# Wanna feel REALLY old? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 25, 2005, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-feel-really-old/318549 "2005-08-25T12:34:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![beagledave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@beagledave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beagledave)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-feel-really-old/318549/1 "2005-08-25T12:34:39Z")
It’s time for the annual [Beloit College Mindset](http://www.beloit.edu/~pubaff/mindset/) of incoming freshmen. A sampling… -Andy Warhol, Liberace, Jackie Gleason, and Lee Marvin have always been dead. -They don’t remember when “cut and paste” involved scissors. -Wayne Gretzky never played for Edmonton. -They are more familiar with Greg Gumbel than with Bryant Gumbel. -Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Bakker have never preached on television. -Condoms have always been advertised on television. -Pixar has always existed. I think I’ll lie down now… ---
**Author:** ![Caricci](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/85f322/32.png) [@Caricci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caricci)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-feel-really-old/318549/2 "2005-08-25T12:44:38Z")
I was just thinking about the age of college freshmen this morning. See, I work in a college and part of my job is processing these forms of biographical information that the kids fill out. When I first started, they all had birth years in the late-ish 70’s. Then it was the year I graduated from highschool, then colllege, now it’s beyond that. What next? The year of my gall bladder surgery? Some of the kids here don’t know who Springsteen is. Some don’t remember a president before Clinton. One proposed an “Oldies” dance for orientation featuring 80’s music. Kill me. ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-feel-really-old/318549/3 "2005-08-25T12:47:48Z")
To be fair, Liberace died long before he actually died. He was so flamboyant that he was able to pull that off. And this: > [@](#): > > **72.** > America’s Funniest Home Videos has always been on television. Is akin to Superman flying around the world backwards. Due to the critical mass of syndication, it is now believed that AMF is now predating television. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-feel-really-old/318549/4 "2005-08-25T12:50:45Z")
This year, for the first time, the incoming college freshman year was born _after_ i finished high school. I’m starting to feel old. ---
**Author:** ![wolfstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d6d6ee/32.png) [@wolfstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfstu)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-feel-really-old/318549/5 "2005-08-25T12:54:37Z")
> [@beagledave](#): > > -Andy Warhol, Liberace, Jackie Gleason, and Lee Marvin have always been dead. Haven’t heard of the last two. Liberace was a dancer or whatever, and Warhol was probably on TV in the 'States or something. > [@](#): > > -They don’t remember when “cut and paste” involved scissors. It was part of the kindergarten curriculum. > [@](#): > > -Wayne Gretzky never played for Edmonton. Wayne Gretzky _always_ played for Edmonton. Except for that negligible little event at the end of his carreer, but we don’t talk about that. > [@](#): > > -They are more familiar with Greg Gumbel than with Bryant Gumbel. I don’t know either of them. > [@](#): > > -Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Bakker have never preached on television. Who the hell are they? > [@](#): > > -Condoms have always been advertised on television. No… are they these days? > [@](#): > > -Pixar has always existed. They’re only a few years old, aren’t they? – **wolfstu** , 4th-year university student in Ottawa. ---
**Author:** ![Eleusis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Eleusis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleusis)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-feel-really-old/318549/6 "2005-08-25T13:01:24Z")
Wow, I bet you were pretty scared when they invented the train… ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-feel-really-old/318549/7 "2005-08-25T13:12:25Z")
The one that really got me is “It has always been possible to walk from England to mainland Europe on dry land.” Good lord, is that something. ---
**Author:** ![Podkayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-feel-really-old/318549/8 "2005-08-25T13:17:27Z")
Hell, when I was a kid, you could walk from Siberia to Alaska on dry land! _rimshot_ ---
**Author:** ![Zulema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/db5fbb/32.png) [@Zulema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zulema)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-feel-really-old/318549/9 "2005-08-25T13:18:11Z")
I think they’re starting to have trouble coming up with enough good things for the list every year. ---
**Author:** ![Grelby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a5b964/32.png) [@Grelby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grelby)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-feel-really-old/318549/10 "2005-08-25T13:22:09Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > The one that really got me is “It has always been possible to walk from England to mainland Europe on dry land.” Good lord, is that something. That one had me scratching my head, too! I wondered, is this a jab at their geographic abilities? Perhaps it is a reference to the Chunnel? Even that seems like a stretch. Anyway, hit and miss (I’m 2 years older than these kids). Some of them actually surprised me. The muppets are owned by Disney? Andy Warhol is dead? You are free to mock me on that last one… ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-feel-really-old/318549/11 "2005-08-25T13:26:47Z")
> [@wolfstu](#): > > Haven’t heard of the last two. Liberace was a dancer or whatever, and Warhol was probably on TV in the 'States or something. **Bangs head on desk** (Though Warhol would be giggling his platinum-mop-topped head off.) ---
**Author:** ![Mooney252](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7c8e57/32.png) [@Mooney252](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mooney252)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-feel-really-old/318549/12 "2005-08-25T13:49:29Z")
. . . hearing one kid in an Evanston used record store exclaim, “I didn’t know that Paul McCartney was in a band before Wings!” ---
**Author:** ![Draelin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce73a5/32.png) [@Draelin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Draelin)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-feel-really-old/318549/13 "2005-08-25T13:59:35Z")
I was born in 1975, and most of these made me want to check right into a retirement home. _sigh_ I went to broadcasting school a couple years ago, and there was a very cute eighteen-year-old boy who had never seen a _record player_. But while discussing this with my boss this morning, I came up with one more that made me feel old–The original _Star Wars_ trilogy has always been available if you want to watch it. (I remember being the first family on the block to get a VCR, and being horrendously excited when we found out we could _rent_ it.) ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-feel-really-old/318549/14 "2005-08-25T14:40:02Z")
> [@Grelby](#): > > That one had me scratching my head, too! I wondered, is this a jab at their geographic abilities? Perhaps it is a reference to the Chunnel? Even that seems like a stretch… In the 1960’s if you used the shortcut through the Marinas Trench it only took 20 mintues! ---
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-feel-really-old/318549/15 "2005-08-25T15:07:01Z")
> [@BMalion](#): > > In the 1960’s if you used the shortcut through the Marinas Trench it only took 20 mintues! But you could only do it once. ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-feel-really-old/318549/16 "2005-08-25T15:12:44Z")
> [@Mooney252](#): > > . . . hearing one kid in an Evanston used record store exclaim, “I didn’t know that Paul McCartney was in a band before Wings!” Paul _who_, old man? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Caricci](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/85f322/32.png) [@Caricci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caricci)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-feel-really-old/318549/17 "2005-08-25T15:15:02Z")
> [@BMalion](#): > > In the 1960’s if you used the shortcut through the Marinas Trench it only took 20 mintues! That was just the really early 60’s though, wasn’t it? Not even as late as 1961, I don’t think. ---
**Author:** ![Draelin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce73a5/32.png) [@Draelin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Draelin)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-feel-really-old/318549/18 "2005-08-25T15:35:39Z")
> [@Caricci](#): > > That was just the really early 60’s though, wasn’t it? Not even as late as 1961, I don’t think. And to think … Duran Duran’s “Rio” had already been released, as well. ---
**Author:** ![Phnord\_Prephect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/df705f/32.png) [@Phnord\_Prephect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phnord_Prephect)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-feel-really-old/318549/19 "2005-08-25T16:30:23Z")
> [@wolfstu](#): > > Warhol was probably on TV in the 'States or something Once, in the 70s, for fifteen minutes. …this joke was much funnier than it currently appears. ---
**Author:** ![Hung\_Mung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e4f/32.png) [@Hung\_Mung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hung_Mung)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-feel-really-old/318549/20 "2005-08-25T16:44:34Z")
It’s okay, man. Let it go. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-feel-really-old/318549.md?page=2)