Realising people who were born in 1999 are now 17 years old
Last weekend, I heard “Lunatic Fringe” by Red Rider…at the grocery store.
Musical idols of my youth (Sting, Blondie), now.
I saw the Berlin Wall start to come down in 1990.
I watched England win the World Cup in 1966.
I heard about the JFK assassination in 1963.
I saw the Berlin Wall start to come up in 1961.
Realizing that most of the artists who made my fave R&R 45’s are now dead.
My age.
This would be the year of my 60th high school reunion. Not a peep. Maybe I’m the only one left alive.
There are people voting this year, who were not old enough to personally remember 9-11. In fact, there are people in uniform still engaged in combat in a retaliatory action for an event they cannot remember.
Reading yet another “OMG kids today are so young” thread.
Knowing what a 45 is.
I am a few years too young to have been sentient when JFK was killed, but my first thought at the awful news this week was “lone gunman or not?”
And, as my parents clearly remember where and what they were doing when JFK was killed, so do I remember exactly what I was doing when the news of a second plane hit aired (I was taping off my bedroom door molding to apply a first coat of sagebrush green and listening to NPR). 9/11 makes me feel old when we discuss it in class, as most of my students were four-to-five-years old and really only have secondhand memories.
I hear Pet Shop Boys “West End Girls” on the Dollar Store muzak track last month. Wowzie!
Having to explain scenes in old movies to my nieces and nephews in which people don’t solve a problem by making a call on their cell phone.
When a business/company says on their product labels that they’ve been around “since 1992” or “since 1985” or any other date that is actually during my lifetime.
When some of my younger friends talk about things they did on Facebook when they were in high school. (Facebook first came out when I was in university.)
(Though I do realize I am younger than a fair amount of folks on this message board.)
Ah, you reminded me: rotary phone, dial tones, and busy signals (we even had a PARTY line when I was young).
Frances Bean Cobain is 23 years old.
I’ve got you beat. “Number, please”. And before that, on the farm, a hand crank, one long, one short, two long.
Having to explain what the Cold War was and its significance to a high school senior.
Going outside and seeing the streets empty makes me feel old. Back in the good old days when I grew up, children played outdoors… jump rope, hop scotch, roller-skated, tossed a ball, played hide and seek, rode bikes, etc. This generation is content to remain indoors playing video games. Parents don’t encourage youngsters to go outdoors, I suppose because they are comforted knowing their children are safe at home. It’s a completely different world.
Finding out that one of my middle-aged co-workers was born on the day I started work.
In a previous thread on this topic I offered this:
The people who were vibrant, productive adults when I was a kid are now either dead or nearly so. The Terminator is nearly 70. David Bowie, Prince, and Michael Jackson - people who were world stars when I was a teenager - are gone.
Other stuff?
Kids born around Y2K have seen technology go away. People born significantly before Y2K have seen technology come and then go: compact discs, DVDs, cassette tapes, 3.5" floppy disks, 5.25" floppy disks, VCRs. People born far before Y2K know of technology that 17YOs have never even seen: 8-track tapes, vacuum tube amps, rotary telephones, punch cards (for computers), black-and-white television sets.
…and that little plastic thing that goes in the middle.
Seeing things at antique stores that were commonplace when I was a kid, and even worse seeing product packaging that we just threw in the garbage. Case in point: a tobacco tin. Players or Export. I remember my best friend’s mom rolling her own cigarettes with a great big cigarette roller. Who knew that one day our garbage would be worth $$?