My husband pulled out some of his old Ten Years After records this morning (yes, real records, that you play on an actual turntable) to show to his son (see the Unique Bonding Experiences thread). He asked his son if he knew what they were. His son said “Well, it’s too big to be a CD…no, I don’t know. What is it?” Sigh.
Not too terribly long ago, I was riding in a car with my 14 year old cousin. I was lamenting about the fact that there are no decent rock & roll stations in this city, except for the oldies station. My cousin said “Rock & roll? I’ve heard of it, but don’t know what it is.” I actually felt my hair turn gray.
And one more thing…about 6 years ago, I was in a car with my boyfriend at the time and his niece. He popped in a Bob Seger tape. He & I were sort of singing along, and she just looked at us and said “You guys know the actual words to this stuff?” I was only 26 years old at the time, but all of a sudden felt about 100. Argh.
I was at work yesterday. A couple of co-workers were having a conversation and started talking about how old they were. One of them asking me how old I was. When I told them, another co-worker who hadn’t been involved in the conversation until this point, said in a shocked voice “You’re thirty seven?” He refused to say anything more so now I don’t know if he was just yanking my chain or if he was genuinely surprised (and why).
Radio stations calling the stuff I listened to in high school “classic rock” (I’m only 29), that bugs me a little. A girl I work with just graduated from high school, and one day she was trying to remember the name of a band that “my parents listened to when they were my age.” She described it as a “really old band that most people have never heard of.” Turns out it was Jethro Tull.
I knew I was getting old when I was married to a person who had a child from a previous marriage.
I would see a really cute young girl, and instead of thinking, “Wow, I’d love to get her,” I’d think, “Wow, I’d love to get her to babysit for us sometime!”
That and when I go to shows featuring bands such as Presidents Of The United States Of America, and there were parents my age who took their kids there because they were forced, and I went willingly.
Keep in mind I’m 30.
Sore knees, grey chest hairs at 28, finding grey hair on my head at 29, receding hairline, that 10 yr old music is classic rock, that alternative bands are doing remakes of songs from 10 yrs ago (and young kids thinking “oooo that’s so original”), all my young cousins have real jobs, my friends have kids who have boyfriends/girlfriends, old people (including my parents) are comfortable telling me dirty jokes…etc,etc,etc.
It happened here! I was reading from SD Classics, someone had written in to ask if President Carter had really been attacked by a rabbit. I remember the incident clearly, even remember the newspaper pics. Seemed like maybe 15 years ago. Then I realized the person writing was an adult, and that ADULTS have not lived through things that I have. The age thing really hit home then.
“With enough courage, you can do without a reputation.” - Rhett Butler
The fact that many of the athletes and new pop stars are born in the '80s, christ I’m only 23 and that makes me feel old, but then i just go out and get drunk and try and pick up ladies and I feel better. Getting carded still is a nice touch.
Remember the book Future Shock? The premise being that changes came more and more swiftly through time. It’s proven to be true, stuff gets old really fast.
A lot of my references are musical, for obvious reasons.
I was at Berklee and one of my classmates turned to me and said “I’ve got this incredible tape by this great band . . . The Beatles?”
He DID ask later on if the Paul McCartney in that band was the same one in Wings.
Working a sports car race and having to explain to people there how to use a manual wind-up clock dial stopwatch. I got quite a crowd around me as I timed several cars with one watch. “How do you DO that?” I remember when that was the only way you COULD time cars.
Sitting in a rehearsal and the topic of Woodstock came up . . . exchanging Woodstock memories. Little trumpet player on the end says, “I wasn’t even BORN when Woodstock went down.”
And, just this past weekend . . . looking at a magazine with new fall fashion layouts . . . and recognizing a lot of it as stuff out of the 1980’s . . . and wondering if I still have some of that stuff in the back of the closet.
There’s lots more, I feel old most all the time.
your humble TubaDiva
“Age and treachery will defeat youth and skill.”
I was at a gas station and I wound up having to pay by check since I was out of cash. When I handed the clerk my driver’s license for ID, she looked at the birthdate (July 30, 1979) and said “Wow, I would never have believed you were that young.”
Ouch.
– Sylence
“The problem with reality is the lack of background music.” – Anon
I work for a radio trade paper, and I’m the oldest in the editorial department by approximately a hundred years. I am working with at least one person who was born the year I started college.
When I started this job I hadn’t heard of the songs or the bands --I had to keep asking questions like “Is ‘Everlast’ a person or a group?”
Weebles wobble but they don’t fall down.
As for the fall fashion thing, let’s just hope they don’t start wearing polos with the collars turned up and sweaters around their shoulders. (shuddering from terror induced flashback)
I’m 40, 13 yrs older than my wife. We were going to see the new movie * Wild Wild West * and I casually mentioned that I hoped it would be as good as the TV series. She asked me “What TV series, is it on Fox?” Yikes.
Tuba…I hear you about the Beatles thing. I was in a record store and some kids were holding up a Beatles CD and one said, “Wow! Paul McCartney was in a group before Wings!”.
One of our radio station has “80s cafe”. From noon to one they play all 80s tunes. I’m at work then, so here I am, humming along, and COLLEGE STUDENTS tell me they have never heard the songs, or the names of the groups for that matter. And someone I used to babysit is in his 20s now.
MaryAnn
Sometimes life is so great you just gotta muss up your hair and quack like a duck!
Realizing that most of my co-workers (who are in their early-mid 20s, so not THAT much younger than me - I’m 29) completely missed all the cultural influences that defined my childhood, e.g. Schoolhouse Rock, Free To Be You And Me, Burger Chef, etc.
The worst is when you mention Schoolhouse Rock and they only know it 'cause of that tribute album from a few years back.
Never regret what seemed like a good idea at the time.
I apparently have one of those faces that doesn’t reveal my age. I remember a few years back when a fellow employee was talking about his Vietnam experiences and he was surprised when I told him I had been in junior high at the time. A few days later, I was talking about Star Trek with a fellow student in a college class I was taking and she was surprised when I mentioned having seen the show as a network series. The two of them were both ten years apart from me in age but both of them had assumed I was their own age.
