my birthday is closer to the statehoods of Alaska and Hawaii than it is to today
it’s also closer to the moon landing, Woodstock, and Watergate than it is to today :smack:
My birthday is closer to WWI – the start of WWI – than it is to today. :eek:
My birthday is closer to the **beginning of the 20th Century ** than it is to today.
That hot young chick over there? My children are older than her.
That stadium they just blew up to make way for a new stadium? I saw games in the stadium they blew up to make way for that stadium.
I’m going to celebrate the 27th anniversary of my 21st birthday soon too. I remember where I was when Kennedy was shot (kindergarden) and I saw the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show. The first time somebody flashed a peace sign at me I had to ask what it was.
I remember where I was when Kennedy was shot. (Kindergarden). And I vaguely remember seeing the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show.
[QUOTE=hammerbach]
I sometimes engage in a bit of time compression with the following formula:
event A is closer to event B than it is to today.
[QUOTE]
I do something similar, but with nostalgia movies. Examples:
American Grafitti came out in 1973. It was a nostalgia movie set in 1962. If they were making a similar movie today, it would be set in 1994.
The Big Chill came out in 1983. In it, a bunch of 30-something adults reminisced about their time in college in 1968. If they were to make the same movie today, it would be about people who graduated from college in 1990.
Dazed and Confused came out in 1993. It was a nostalgia movie about high school kids in 1976. If the same movie came out today, it would be about high school kids in 1988.
i don’t actually remember where i was when JFK was shot (because, don’t forget, when you just say ‘Kennedy’ you either get response relating to Robert’s assasination, or some whippersnapper saying “Ted was shot??”
i do remember my best friend and i not being able to watch our favorite cartoons (or possible the Sandy Becker show on channel 5 (NYC area) before it was Fox!) because everything was pre-empted by the funeral :rolleyes:
This is really interesting to read. I’ve always kind of felt out of place with my own generation, and it’s fun to see how much of your generation-gap and passage of time experiences I can sympathize with.
My perspectives on these things is kinda messed up. I’m only 21 (22 in November), but I’m a nerd, and have always been a history buff. Not to mention my father was born in 1932, my mother in 1947, and my mother’s older sister who visited every Sunday from before I was born until she died 5 years ago was born in 1945. Add to this that my siblings were born in 73, 76, and 80, and my world was all about older values and cultural tastes.
I grew up watching the Star Wars films and playing with the original toys even though I was born when Return of the Jedi came out. My oldest sister was such a fan of the Beatles that I was 10 years old before I was aware that they were not a current band. I loved my Nintendo Entertainment System and my Super NES, but I always enjoyed busting out our Atari 2600 VCS and the 50-some games we owned. I not only watched Grease (1 & 2) and The Breakfast Club with my sisters as a 3rd grader, but my family regularly watched movies and reruns of shows from the 60’s and 70’s throughout my youth. I loved that ‘the Monkees’ show my sister was always watching back when I was like 5, etc, etc.
The best is when I watch reality shows, or occasionally flip on MTV and VH1, and find myself thinking “what’s wrong with kids these days, they’ve become so sex-obsessed and morally depraved;” and these people are my peers, often, they’re a fair deal older than me.
My biggest personal “I’m old” experience as a 21 year old is that many people out there consider themselves gamers even though they never played the original Mario Bros (er, Super Mario Bros) or Sonic games, the original Myst or even Sim City 2000, for that matter. Children who didn’t own Final Fantasies 4 and 6 back when they were called 2 and 3 in the USA. People who don’t know the “Konami code” and didn’t play Street Fighter 2! I mean these “gamers” don’t even know what FINAL FIGHT was!!! I just can’t call people who didn’t have an “8-bit childhood” (or at least 16-bit) Gamers. To me, the big generation-gap is gamers whose ‘old school’ was the Playstation or the N64. Christ that was yesterday!
Even stranger to me are the kids who not only never played with GI Joes or Transformers, but never even played with the Ninja Turtles until the new re-release! Man, what did you guys play with? Did you even HAVE action figures?!?
PS. Did I mention I was a videogame nerd?
[QUOTE=spoke-]
[QUOTE=hammerbach]
I sometimes engage in a bit of time compression with the following formula:
event A is closer to event B than it is to today.
and every september (tho i haven’t seen it yet this year) someone updates and publishes the list of what this years college freshman have lived thru, or not. like the class of ‘09 never had to use punch cards, or always had cable as an option over just the antenna - things like that
personally i’d love to have seen what the "class of 1980’ list looked like
i am 18 with 28 years experience
or we could count in base 16, which makes me “twenty-E”
you’d be 22 - there - now don’t you feel better? 
Marilynne, is that you? Damn! Long-time, no-see, Girl. I’ve still got those 45’s of Hank Ballard, Roy Orbison and Sam Cooke that we used to play so much. They’re pretty scratchy now, but you know, I still spin 'em every now and then…
And my birthday is closer to World War I than now.
Gee, thanks a lot folks.
But, I did see the Beatles in Dallas in 1964; Herman’s Hermits opened for them. I remember the Cuban Missile Crisis and “Duck And Cover”.
Anyone else remember, “Spin And Marty”?
I have underpants older than you.
Not that I can still wear them…
Remember when the TV picture would roll until you fiddled with the knobs just right?
Good times.
Why was that? Anyone? Bueller?
Something tells me that by the time I have grandchildren, they’re going to be able to do that thing the kid in X-Men does when he changes the channel by blinking his eyes. sigh
Actually, there was a Mario Bros. game before there was a Super Mario Bros. It was a coin-op arcade machine that two players could work on simultaneously, as Mario and Luigi. The NES game was loosely based upon it, in that you had to defeat turtles. But in Mario Bros., there were also crabs. It was set in a multi-level sewer, without the side-scrolling.
You do remember video arcades, right?
I have a brother just a year older than me who is a cop. We were in the same grade in school. It really struck me when he was arresting kids for underage drinking at highschool graduation parties that could have been conceived at our graduation party.
Later this month, it’ll be possible for him to card a kid who turns out to be 21, but born after he himself was 21. I’ll get that stage next September.
For those of you not interested in doing the math, that puts him in a baby carriage when mom found out JFK had been killed. I didn’t arrive on the scene for another 10 months.
<pats Kythereia fondly on the head and sighs sadly to consider he is more than twice the age of the Goddess of Love>
I got five bucks that says I had a tv before anyone posting in this thread. 1947. 12" black and white.
And, as a bonus, I saw Ted Williams jack a few into the bullpen in Griffith Stadium. And I watched Sammy Baugh quaterback a game for the Washington Redskins.
I remember when I was taught my grandmother’s phone number, in case I got lost–6089J. You just picked up the receiver, jiggled the holder-thingy, and talked to the operator–“Give me John Lipford’s please.”
I was going to PChem lab when I heard JFK was shot.
My mom said last year that she didn’t know she was getting old til she sent her son a card that said “Happy 60th birthday.” Bummer, Mom.
Actually, now that I think about it, I may have died a few years ago. 
Makes me feel old just thinking about it.
[sub]Hope I don’t reply to this thread again with the same post. They said the medicine will help. [/sub]
::::paging Dave Simmons:::::::::::::::::
I’m sure you just forgot to click the “disable smilies”. Otherwise, that’s jus mean…