Tiny Events that Make You Realize How Old You Are

I was younger than the teenage main character of Zits when it began its run. I was impressed at how well they captured the teen culture at the time, and it was funny because they always exaggerated it to humorous effect.

As time went on, the teen culture that they showcased started referring to things that I’d been avoiding, because they were too immature, undesirable, and the like. Then it started featuring things that I didn’t have direct knowledge of, but knew about through my younger sister. By now, even that’s gone; the strip’s still generally funny, but the teens are getting more and more alien.

So I’d like to submit that while being around young people may be the easiest way to make people feel old, teenagers are definitely the epitome of that. And I’m really impressed that the strip’s writers have been able to stay up to date about that culture (if they actually are; it’s not like I can tell any more.)

[QUOTE=Anne Neville]
You kids who never played Nintendo NES games, get off my lawn!
[/QUOTE]
That makes you feel old? I was enthusiastic about video games from our first Pong console (it took “D” cells!) through the Atari 2600 and joyfully to Colecovision (which was the cat’s ass) and then the industry crash in '83 coincided with me becoming a jaded teenager. By the time the NES rolled around, console video games seemed too cheesy – and NES games seemed even more “cutesey,” so held little appeal. (Of course PC games were mature enough by '87 – or my brief flirtation with pretending to be grown-up was over forever. One or the other.)

The cute shoes (circa 1979-ish) I wore today are older than my new boss.

[QUOTE=Anne Neville]
You kids who never played Nintendo NES games, get off my lawn!
[/QUOTE]
NES came in after I got tired of video games. I’m too old for NES.

I felt old when I heard the other week that Monica Lewinsky had just turned 34. It seems like only just the other day she was crawling around the Oval Office on her hands and knees. :smiley:

[QUOTE=elmwood]
I am not kidding. The problem is that the two files with the video are large (588MB and 673MB). I’m going to try to upload one of them to a file sharing service; few handle files over 500 megs.
[/QUOTE]

Why not use [a href=“RAR - Wikipedia” target=“new”]RAR[/a]?

That’s [a href=“RAR - Wikipedia”]RAR[/a]. (One of the organizations where I head up copy-editing uses a lot of target=new code in its links so there’s no worry that a user will get sidetracked from the body of any article when clicking a link. It’s all I can do not to use carets here.)

I quit.

(I remember life before my brother, who did college visits these past few months. I’d say more, but having sextegenarians in here makes anything I’d say comparatively trivial.)

Being called “ma’am” by a kid who wanted to know the time wasn’t really that big. I mean, I wasn’t even in high school yet, so I still remembered a time when anybody taller than me looked like a “grown up”.

But when my 8 years younger little brother came asking “you got a record with the Schweepes song, right?” Oh God… I could have made him eat my Police Greatest Hits. Upside was he decided to try my other records as well; he remembers it as the point when he discovered I wasn’t just a wages-less babysitter but actually the owner of some Very Cool Stuff.

[QUOTE=Athena]
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. :smiley:
[/QUOTE]

I grew up in the Houghton-Hancock area of the U.P. We finally got dial phones in July of 1962.

How many Yoopers or former Yoopers here?

[QUOTE=rayman5321]
I grew up in the Houghton-Hancock area of the U.P. We finally got dial phones in July of 1962.

How many Yoopers or former Yoopers here?
[/QUOTE]

As far as I know, I’m the only current yooper living in the UP.

There’s at least a handful of ex-yoopers. The only one I can think of at the moment is Keeweenaw cuz he’s got the easily-remembered handle.

[QUOTE=Bricker]
Are you sure?

I remember my grandmother’s number from when she lived in Marquette… and this would have been back in the 1970s… was 906.

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

Anyway – were you just giving example area codes, or do you pre-date 906 in da UP?
[/QUOTE]

I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a 906 code. Huh. Maybe your grammy was a spy or something. :slight_smile:

[QUOTE=Least Original User Name Ever]
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?
[/QUOTE]

In the northern part of 248. another two miles north and I would be an 810.

[QUOTE=Athena]
As far as I know, I’m the only current yooper living in the UP.

[/QUOTE]

You gots the entire UP to yourself?!
Party at Athena’s!

::::::::::::flees before I am hit alongside the head with a pastie.:::::::::
Wait…it isn’t pastie season…

[QUOTE=Sublight]
More recently: In the morning, I took a dump. In the afternoon, I got a blowjob. In the evening, I found myself thinking, “man, that was a great dump.”
[/QUOTE]

Okay, I think we have a winner.

[QUOTE=iampunha]
Why not use [RAR](RAR - Wikipedia" target="new)?
[/QUOTE]

Still won’t compress under 500 megs.

Anyhow, I’ve got them up on a web hosting account I don’t use. Like I said before, write to me at mtv1983(at)gmail.com and I’ll send you the URL. For a limited time only. Not available in Utah.

More fun with relativity:

Screen shots from Back on the Chain Gang by The Pretenders:
http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/2833/output1608269qy.jpg
http://img157.imageshack.us/img157/305/output1632520xr.jpg

Missing Persons - Words
http://img157.imageshack.us/img157/2540/output678200ku.jpg

Men at Work - It’a a Mistake
http://img105.imageshack.us/img105/5614/output583705na.jpg

Madness - Our House
http://img105.imageshack.us/img105/6826/output1399241ep.jpg
http://img157.imageshack.us/img157/2075/output1401425vo.jpg

All from MTV in 1983, making these songs at least 23 years old. These videos were made before most recent college graduates were born.

What was 23 year old music in 1983? Some examples from the charts:

Chubby Checker - Twist
Bobby Darin - Mack the Knife
Everly Brothers - Cathy’s Clown
Elvis Presley - Are You Lonesome Tonight
Wilbert Harrison - Kansas City
Brenda Lee - I’m Sorry
Marty Robbins - El Paso

Pat Benatar, Bob Seger, Prince and Phil Collins is as timely to the teenagers of today as Connie Francis, Roy Orbison, Paul Anka and Bobby Rydell was to me.

[QUOTE=Shirley Ujest]
I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a 906 code. Huh. Maybe your grammy was a spy or something. :slight_smile:
[/QUOTE]

:eek:

More evidence that you Trolls really don’t deserve the UP…

[QUOTE=Shirley Ujest]
You gots the entire UP to yourself?!
Party at Athena’s!

::::::::::::flees before I am hit alongside the head with a pastie.:::::::::
Wait…it isn’t pastie season…
[/QUOTE]

C’mon up! It’s always pasty season up here.

I won’t even mention the obvious spelling error. :smiley:

On the plus side, I have dopefests all the time. Like every night. But it’s just me and occasionally Mr. Athena, who used to post every once in a while before we went pay-to-post.

I was flirting with the incredibly hot barista at my favorite java joint the other day – she seemed impressed that I was wearing a logo shirt from the radio station I work for. I was thinking the old charm was still working pretty well – then she told me she’s the younger sister of the girl who was my youngest son’s high school sweetheart.