Tiny Events that Make You Realize How Old You Are

[dwc1970]

I don’t remember where or when it was, but I recently recall seeing Nirvana’s “Smells Like teen Spirit” being classified as a “classic rock” song. In fact, any time I see a song listed or played as “classic rock” and can remember when it was new, I feel old.

[Athena]

@Bricker

I even remember her address. Cherry Creek road. Probably a whole housing development up where her house was.

Heh. Hardly. Cherry Creek Road now probably looks a whole lot like it did back when you remember it - wide open, farms, woods, etc.

This is the UP. Things don’t change. Except the damn area code.

[OpalCat]

@Rushgeekgirl

No no, we remember when they first came out, they were all the rage…waaaay back in the early 1980s.

Yeah I remember too. I was in elementary school and everyone started using them. But I didn’t realize they didn’t make them anymore.

[Dinsdale]

In the same category as 5que, my eldest turning 18 in January caught my attention.

[Dr.Woo]

Well, I’m going to be 53 next month so I’ve had a lot of moments where I realized that I’m old. Someone mentioned white eyelash hairs - I have white eyebrow hairs, dammit. I have pretty sparse eyebrows and the white ones are getting more prevalent, so I can’t really just pluck 'em. I guess I’m going to have to start coloring my bleeping eyebrows now. And I don’t just get letters from AARP, I actually have an AARP card.

And the fact that my son and one of my stepdaughters have children, making me a grandmother, doesn’t help much either.

But the big thing that really hit me just this month - in fact, I almost called my mother with this milestone: for the first time in my life I got a senior discount. Yup, I paid less than other people because I’m old.

[tdn]

@E. Thorp

High school?? I was in my second year of grad school!

Hey! You kids keep it down! Some of us are trying to nap to Dark Side of the Moon!

Grad School. Hrmph. Damn kids don’t know nothin’.

[Spatial_Rift_47]

@Athena

Still, I can one up you: when I was a kid, local numbers were 5 digits. They all started with “22”, and you didn’t have to dial that.

'round about 1980, they changed it. Local numbers still all start with “22” but you have to dial it. And we’re far from running out - the metro area still only uses “225”, “226”, “227”, and “228”.

When they make us start dialing the area code, I’m moving to American Samoa or some such place where I can go back to only using 4 or 5 digits.

Ah, suburban sprawl. I’m almost 22, and it was several years ago that New Jersey went to 10 digit dialing - even if you’re calling someone within your own area code.

[Ca3799]

My first phone number was PA3-1373.

[sneezy5660]

@tdn

Hey! You kids keep it down! Some of us are trying to nap to Dark Side of the Moon!

Grad School. Hrmph. Damn kids don’t know nothin’.

Heh, my husband and I joke that when we go to a retirement home, we will be the ones playing A.C.-D.C., Metallica, Skynrd, and Floyd!

Sneezy

[elfkin477]

@Larry Mudd

Last night, one of my housemates cranked Zeppelin’s “Hot Dog” and I remarked that I’d forgotten how kick-ass Zeppelin was – that I was right into them when I was thirteen but neglected to look back after I got into the blues a few years later. He said that he’d never heard Zeppelin until he was an adult, and his first exposure to “Hot Dog” was as the soundtrack to some video game. The guy doesn’t remember a time when Zeppelin concert shirts were a de facto uniform for Boys of a Certain Age. He’s thirty. :eek:

I’m 29. I’ve known most of my life who Zeppelin is since my parents liked 60-70s rock, but I can’t recall ever seeing anyone in a Zeppelin t-shirt, much less as a common fad.

A lot of the essays we’re reading right now are about To Kill a Mocking Bird. I remarked to one of my underlings that Jem always struck me as a strange name for a boy, since it reminded me of this. She was too young to get the reference

[Telperien]

When my little sister got married, I felt old. She was twenty-four then, last year; I was twenty-six. I also felt old when I realized that people who are younger than said sister are old enough to graduate from college.

[Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus]

@dwc1970

I don’t remember where or when it was, but I recently recall seeing Nirvana’s “Smells Like teen Spirit” being classified as a “classic rock” song. In fact, any time I see a song listed or played as “classic rock” and can remember when it was new, I feel old.

Heck, ‘classic rock’ just means ‘rock oldie’ these days, and an oldie is anything older than a year.

[tsarina]

@Shirley Ujest

I was visiting in Frankenmuth, Michigan. ( our #1 tourist attraction. Come for the chicken, stay for the outlet mall. There is a great toy shop there. Don’t miss it.)

Anywhooo, I was in an YeOlde Tyme Candy Shoppe* and noted that the business card taped to the Olde Tyme-y register had a correction for the area code.

I mentioned to the Young Thing working the cash register that, " I remember when Michigan was three area codes."

“Really?”

“313 was southern Michigan. 616 was Anything North of frankenmuth ( I think),the west side of Michigan and da UP. 810 for the burbs eventually. Now there are about 90000 and who knows where anyone is calling from or lives anymore.”

Yeah, well, I remember FOUR area codes (517 musta have come later). And Christ, I have to hit Frankenmuth when I’m back in Michigan next week.

[RTFirefly]

If we’re gonna keep harping on area codes, I remember when 703 was the area code for all of Virginia. Now Virginia has seven area codes.

[Least_Original_User_Name_Ever]

@Shirley Ujest

I was visiting in Frankenmuth, Michigan. ( our #1 tourist attraction. Come for the chicken, stay for the outlet mall. There is a great toy shop there. Don’t miss it.)

Anywhooo, I was in an YeOlde Tyme Candy Shoppe* and noted that the business card taped to the Olde Tyme-y register had a correction for the area code.

I mentioned to the Young Thing working the cash register that, " I remember when Michigan was three area codes."

“Really?”

“313 was southern Michigan. 616 was Anything North of frankenmuth ( I think),the west side of Michigan and da UP. 810 for the burbs eventually. Now there are about 90000 and who knows where anyone is calling from or lives anymore.”

“Gosh.”

I am pretty sure I was conflicted when I left that Olde Candy Shoppe and either wanted to beat her over the head with a nice hefty Ma Bell phone or force her to have only one phone, attached to the kitchen wall and has a cord as a punishment for the good times she missed with having all her convo’s made family fodder.

*Is this spelling of Ye Olde Shoppes one of the most annoying things ever or what? Discuss.

Frankemnuth’s chicken is goooooooooooood. I remmeber when they started going nuts with the area codes. there’s…248…585…and 810 and…328542739854372546…and a bunch more.

I’m keeping it real. I’m 313.

I haven’t been to Frankemnuth in a long ass time. That is certainly one ass whoopin mall up there, too.

I may have to choke you out if you start talking about how Bronner’s is a “cool store.”

Where you live, woman?

[Least_Original_User_Name_Ever]

@Sarahfeena

We go every year for Oktoberfest!

Crap, you’re a Michigander, too?

[Least_Original_User_Name_Ever]

@tiny ham

My MIL always tells me to go there “Someone who loves Christmas as much as you needs to go to Frankenmouth”

I’m intrigued.

Crap, crap, you’re a Michigander too?..too?

[Least_Original_User_Name_Ever]

@Athena

Sheesh, Shirley, you are old

I was going to challenge you on that one, but did a lil’ research first and found out that the UP was indeed 616 until 1961, at which point it turned to 906. So I guess it’s plausible you might remember that.

Still, I can one up you: when I was a kid, local numbers were 5 digits. They all started with “22”, and you didn’t have to dial that.

'round about 1980, they changed it. Local numbers still all start with “22” but you have to dial it. And we’re far from running out - the metro area still only uses “225”, “226”, “227”, and “228”.

When they make us start dialing the area code, I’m moving to American Samoa or some such place where I can go back to only using 4 or 5 digits.

Waitaminit…they did WHAT up North?

You’re kidding. I don’t wany to ask dad about this, cause that’s going to start a “Oh yeah, when I was a kid…” speech.

[gardentraveler]

@tsarina

Yeah, well, I remember FOUR area codes (517 musta have come later). And Christ, I have to hit Frankenmuth when I’m back in Michigan next week.

Nope, 517 is an original. It was my first area code. And my first phone number was ED7-0317. The ED was for Edgewood. Can’t remember what the other exchanges were in the Lansing area. (And my brother and I used to love going to Zehnder’s - better than the Bavarian Inn - which we called the Barbarian Inn, of course.)

Makes me feel old that my niece and nephew wouldn’t have the vaguest idea what to do with a dial phone and don’t remember that we haven’t always had cell phones.

GT

[Morelin]

When a teenybopper came into my store looking for books on 80’s fashion because she was going to be wearing a costume. And I looked at my colleague and mentioned the girl could just go through our closets.

When did the 80’s become history?