I went skiing for three days last weekend with my brother, sister-in-law, nephew (8 years old), and niece. I hadn’t been since last year, so it took me the first two days to get really warmed up. My nephew was in ski school for those days, and I hadn’t seen him ski since his first times last year, when he would slowly make it down the bunny hill.
On the third day, all of us would ski together. My thoughts on that were on the lines of, “well, we won’t get as many runs in today, what with the kids and all. We’ll have to ski kind of slow, and wait for them to catch up, make sure they don’t get hurt, etc. But what the hey, it’ll be fun watching them and just hanging out.” So it’s the first run of the day, and I’m feeling good. I’m skiing down the hill before my nephew with the idea of stopping and seeing what he’s learned in the past two days, when out of nowhere, WHOOOSH!, the little guy comes flying by me like a bat out of hell. Before I know it, he’s 50 feet in front of me, and showing no signs of slowing down. I was so stunned I almost wiped out.
I knew I was old when I was watching the NFL last season.
Most of my life I would watch and tell myself the lie that, had my life gone a different direction I could be out on that field. I could be running or catching or whatever. Last season I realized I was old when, instead of that nice little lie I thought: Holy hell that looks like it hurts! I’m glad it isn’t me!
Also, I ordered a pair of slippers this year. My feet were always cold. They *never *got cold when I was young…
I think I’m younger than you old bastards, but last year, when I was talking to a 19-year-old coworker, and he noted that he was TWO when Nirvana’s “Nevermind” came out, I died a thousand deaths.
Dude, What? So people my age in 1983 had the same realization about “Sgt. Pepper?”
Listening to an interview on NPR yesterday of a singer talking about her father’s music and reminiscing about the work that he did “twenty years ago.” Twenty years ago? Pshaw, that was almost yesterday. Then I realized that 20 years ago, I was already an adult. That’s when I felt old.
I was born in 1981. I am currently 27. I. Should. Not. Feel. Old.
A year ago I was talking with a young woman was 16 years old. She was, (and is), a fan of rock and metal. She had no recollection of the first time she had heard Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains or Soundgarden. In point of fact, she didn’t even know who Soundgarden or AIC was (She did know ‘Man in the Box’ but not the band who performed it… I felt really, Really old.)
I was at a bar with some friends last Monday night when a kareoke singer started mangling Cindy Lauper’s “Time After Time.” I turned to my best friend and said wistfully, “You know, that song was the first 45 I ever bought with my own money.”
As she nodded in sympathy, one of the 20-somethings in the group furrowed his brow and asked, “What’s a 45?”
I’m not even that old, I could’ve bought it on cassette tape if I’d had a tape player at the time (I was 10 and had just gotten my very own record player for Christmas).
The only thing that has made me feel old in the last few years is posting on message boards with lots of young people because it made me realize that I spend all of my time with and around people close to my age and that most of my friends have the same deadhead background that I do. I’ve found that I’m hopelessly out of touch with pop culture. Not that I’ve ever been tuned into it very much but at least I use to know who people were talking about. Now I need to keep checking phrases in Encyclopedia Dramatica or similar sites and I even had to google Paris Hilton once to figure out what everyone was so excited about. I don’t know who the artists are that win Grammies, and I can barely remember the pressure and confusion of figuring out what you want to do after finishing with school.
I like it, though. Reading the opinions of younger people is very interesting to me as is the change in perspective that came with growing up with the internet and the ability to communicate with people all over the world. Sometimes I wonder if it has a negative effect on some people’s face to face social skills but overall they have the opportunity to be exposed to far more ideas and opinions than we had unless we worked very hard at it and spent days in the library.
I’m the same age as you, but music has never been an important part of my life so I can’t relate to the “Wait, you don’t know who Nirvana are???” aspect of things.
However, at my previous job I was working with an 18 year old co-worker and we were watching a news report on a US Military operation in Baghdad, and how it had lead to X number of deaths and the destruction of Y city blocks and the kicking of Z puppies, and I made a comment along the lines of “You know, I thought they would have worked all this crap out after the first Gulf War.”
And she looks at me quizzically and says “First Gulf War???”
This reminds me of a little while back when my nephew asked if he could borrow my guitar amp. He and his buddies wanted to play at a school assembly. I haven’t played guitar in a while so I was lending it to him but wanted to tease him a bit. I said I’d only lend it if they were going to play some good music. He said, all bright-eyed “we’re gonna play '60s music!!”.
That surprised me, “Uh, what kind of '60’s music?”
“Metallica!”
I wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. Then we began our history of Rock tutorial…
My feet have been getting cold since I was 15. Of course, I still go out in sub-freezing weather in sandals because I don’t feel like putting shoes on. (For the record, I’m 20.)
I am 50 on Friday. I do not feel old because I am in the happiest and most content period I have ever been in my life. I’ve done a WHOLE lot of dues paying, being in bad relationships, and being a single parent. Things are finally coming around. Life Is Good. There’s not a 20-year-old that’s got anything on me.
