Nothing makes me feel older than talking to college students. They’re all full sized and adult-y, but you have almost nothing in common.
Your favorite bands from college are “oldies” to them, if they’ve even heard of those bands. Every advance in tech you thought was all Jetsons-awesome ten years ago is, like, totally lame to them.
My friend was at work talking to an intern and mentioned the band The Police. The intern had never heard them. Never heard of The Police. What are public schools teaching these kids?
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| Sting will not be ignored. |
The young man eventually decided he knew who Sting was, but only because of jokes about Tantric s@x. Do not google that. The wikipedia article is safe, if inscrutable. Inscrutable. Hee hee.
My own adult son tells me he likes the “classics”, like the Dave Matthews Band and Nirvana. He does that on purpose.
That same son always remarks about tech he sees in movies from ten or fifteen years ago. “Look at the size of that computer monitor. Is that from the Paleolithic era? It doesn’t have a mouse, it has a rock on a string.”
I thought he’d pee his pants laughing at the sight of Michael Douglas’ enormous cell phone in the movie Wall Street.
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| Can you hear me now? |
A few years ago I learned this generation gap is an international one. I was able to go with my husband on a business trip to England (they call me Nota Supermum).
We toured the British Library where we saw the Magna Carta, Beatles lyrics scribbled on an envelope, and a book handwritten and illustrated by a teenage Jane Austen (who probably thought quill pens were totally eighteenth century).
It was a wonderful tour that ended up, as ever, in the gift shop. Besides reproductions of exhibits, the shop carried kitschy stuff from the late-twentieth century, like Rubik’s cubes.
I was curious about a small cardboard box by the register filled with 3 1/2 inch floppy disks, marked for sale at one pound each. These hardly seemed retro to me, since I had used them lots in college, less than ten years before. I still had plenty in our home office. Just in case I ever need an amortization schedule on my Amiga.
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| The evolution of data storage media. |
I asked the young clerk “What is this for?”
He said in a charming English accent “Erm, that’s a data storage device.”
“Uhh,” I said intelligently, “for what purpose are you selling this?”
“It’s a coaster.”
My iced tea is resting on my 1996 accounting homework right now.
LOL! Our first computer after I got married was an Amiga. It was really cutting edge 🙂
My husband is very sentimental about the Amiga.
Bro-hahhahahhaha!!! Too funny. I took a few college classes last year and – OH My Gracious! – Could I ever relate to this! I mean really, my oldest is soon turning 17 and I am only 36. I am not sure how I feel about being a "classic".
Love reading your blog,
Sonja
Thanks, Sonja! I had mine young as well. They keep you young and make you feel old at the same time.
Love your etsy site!
http://www.etsy.com/shop/veryverdant?ref=top_trail
That. Is. Hilarious!!!
What a great post!!!!
It's about time you started feeling old!!!
I just wish I understood all that new-fangled stuff that you're talking about that is now antique.
Inscrutable!!! 😀
I've always felt a little old, so my body is just catching up.
I guess those would make good coasters, haha.
I found you from Bloggy Moms blog hop. Hope it's ok I'm following you. My mom homeschooled myself and my 2 siblings. I'm trying to talk my husband into letting me homeschooling our son and baby on the way, but he wants them to go to public school, lol.
Hi, Jaime! It's perfectly okay to follow me–that's every bloggers fondest wish.
It's too hard to homeschool without your husband on board.
Oh my! I have daily conversations about these sorts of things like my kids. They especially love that we couldn't "pause" the T.V., we were connected by a long cord to the phone, long-distance calls weren't free, records were huge, the concept of a pay phone is lost on them, I had no computer until high school and it was monochrome orange, no Tivo, no Netflix, no apps, no GPS, the list goes on.
Oh give them another few years and they'll be loving all your past passions as retro. Or not. 😉
Sarah, so much has changed in twenty years. Think of a day without the internet or cable. Most people wouldn't know what to do with themselves.
Hilary, I don't think kids ever think what their parents liked is cool.
Once at work we handed a 5.25 inch floppy disk (back when they really were floppy) to a young female engineer. Although only a scant ten years separated her and myself, she had absolutely no idea what it was. She wouldn't even believe us when we told her it was a disk.
I can only imagine what her kids will say when she pulls out her iPod a few years from now…
Zombiedad, you stumbled across my blog when you googled "amiga", am I right?
My iPod is six years old. My kids are ashamed to be seen in public with me.
Yes! I was just going to take those old discs to e-recycling. Now I'll sell them for a fortune on eBay as ironic coasters.
(Found you on the Bloggy Moms Blog Hop: http://18years2life.blogspot.com/)
I'll make sure to check out your blog, Dana.
I didn't know they e-cycled. Good to know. Normally we just stick stuff in the attic.
We've got a box of those coasters somewhere around here. Did you ever use the 8 inch floppies?? I had the priveledge of using them on my suh-weet IBM System 32 (ka klunk ka klunk)at my first accounting job. I'm pretty sure they'd be more useful as a place mat than a coaster.
8 inch floppies were before my time. I do remember 5-and-a-quarter inch disks fondly.
Our first computer was a Tandy from Radio Shack and it use cassette tapes.
BAHhahaha. Gives "repurposing" a whole new flavor!
My kids get lots of laughs from MacGyver…the phones and walkie-talkie things crack them up! Then the hair and the jeans get them going too, not to mention the shoulder pads. Their loving comments sound something like, "You WORE that stuff?! Hyuck hyuck hyuck!!" fern
Fern, the 80s were the WORST for fashion. I look back at the 90s and the 00s and lots of patterns, outfits, colors and hairstyles still look cute. But almost from the 80s looks dreadful. Cringe worthy!