Feeling Old?

Are you feeling old? If not, consider this:

• The people who are starting college this fall across the nation were born in 1980.
• The Iranian hostage crisis occurred before they were conceived.
• They have no memory of a time before M-TV.
• "New Wave" is their PARENTS musical generation.
• Cyndi Lauper, Boy George, the Pretenders, the Kinks, the Sex Pistols -- are all old music they have heard of, if they have heard of it at all.
• They have no meaningful recollection of the Reagan era.
• They were prepubescent when the Persian Gulf War was waged.
• If they have heard the name "Oliver North," it was probably as a losing Congressional candidate, or perhaps in some obscure survey history text's reference, such as might be made to Huey Long or Teapot Dome.
• Black Monday 1987 is as significant to them as the Great Depression.
• Their world has always included AIDS.
• Having not lived through the Disco Scare, they can romanticize the 1970s.
• They see "Family Ties" as something middle aged ladies watch.
• They watched "Star Wars" years ago, when they were kids -- on video.
• Atari predates them, as do vinyl albums and cassette audiotapes; they may have heard of an 8-track, but probably never actually seen (or heard) one.
• From their earliest years, a camera was something you used once and threw away.
• As far as they know, stamps have always cost about 32 cents.
• The oil crisis is history of which they probably know nothing -- and why anyone WOULDN'T buy a suburban is beyond them.
• Most of them have probably never seen a real nun, even if they went to Catholic schools.

Last modified: 11/26/1997