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.)
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.)
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.
That’s [a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAR”]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 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.
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.
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.
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.
