Just a few minutes ago, I was browsing the Entertainment news headlines on my home page, and one of them caught my eye. It read: “Duff to sing of love for Carter.” Now that confused the heck out of me, because the first Duff I thought of was -Howard- Duff, and what was he doing singing?! And what Carter was he singing about anyway? Nell Carter?! I was curious to find out what this was about, so clicked on the link only to find out it was -Hilary- Duff, singing of her love for Aaron Carter…neither of whom I had -any- idea who they were! Aiyee! Is this my defining moment of old age?! Should I have known which Duff and Carter they were referring to?! Am I beyond hope … or help?! :eek:
Gah! What gets me is when I see people who look like they are my age, or ought to be my age (but then maybe I think of myself as perpetually being in my twenties). So they look as if they are my peers… And then I find out that they were born in a whole other decade.
I recently had to get a copy of “The Wall” – to be precise, the “Roger Waters: The Wall, Live in Berlin”. It was a live concert version of Pink Floyd’s work that was done in Berlin to celebrate the dismantling of the Berlin Wall. This was a work-related purchase. I couldn’t find it, so I had to ask.
So the girl at the record store help desk was easily in her twenties. I was as specific as possible. “The Wall, live concert version from Berlin, not entirely sure of the release date, but it was when the wall came down.” She looked it up on her computer.
Girl in her 20s: “Let’s see… Pink Floyd ‘The Wall’ 1979?”
Me: “No, no, I need the live concert version from when the Berlin wall came down.”
GIH20: “… ‘The Wall’ 1984?”
Me: “No, it has to be around 1990. The concert was when the Berlin wall came down.”
GIH20: “…There was one released in 1981…”
Me: “No! It has to be much later – it was the concert from when the Berlin wall came down!”
Eventually her co-worker wandered over. He knew what I was talking about. The problem? She had no idea about the"event" of the Berlin wall coming down. The timeline that meant utterly nothing to her because she was too young. She was alive at the time, yes, but too young to care.
Twenty years ago this fall, when I did my first semester as a graduate T.A., it kinda boggled me that my freshman students were all born after JFK was assassinated, and probably didn’t remember the moon landing.
This fall’s freshman class won’t remember the Berlin Wall, and may or may not remember the existence of the Soviet Union. Gulf War I will be a dim memory.
In a dozen years, we’ll be filling in those blanks with 9/11 and Dub and Rummy’s Excellent Mideast Adventure.
20 or so years ago, I was teaching Speech Com to freshmen, and my terribly witty reference to Barry Goldwater was wasted when I realized not a single student knew who in the world I was talking about.
As payment for those students’ sins, my own kids are forced to hear all kinds of arcana.
I vividly remember how it felt (no you perv - the OTHER feeling) when I first saw a Playboy centerfold who was younger than me.
Then, I started feeling old when I’d see bios of athletes and celebrities, and their birthdays were in a decade (now 2 or even 3!) after my 1960 birth.
Now, liquor postings carry signs saying to purchase you must have been born before a day on whichh I was already legal!
As far as popular culture goes, for me it was all downhill with the onset of rap and hiphop. I used to be in a band, have thousands of albums - music was very important to me. But I never got into these styles - plus, I started working and having kids so I spent less energy on new music. It is truly shocking the first time you look at a top 10 list of popular music and realize you don’t know a single artist, and couldn’t think of the tune or words to a single song.
Pull up a rocking chair, gramps, pour yourself a prune juice, and let me tell you about my surgery…
I recently found it rather disconcerting when hurt my finger, went to a clinic, and the doctor was younger than me.
At 31 I’m not going to be retiring soon, but I expect doctors to somehow seem “older and wiser” and not look so much like a cast member from Dawson’s Creek. I have no idea when this whole “adulthood” thing crept up on me. (Although I expect it was the first time some bastard called me “ma’am”)
Well actually, I admit that my very first thought on the Carter was Jimmy too, but immediately veered to Nell … 