One of my young friend gave me a link to her website. On it she’d posted the lyrics to Sound of Silence - you know, the old Simon and Garfunkle tune. I told her what a great song that was. She said, “It’s a song? I just thought it was a neat poem.”
And a recent young co-worker didn’t know who Jerry Lewis was. Finally she connected with the telethon guy, but had no clue about Jerry Lewis ever doing anything besides the telethon. She’d never seen a Jerry Lewis movie. Nor, when I was going to a James Taylor concert last year, had she ever heard of James. I had to bring in some CDs.
Yesterday, or maybe it was the day before, my friend delphica made a reference in her LiveJournal to To Kill A Mockingbird. I have read the book, but it was back in high school and I didn’t get it. It must not have made much of an impact on me, it wasn’t that long ago that I was in high school, right?
When was I in high school, again?
Oh, that’s right, I read that when I was a freshman, twelve years ago. I remember when I was in high school, having a conversation with a girl with whom I’d gone to elementary school. We were amazed that we could remember events that had occurred ten years earlier. It hadn’t been so much earlier that ten years before had been too hazy to remember.
Some of you might not think this is a big deal, but I just turned 26 the other day. I’ve spent almost my entire life being a kid, it’s very difficult to make the adjustment that not only am I no longer a kid, but I’m rapidly approaching my late 20s and if I don’t get my head screwed on straight soon, it won’t be too long before I’m middle-aged and futzing about in a job I don’t care about and a life barely more sophisticated than that of my college years. It was okay to have a stupid job when I was 22 and newly released into the world, but to be 26 and similarly aimless is getting pathetic.
Mine happened several years ago, and was particularly harsh:
I was in my early thirties, and worked at an Eckerd Drugstore with other people of various ages, but the person I got along with best was a seventeen year old. He was really smart and witty and listened to classic rock, like me! Anyway, this boy was my friend. One night, I was working and he came in with his girlfriend. When he introduced us to each other, he described me as like a mother to him! Oh! I had to go in the back and lie down.
I try to comfort myself that he just said that to keep his girlfriend from getting jealous, but I think it might have been that I’m old!
I play a couple of on-line games. When it finally clicked that the guys flirting/hitting on me (it’s amazing how often that happens) were 10-20 years younger then me, I wanted to hide for a while. I learned my first computer language before most of them were born.
2)I tried to come up with a meal plan for a casual get together with a bunch of friends, and here were the medical limitations…
One person needs Low Sodium
One person needs Low protein
One person needs lactose free
One person needs low spice due to ulcers
My friends have all gotten old, and from now on, we will all be eating treebark. It’s the only think I can think of that we can all eat.
A man’s first gray hair is a depressing day indeed. Actually, I’ve had a few gray hairs previously, but they were weird extra-long individuals easily dismissed as freaks and mutants.
Now I have a handful, enough thatI can see that they’re concentrated near my temples, as is traditional.
I’m 30, by the way, and I keep wanting to make fun of the 26-year-olds posting in this thread… but of course everyone over 40 views me as being in precisely the same category as them
Kyla, dear, if it’s any help: yes, you are right to be trying to focus. OTOH, I’m in my 24th year in geophysics (I’m a geophysicist) and at 26, I hadn’t even thought about it yet. My father was a very successful anthropologist, and he was ~30 when he decided to pursue that. The bit about my father is an aside. I experienced the same thing many of my friends did, that being that we reached a point where decisions had to be made very quickly about available opportunities, and (the corporate) we committed, even after long years of hedging our bets through our twenties. Good luck, and you go, girl!
I’m 37 and have never felt old until I began seeing a guy who is 12 years younger than I am. (Yes, I’m glutton for punishment.) He’s not the one who makes me feel old–I do that perfectly by myself.
For example, the other night, we were cruising through the television stations and stopped on VH-1, I love the 70’s–you know, Pet Rocks and Shazzam and Land of the Lost, stuff like that. For me, it’s bringing back memories of my childhood (many of which would be better left in the 70’s), but he’s sitting there with a slightly bemused look on his face, and then I realize…he wasn’t born until 1979…
At one point, we were having an innocent conversation, and he asked me, “What did you do on your 12th birthday?” Me, not thinking, launch into a stroll down memory lane, which was abruptly halted when he said, “On your 12th birthday, I was being born.” (Our birthdays are on the same day of the year.) Zing. He didn’t mean it to be taken as dramatically as I took it, but lemme tell you, I’ll not forget it. Ever. Except when my mind begins to slip and I can’t recall anything. Oh, there was this one time when we were watching VH-1, I love the 70’s…
The first sign you’re getting old is when you notice that people in positions of authority (policemen, doctors, pastors, airline pilots) are your age or younger. It’s scary the first time you look at a cop on the street, or the pilot of a flight you’ve just been on, and think, “My God, he’s just a KID!”
Another strong sign you’re getting old: there are athletes YOUNGER than you playing in the Yankees’ “Old-Timers Day” game.
One day, you look at the Billboard charts and mutter, “I don’t know who ANY of these people are.” At that moment, you realize you’re as clueless about current pop music as your parents were about Led Zeppelin. At that point, you’re grateful when somebody like Santana makes a big comeback (“Thank the Lord, somebody I’ve actually HEARD of!”)
Last night I saw a Circuit City commercial and they advertised five new CD releases. Of the five, I only recognized one of the bands (Beastie Boys). The other four were completely foreign to me.
McDonald’s is recognizing their 25th anniversary of the Happy Meal. To think I was only nine when those first came out! The toys and other premiums offered have improved considerably since then, too (can’t say the same about the food itself, though).
