because this is the first time in my entire life that I’ve been the right age to remember something and someone else wasn’t!” But since then, I’ve been nothing but diplomatic.

102

Hah! What revolution? By then, you’ll all be far too old and feeble to inflict any damage!

d&r

103

I first felt old when I entered college and told some classmates my age. They were fresh little things, just out of high school. I told them I was twenty-two. You’d have thought I’d confessed to being 122. One girl even said, “You don’t look that old.” Ouch. I hadn’t realized we were adhering to Clan of the Cave Bear standards here. More recently, classmates were amazed that at my current age (twenty-six), I still have no children. Apparently I must conceive immediately, for menopause is breathing down my neck.

We’re not old. They’re too young.

104

I’m 17, and had to endure people my age who think they’re a better Monty Python fan then I am.
Also experienced the only conceivable highlight of Latin a couple of years ago.

105

Now THIS really made me feel old - a few weeks ago, when the new Band Aid single was being recorded, BBC News ran an item with some comments from current stars who were taking part. Not a few of them wondered “who that old geezer over there is” (Bob Geldof!). And one (I’m looking at you Joss Stone), when told by her mother who he was, replied “Who?”. :eek:

My daughter (14) makes me feel old …

On hearing The Joshua Tree for the first time recently, when she heard “Still Haven’t found What I’m Looking For” she was aghast at how they had *ruined * that song … :dubious:

And I was recently having my customary drool over Music Channel presenter Alex Zane … until she remarked “Ewwww - you’re old enought to be his mother!” :frowning:

Unfortunately, I am! :frowning: (44)

106

My boyfriend is 4 1/2 (exactly, even) years younger than myself and he manages to provide numerous feel-old moments for myself, and I am only 22. He was a fetus when the challenger disaster happened (I barely remember it) and anytime I make an 80’s reference, it tends to be completely lost on him.

One time, I was telling him a story from work, which went something like this:

Me: I was rather scared at work today, someone came in and actually asked me if we carried Zubaz .

BF: (blank stare) Zubaz?

Me: You don’t remember those? They were these really loudly patterned pants from back in the early 90’s

BF: I wasn’t even in school then!

Me: (blank stare)

107

modro, I’m not sure exactly what this says about me, but I didn’t know what Zubaz were until I clicked on your link, and I don’t remember seeing anyone wearing them in the 90s. Doing the math, I see you and I are the same age.

I feel old every time I see the “You must be this old to buy…” signs in shops. In general, I feel pretty young, though. Probably because I’m so immature.

108

My father was reading this thread over my shoulder. He says:

109

sob

I remember exactly where I was. I was at work. I still have the cartoon from the next day’s Toronto Star stuck in my sketchbook…

110

This thread

Where’s the beef? How can you NOT know that! Damn whippersnappers!

111

You’re 22? How did *that *happen?

112

I knew it. Then again, I am a HIPpersnapper.

113

You know, that’s a clever phrase, but it makes me think of the exact opposite of what it’s supposed to…very elderly people falling down and breaking their pelvis.

114

Am back briefly in uni to do a post doc, and for fun, have been attending music ensemble to play guitar – I was really thrilled to discover my extremely talented duet partner was born in 1986 – two years after I originally met my (and our current) guitar teacher.

Last Friday one of my seminars took a field trip to the Smithsonian’s storage facility in Maryland, and the guy showing us around announced with a giggle that amongst the rare and antique car collection was a Vega – drew blank stares from everyone except me and the professor, and yes someone did ask, ‘What’s a Vega?’

115

Visions of your future?

116

The most ancient I feel is when I’m reading the thread titles in “Cafe Society.”

117

This year’s college freshmen were eight years old when Pulp Fiction was released.

[quote]
Rilchiam: I wonder if some of my contemporaries are forgetting how much the generation above us lorded it over? Beatles this. Woodstock that. Disco this. Watergate that. They were there and we weren’t, so that made them superior.

[quote]

I’m glad to hear you finally acknowledge it. :wink: Assuming that you did not intuit history, I’m also pleased that someone who was there wrote about those experiences or told you about those events rather than just saying something like, “I’m superior to you because I existed first.” How exciting that you’ve taken a similar approach. We do beg your pardon for having first hand knowledge of anything prior to your birth and for our failure to draw breath prior to your incarnation. Console yourself with the knowledge that you will have information on things that transpire after we no longer exist. And know also that Tom Brokaw swears there was a Greater Generation before my own. (Silly rumor)

One of the definitions of whippersnapper is a presumptious person.

Of course.

I’m probably the oldest to post so far, although certainly not the oldest SDMB member. Although he wasn’t still living when I was born, my grandfather was a Confederate soldier. My earliest memory is of the last day of WWII and I remember where I was and with whom, what was happening, what was said and what I was thinking. I was not quite 25 months old. I feel the same age now, but I’m 61.

I can remember Dave Garroway coming onto a kids’ television program to tell about a new kind of show that was going to be on. It would have news and sports and weather and talk. It would be called Today. Until that show, TV didn’t start broadcasting until 9:00 or 10:00 a.m.

I can remember my first recognition that I was out of sync with the way my students were thinking when I said that a certain song had been popular “a few years ago.” Someone asked how many and I said “Ten or eleven.” They were shocked, of course, that I would consider that a few years. It was most of their remembered lifetimes.

The last ten days or so, I’ve been feeling especially young and even noticed that I look it too. Even an old friend of 56 years noticed. We laughed and said it was “the glow of expectant motherhood.” I’m about to adopt a “child.” She’s in her thirties and halfway through law school, but that sounds like a good time to adopt her to me! My husband’s daughter that I have loved for almost 20 years has consented to become my daughter legally. She is my “first born.”

I think my grandfather would have liked that. He was 61 when my father was born. He would have been 99 when I was born. My father would have been 99 in January. He got to meet my daughter and one of my grandchildren once before he died.

No, I don’t feel old at all, you young whippersnappers!

118

Please excuse me. I have a bad code.

119

That’s a lovely thing to happen, Zoe. May you live to see your great grandchildren grow up.

120

And yours as well, my friend. :wink: