When I see kids wearing 60’s stuff, trying to look ah, so kewl, & I, having actually been around [pretty young though] at that time, I feel neither young nor old. Mostly just have to chuckle at their vain attempts to think they know it all.
Free to be You & Me, Schoolhouse Rock, and Burger Chef…I remember ALL of those! Schoolhouse Rock is back on TV, BTW. The originals.
I remember sitting in my American History class in high school, and the teacher asked if anyone could recite the preamble to the Constitution. EVERY SINGLE hand went up…we’d all learned it from Schoolhouse Rock. For kicks, he asked us all to recite it in unison. We sang it, just like it went on Schoolhouse Rock. That was fun.
One evening I’m listening to the radio and the Song “One Night In Bangok” comes on. Afterwards the DJ comes on and says they played it “for all the old crusties out there.” Jeez…
Then there’s the fact that when I go on Instant Messenger I get a lot of females IMing me…but they’re all half my age, if that old. Typical exchange:
THEM: Hi. How old are you?
ME: I’m 35.
THEM: Oh…I have to go now…bye.
This always gives me the feeling I should go drink some Ensure, or maybe preplan my funeral, or something.
“You’ve old enough to be my father!”
“Yeah…are you a daddy’s girl?”
Rich Barr
massivemaple@hotmail.com
AOL Instant Messenger: Hrttannl
I need an editor.
“Song” should be lower-case S, “Bangok” should be “Bangkok,” and “You’ve” should be “You’re.”
Never mind me…
When cops and doctors remind me of my son.
I saw Arlo Guthrie on the television the other day, GOODGODALMIGHTY! I was wondering “Who is that old guy with the really long hair?” Damn! He may have been a LITTLE before my time (I am 37), but if he looks THAT old, I’m not far behind.
My kids love those really old shows like “Married With Children” and “Get a Life” and my daughter asked me the other day if I was born when The Brady Bunch was on TV (she didn’t think I was young. She thought the show was old!)
Every once in a while something happens to make me feel a little better. I got carded the other day, they call me “Kiddo” at work, and yesterday someone told me they couldn’t believe I have teenagers because they thought I looked 20-something. I had to kiss that guy! Unfortunately, those things are starting to be few and far between. 
>^,^<
KITTEN
Coarse and violent nudity. Occasional language.
I’m not old by ANY means (I’m 21), but I feel old when I talk to my 13 yr. old brother, and 15 yr. old sister. They have no idea:
- what an 8-track is.
- that the president before Bush was named Reagan, and that he was actually shot.
- how to play a record.
- that Michael Jackson used to have dark skin.
- what the Exxon Valdez is.
- what life before TV remote controls is like “Hey folks, don’t tough that dial!”
- that a space shuttle named “Challenger” exploded in mid-air.
There are a million others, but it’s truly amazing what has changed in the past ten years, or so. They don’t really know about life before PC’s, cordless phones, CD’s…etc.
Adam
“Life is hard…but God is good”
I’m 39 and holding(like Jack Benny) and when I watch some of the old shows (from the 50’s to the 70’s) and so many of the people are now gone (I Love Lucy cast) or I watch shows that bring back old tv stars who have not aged well(Jerry Mathers of Leave It To Beaver) then I feel old.
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- I noticed a few years back that all the penny gumball machines disappeared. - MC
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When Michael Jackson was absolutely it, my nephew shattered my illusions of youth by asking if we (hubby & I) knew that MJ used to sing with a group called the Jackson Five…
I think I was 23 at the time.
Sue from El Paso
members.aol.com/majormd/index.html
Huh. I don’t feel old at all, and it appears that I am ten to fifteen years older than many of you. Oh well. You’re only young once, but you can be immature all your life.
I feel old whenever I talk to people my own age. (I’m 22) I don’t behave like do, think like they do, or dress like they do.
When I dress nice and put up my hair, people just assume I’m in my thirties. If I don’t I just feel like a slob.
possibly the world’s only naive cynic
I rarely think in terms of feeling old; my conception is more like one of watching various stages in a process. Yeah, I was 39, yeah, I’ll be 56 (I hope). Not to say that I’m unaware of the one-way nature of the process.
But I do think about the changes. I used to think about the amazing change my grandfather saw in his life (he was born in 1889 and lived until 1977). And now I get these flashes of the same in my own life. A lot of things seem very similar to what they were when I was a kid, but the changes, when I get this perspective on them, are huge.
In 1958 we got a tv set primarily because all the kids in the neighborhood were congregating at one of the two homes that had purchased tvs. Within a few months a good number of houses had tv and Saturday morning cartoons had become a part of life.
The first pop concert I remember going to was the Beach Boys’ Sloop John B. tour; they had less equipment on stage than my own garage band had just a few years later.
The whole digital world segued into my life and I’m quite comfy w/it, but every once in a while I have to think how different college would have been with a computer to use.
Regards
I’m 20, so I am in no way old but…
Everytime i think of when i graduated from high school (97’) i start feeling old. For me i can’t believe that almost three years have gone by since i left HS. Most of the music I listen to is from the mid 80’s to early 90’s and i find it funny that many of the teens today dont even know who these artists are (for instance, Shannon. All of my friends who are in their mid 20’s know immediately who she is, but the teens who hear it don’t even know). I also listen to a lot of 80’s R&B, and a lot of R&B oldies (Stylistics, Rose Royce, Temptations, Supremes, etc.) and these teens dont know who these singers are. All they know are the current breed of singers (Who not one of my friends likes). I find it hilarious when people call stuff from ten years ago oldies. It don’t count unless it’s at least from before 1980 for me.
Beatle: You reminded me of something, when you mentioned your grandfather. I have a 96-year-old great-grandmother, still quite alive. Not in the greatest physical shape, but in full possession of her mental faculties. Talking to her is amazing. She’s seen Halley’s Comet twice. She remembers Titanic, when it actually happened. She remembers when women couldn’t vote. Thnking about her makes me think “Hell, Im still in diapers!”
And Doobieous…the music of 1980 is NOT OLD. NOT NOT NOT!!! 
How about this? A friend of mine still has a (workable) rotary phone. One day her daughter had some friends over and they saw the phone for the first time (it was kept in another room that they usually weren’t allowed in). They didn’t even know what it was! She told them and they didn’t believe her. So she showed them how to use it by calling me. They about flipped!
MaryAnn
Sometimes life is so great you just gotta muss up your hair and quack like a duck!
Cristi: Homeskillet :), i said that stuff from before 1980 starts to be counted as old (pardon me for giving a general date for things :)). Perhaps i should clarify: If it was created before 10:03:05 am March 20th 1975 then it starts getting old :). I know that stuff from the 80’s isnt old. Even stuff from the 70’s starts pushing it. Hell, the 80’s stuff i listen to is recent enough to mix well into dance mixes at clubs. Something OLDIES are not able to do :). So, do you see what I am saying
This is an easy one for me. Seeing those younger students of mine doing the splits with such great ease.
I don’t really mind when the kids don’t know music from my youth, or when I can’t identify most of the groups at the top of the Billboard charts, but I really feel old when someone remakes a song that I seem to remember as having been from only a few years ago. Sue, Blue Monday is a great example, but I felt old when some Australian one-hit wonder remade Funkytown back in ’87.
I also felt old when my doctor told me to lose weight and quit smoking or I’d have a second heart attack. I’m 33, for Chrissake!
And whenever the Dow drops 500 points and the kids refer to it as a crash. Makes me feel like Nicholson. “A crash? You can’t handle a crash!”
And this is gonna sound kind of weird, but no one considers me a law-enforcement risk anymore. Used to be I’d get pulled over and the cop would want to search me, my car, my passengers and the entire strip of highway from where he put his lights on to where I stopped. Now I can even go through customs without a second look. What’s the matter, officer, don’t you think I might be sneaking a little hash back to the dorm?
But then I’ll have an older houseguest who wants to use a calling card because it’s a long distance call (gasp) and they don’t want to saddle me with the expense. That makes me feel young again.
I own a turntable and still play records fairly often.
Shaving. I look in the mirror and turn around in suprise expecting to see my father behind me. “Dad, how the the hell did you get in here?”
Hangovers. I used to never get hangovers; now it only takes a few scotches. Maybe even the fact that I like scotch now.
Reunions. I’ve got the 20 year high school reunion coming up; just had a family reunion and I have a nephew who drove himself there from Tennessee.
Sunday morning talk shows. I gotta see 'em all while eating my oatmeal (Oatmeal? When the hell did that happen?) and drinking coffee. Used to be I didn’t give a damn about politics, now I actually shout at the TV while all these pontificating clowns are spewing their vile brand of government activism.
Abstainer: a weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure.
- Ambrose Bierce