Up until now, I’ve been able to tell myself that I’m still a young girl, dammit!!
This… this is just a slap in the face. The face that still has firm skin and youth, by God!! The notion that I’m getting OLD <shudder> and that these 18-year-olds may be looking at ME the way I used to look at people over 35… Oh dear god, stop the world I wanna get off!!
I’m having an existential crisis. Or something.
That just tears it. I don’t think I’ll be reading this thread any more.
Geez, I’m disappointed in my fellow Dopers. Nearly six hours since you posted, and I’m the first one to ask for a cite.
-Christian (dirty old man in training)
Seeing 18 year olds doesn’t bother me in the least. But as a 43 year old, I can point to several milestones that HAVE made me feel old:
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When I was 22, the sudden realization that several of the players on the Yankees were YOUNGER than me was devastating. I’d spent my childhood looking up to pro athletes, and it was weird to realize that many of them were now younger that I was… and that before long, they ALL would be!
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It was even WEIRDER when, a few years ago, several of those Yankee players who were younger than me played in the annual Old Timers Day game!!!
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It’s scary the first few times you see the child of a favorite sports or show biz star as an adult. I felt very old the first time I saw Ken Griffey Jr. and Barry Bonds in the major leagues. And the first time I saw Phil Simms’ son Chris play quarterback here in Austin.
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It feels strange when you start seeing people younger than yourself in professions and positions of authority. Seeing policeman younger than myself for the first time was weird. Seeing airline pilots and Catholic priests younger than myself was also rather troubling! Seeing doctors and politicians younger than myself was a bit scary, too!
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I don’t know the exact moment at which I officially became a dirty old man, but it was awfully troubling the first time I realized I was one. Here in Austin, a university town, I see gorgeous 18-22 year old females in various states of undress all the time. And I felt really weird the first time it dawned on me… “It’s not just an expression any more- I really AM old enough to be her father! And if she saw me looking at her, she’d probably cringe!!!”
Not to mention, they have absolutely zero idea who Mr. Hooper is. And I don’t think they ever saw The Electric Company, either. Or The Banana Splits.
And Coldfire, Nevermind actually came out in September 1991 (my senior year in high school), although it didn’t get big until early '92.
And on preview … astorian, I can’t even read the programs at hockey games any more, because most of the players who are my age have 10+ years experience in the NHL: they’ve been playing the game professionally for a decade or more (and making more money in a year than I will ever make in my life).
whimper I refuse to accept that I am this 
old.
I’m in my late 30s, sort of straddling the line between youth and middle age. MTV still appeals to me, considering that I was raised with it. Still, though, I was given a harsh reminder of my age when, looking through female profiles on match.com, about half of the women have … old lady hair! Half still have hairstyles that wouldn’t be out-of-place on a twenty-something hottie, but about 50% now possess a coif that I would have found on someone my mother’s age, if not older, when I was in high school. We’re talking hair that’s short and frosted, piled up in a beehive or bouffant, or some other style that screams “old!” to my eyes. Quite a few look like Peggy Hill!
Being 34 and 8 years older than my wife whom I married 2 years ago it always freaks me out that if someone had said “Want to meet your future wife?” at my high school graduation I would have been introduced to an 11-year old girl.
My high school girlfriend is a grandmother.
My college girlfriend is a grandmother.
My former assistant’s mother is the same age as I.
My niece has two children.
I need to stop now.
This sort of thing happened to me yesterday as my girlfriend and I were talking about the death of Reagan. She said she didn’t really remember much about his presidency. I suddenly realized that she had been born less than a month after his first inauguration. I, on the other hand, was born during the first Nixon administration.
Trust me Hampshire, I know where you’re coming from.
What else has he sold?
Anyways, i’m 18 in less than a month, born 1986… tick tick tick.
I was born in 1986. Gonna be 18 in August. Graduating a week from tomorrow, starting college in August. Don’t remember anything of Reagan, or Bush the first - my earliest political memories start with Pres. Clinton.
Also, I don’t remember ever not having a computer. CDs have almost always - to me - been more common than cassettes.
But no, you’re all not old…just age-enhanced!
Yer kidding, right? RIGHT?!?!
My corresponding point to the OP was when I realized that the college freshmen that I was teaching weren’t even born when I started college.
As to what they don’t know about, the part that makes me saddest is that due to the corporate control of American media, they don’t really know the truth about, what is to me, recent American history. What the media tells these kids about the 60s and what actually happened are two entirely different things. (Did you know that the Great Society was actually a success?) And they might actually believe the current glurge of “Great Communicator” nonsense pouring forth. Sad, sad, sad.
Sadly, I am afraid s/he may NOT be kidding. Ow, my head …
Three words:
Lyndon Baines Johnson.
No it wasn’t. Objectively, the War on Poverty turned out to be even more expensive and ultimately futile than the equally stupid War on Drugs.
All you old people, try reading the Beloit College mindset list. Here’s a few gems from both my class (2005) and the class whose birthyear are mostly the same as mine (1982, so class of 2004.)
2005:
Hard copy has nothing to do with a TV show; a browser is not someone relaxing in a bookstore; a virus does not make humans sick; and a mouse is not a rodent (and there is no proper plural for it)
Moscow has always been opposed to “star wars.” (A timely choice, I think.)
There has always been Diet Coke.
Grenada has always been safe for democracy. (Another timely one.)
Sarajevo was a war zone, not an Olympic host.
They don’t remember Janet Jackson when she was cute and chubby. (Another timely one.)
With a life expectancy of 77 years, they can anticipate living until about 2060.
And for 2004, which is closer to my age:
Grace Kelly, Elvis Presley, Karen Carpenter, and the E.R.A. have always been dead.
Somebody named George Bush has been on every national ticket, except one, since they were born.
The year they were born, AIDS was found to have killed 164 people; finding a cure for the new disease was designated a “top priority” for government-sponsored research. (Another timely one.)
Wars begin and end quickly; peace-keeping missions go on forever. (Yet another.)
They have no idea that a “presidential scandal” once meant nothing more than Ronald Reagan taking President Carter’s briefing book in “Debategate.” (Really?)
They never thought of Jane Fonda as “Hanoi Jane,” nor associated her with any revolution other than the “Fitness Revolution” videotape they may have found in the attic.
If they vaguely remember the night the Berlin Wall fell, they are probably not sure why it was up in the first place.
And, heck, one more list for the class of 2007, which is close to the 18-year-olds the thread started with.
They are not familiar with the source of that “Giant Sucking Sound.”
Russian leaders have always looked like leaders everyplace else.
There has always been a screening test for AIDS
Banana Republic has always been a store, not a puppet government in Latin America.
There has always been some association between fried eggs and your brain. (Boy, a lot of the stuff on these lists is a product of the Reagan administration)
LOL I make younger people laugh when I refer to Nirvana as “new music.”
These people pretty much grew up with an internet, didn’t they?
I’m sure they don’t associate “computer” with “punch cards.”
:eek: I don’t even want to think about that! My wife is 19 years younger than I am.
Another graduating class leaves this week. I have now taught high school longer than they have been alive. <sigh>
Yep. I was using BBSs and Prodigy and CompuServe as a little kid. The commerical internet came of age about the time I was old enough to be interested.
Heck, I’m trying to do some fairly complex programming at the moment and I can’t imagine having to do it all in FORTRAN 77 or something like that all on punchcards. To me, punch-card programming is one of those historical notes, like Xerox coming up with the first GUI or using a mainframe instead of a PC.