I know this feeling well. Gah.
I’m 35. My wife’s niece, who was an adorable six-year-old when I met her, is now twenty and attending college. NOT POSSIBLE.
O’ course, if you REALLY wanna feel old, just think: in September of next year, the kiddies starting Kindergarten will have never known a year starting with the digits “19.”
I went to see the rhythm section of my band play with one of their other projects at a benefit concert last year. One of the bands had all these middle-school age kids playing covers, and the guitarist started playing the riff from “Smells Like Teen Spirit”. Suddenly it dawned on me that it was quite possible that he wasn’t even born when that album came out. So I can sort of relate. Except at 23, I am allowed to gawk at the college-aged hotties. 
You’ll get over it. I was almost finished with my second grad school in 1986. I, myself, can’t believe that there were people who were only graduating from high school back then.
I keep reassuring myself that at least no Playboy Playmates have been born since I graduated from my second grad school. But I won’t be able to get away with that for much longer.
Yes they do. I’ve overheard contemporary teenage conversations that sounded just like my punk/poser contemporaries back in 1976 along the lines of “Elvis is history - he’s dead - who cares”, just substitute “Kurt” for “Elvis”. Plus ca change.
I’ve not read all the posts yet, but you really know you’re getting on where your teenage clothes come back into fashion. Anyone else embarrased about ever having worn flares?
I can just imagine someone from the future telling nerdy '70s era computer science majors:
In 25 years, your cute teenage daughter will use computers and an advanced descendant of ARPANET every day to send “instant messages” to her jock boyfriend. And this will be considered normal!
I’m 19 now, so if I ended up dateing someone 19 years younger then I am that means…
:eek:
I’ve got to say it doesn’t bother me too much that people born the year I graduated high school are turning 23.
What does bother me, heartily, is the fact that I now have to hold printed material further away from my face to read it. And if the type is too small, I have to take my glasses off altogether. I hate that!
Just think about how people are born every second and the fact that some people consider you to be, young and the fact that even us people born in 86 and 87 will get older too.
I take issue with some of the stuff on the Beloit list linked above.
They apparently think all people born in the past thirty years have had their fingers in their ears and their eyes closed for their entire lives.
(from the class of 2002, which is a close as it gets to my year)
2. They have no meaningful recollection of the Reagan era, and did not know he had ever been shot.
He was president until they were 8.
10. They never had a polio shot, and likely, do not know what it is.
Morons.
15. They have likely never played Pac Man, and have never heard of “Pong.”
I had an Atari growing up. And arcades.
17. There have always been red M&M’s, and blue ones are not new. What do you mean there used to be beige ones?
When did this vote happen? I was certainly old enough to participate.
18. They may never have heard of an 8-track, and chances are they’ve never heard or seen one.
Why not? Did all these things disappear in
19. The compact disc was introduced when they were one year old.
But weren’t popular for many years. Too expensive.
27. Roller-skating has always meant in-line for them.
InLine skates weren’t popular until the 90s
28. “The Tonight Show” has always been with Jay Leno.
I stayed up late to watch Johnny Carson.
29. They have no idea when or why Jordache jeans were cool.
Jordache was the shit when I was in elementary school.
30. Popcorn has always been cooked in the microwave.
I didn’t have a microwave until I was seven.
34. They have no idea that Americans were ever held hostage in Iran.
If they’re morons.
35. They can’t imagine what hard contact lenses are.
People still wear them.
36. They don’t know who Mork was, or where he was from.
37. They never heard the terms “Where’s the Beef?”, “I’d walk a mile for a Camel” or “De plane, de plane!”
Actually, I watched TV as a child.
Is this meant to make older people feel old, or is it to make me feel like some sort of pop culture goddess?
Or am I taking it all too seriously? ;D
My ex wife actually used to drive to Little League practice a kid who grew up to become a star for the Detroit Tigers, but I ain’t namin’ no names nor no years, neither. And she was twelve damn years younger than me------
Haha, yes only fooling. It was just too perfect of an oppourtunity to let go.
Although I have never seen an 8-track before. Only scary rumors that caused nightmares about bulkiness and bad sound quality.
I woke up in a cold sweat once. 
Okay, after my run-in with the Beloit College List (the AP interviewed me; I’m the college student, not the professional-sounding folk) I’m also convinced that the people who make the list up think that everyone under the age of thirty is completely ignorant of anything that happened before they were born. There was a president named Lincoln? My god! Pizzas didn’t always come on bagels? Jesus Christ! Jimmy Carter hasn’t always been the pleasant frontman for Habitat for Humanity? Stop the effin’ presses. That’s crazy talk! 
I’m also convinced that the makers of the list (and they’re from freaking Beloit, which definitely isn’t a cosmopolitan capitol) are convinced that every single young adult that goes to college is urban or suburban, which isn’t the case at all. The majority of my graduating high school class went on to a four-year college or university. Whoever knew that being a farm kid would put me in a minority?
But, yeah, at 19, I already feel like the young’uns today are growing too fast. I came home from college for the summers, and my little brother (okay, he’s 18 and graduating from high school) had a big ol’ hickey on his neck and at his graduation party had his very-new-meeting-the-family-for-the-first-time-15-year-old girlfriend sitting on his lap the entire time.
Jailbait. My brother is dating jailbait. But that’s bit of a digression. Maybe one day I’ll write a post without italics, but not today.
OH, THANKS!!
I started out in the data processing world learning how to operate a keypunch/verifier and how to wire an IBM 407 Accounting Machine. :eek:
I have to admit, though I sometimes get a kick out of the “Eighteen Year Olds Today Don’t Know/Have Never…” lists that are always circulating around the Internet, most of them are both silly and wrong-headed.
Look, I’m 43, so there wasn’t any Internet when I was 18. But I imagine a similar list could have been made up back in 1979.
"1. The Class of 1979 has always had a television.
The Class of 1979 doesn’t remember I Like Ike buttons
The Class of 1979 has never listened to anything but music on the radio.
To them, Elvis has always been a fat old man, and the Beach Boys have always been a nostalgia act.
To them, gasoline has always been expensive.
They don’t remember breadlines, the Great Depression, or Fireside Chats.
They don’t remember when baseball players had no unions or agents…"
And so on and so on and so on. EVERY generation could have made lists like this, and they wouldn’t mean a damn thing! Fact is, we who were 18 in 1979 WEREN’T utterly ignorant of everything that came before us, and neither are 18 year olds today.
But I’m sure one day, archaeologists will find a cave with some buffalo paintings, followed by a list that says
"1. The class of 100,000 BC has always had fire.
They don’t remember the Ice Age.
They’ve always had spears, and don’t remember when we had to frighten prey off cliffsides for food.
For them, dogs have always been domesticated…"