“Mr. President! The Canadians have taken our people hostage! Who knows what they might do to our brave American hostages?”
“We can’t have that happening, Mr. Secretary. They might teach them to speak French, to understand the metric system, and to think that government-run healthcare is a good thing. Worst of all, they might–might–”
“What, Mr. President? What?”
“They might make them like hockey instead of good ol’ American football!”
And in 1980, the Americans won the Olympic gold medal in hockey. Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?
Since my own kids are in college, I’m not as shocked by the list as I should be. But Mrs. Kunilou and I are constantly amused by the things these young whippersnappers take for granted. What on earth do we mean when we say:
We had to go to a bank to get cash, or find a store that would cash a check (then we have to explain the concept of “a check.”)
If we needed to find out some information, we had to go to a library and look through big books until we found it.
To call someone, we had to be at a place that already had a telephone.
Schools were not air conditioned, nor were many churches.
The World Trade Center was famous because it was really, really tall, not because it was a target.
TV didn’t have 24-hour a day news, or sports, or music or anything else. At different times of the day they had entirely different programs.
The legal age in Ontario being 19, of course. I’d guess that MsRobyn is in the US, where 21 is the norm.
Of course, here in Alberta, it’s 18. Not that I particularly care myself, but I’m old enough to remember when it was also 18 in Ontario as well as in a number of US states. Heck, I remember visiting New York City when I was 18 and having a great time (and far too many legally-purchased beers) in a nightclub there. How times–and mores–have changed!
Just think—I remember making phone calls by turning a crank and asking the operator to connect you with whomever you wished to talk. I never attended a single class in an air conditioned class room; not even in college. For that matter, I remember the end of WW II, even though I probably didn’t grasp the significance.
A rheostat is a variable resistor. A conventional tube car radio is tuned by a variable capacitor. They may look the same outside, but they are different inside.
My favorite is kids that have no concept of the card catalog when they go to the library. Sometimes, I miss going though drawers full of cards to find my book.
I’ve heard from the 18 yr old that live across the hall about Sammy Hagar being the original Van Halen singer, never saw Purple Rain, didn’t see Live Aid. I wouldn’t let her watch my wife’s Muppet Show Dvd’s with us cause she wasn’t alive when they were first run. It would make me feel too old.
In most states in the US, the drinking age is 21. Technically, seniors and some juniors can drink. This semester, I’m taking a freshman-level science course, and since it’s at 9 am, most of the people taking it are actually first-semester freshmen. Hence my comment.
I also had a discussion with one of my profs. Both of us expressed some dismay that the incoming freshmen have never lived without the Internet and 24-hour news cycle, so they’re used to news on demand. And because they’re used to politically polarized news (Fox vs. CNN and conservative talk radio), many of them can’t detect bias.
