I guess they do this every year, but it's new to me and of course made me feel the weight of my years. Politically, it's useful in understanding the group supposedly behind Obama the most: the young. It's helpful in other ways too, as we seek to understand what will and will not motivate people to engage in political action. Speaking of this year's batch of incoming 'traditional' (~18) frosh college students:
Harry Potter could be a classmate, playing on their Quidditch team.
Since they were in diapers, karaoke machines have been annoying people at parties.
They have always been looking for Carmen Sandiego.
GPS satellite navigation systems have always been available.
Coke and Pepsi have always used recycled plastic bottles.
Shampoo and conditioner have always been available in the same bottle.
Gas stations have never fixed flats, but most serve cappuccino.
Their parents may have dropped them in shock when they heard George Bush announce “tax revenue increases.”
Electronic filing of tax returns has always been an option.
Girls in head scarves have always been part of the school fashion scene.
All have had a relative--or known about a friend's relative--who died comfortably at home with Hospice.
As a precursor to “whatever,” they have recognized that some people “just don’t get it.”
Universal Studios has always offered an alternative to Mickey in Orlando.
Grandma has always had wheels on her walker.
Martha Stewart Living has always been setting the style.
Haagen-Dazs ice cream has always come in quarts.
Club Med resorts have always been places to take the whole family.
WWW has never stood for World Wide Wrestling.
Films have never been X rated, only NC-17.
The Warsaw Pact is as hazy for them as the League of Nations was for their parents.
Students have always been "Rocking the Vote.”
Clarence Thomas has always sat on the Supreme Court.
Schools have always been concerned about multiculturalism.
We have always known that “All I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.”
There have always been gay rabbis.
Wayne Newton has never had a mustache.
College grads have always been able to Teach for America.
IBM has never made typewriters.
Roseanne Barr has never been invited to sing the National Anthem again.
McDonald’s and Burger King have always used vegetable oil for cooking french fries.
They have never been able to color a tree using a raw umber Crayola.
There has always been Pearl Jam.
The Tonight Show has always been hosted by Jay Leno and started at 11:35 EST.
Pee-Wee has never been in his playhouse during the day.
They never tasted Benefit Cereal with psyllium.
They may have been given a Nintendo Game Boy to play with in the crib.
Authorities have always been building a wall across the Mexican border.
Lenin’s name has never been on a major city in Russia.
Employers have always been able to do credit checks on employees.
Balsamic vinegar has always been available in the U.S.
Macaulay Culkin has always been Home Alone.
Their parents may have watched The American Gladiators on TV the day they were born.
Personal privacy has always been threatened.
Caller ID has always been available on phones.
Living wills have always been asked for at hospital check-ins.
The Green Bay Packers (almost) always had the same starting quarterback.
They never heard an attendant ask “Want me to check under the hood?”
Iced tea has always come in cans and bottles.
Soft drink refills have always been free.
They have never known life without Seinfeld references from a show about “nothing.”
Windows 3.0 operating system made IBM PCs user-friendly the year they were born.
Muscovites have always been able to buy Big Macs.
The Royal New Zealand Navy has never been permitted a daily ration of rum.
The Hubble Space Telescope has always been eavesdropping on the heavens.
98.6 F or otherwise has always been confirmed in the ear.
Michael Milken has always been a philanthropist promoting prostate cancer research.
Off-shore oil drilling in the United States has always been prohibited.
Radio stations have never been required to present both sides of public issues.
There have always been charter schools.
Students always had Goosebumps.
Am I the only oldster who has no idea what "Goosebumps" refers to? Anyway, pass me my cane, will you? And get off my lawn.
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Not that I'm old or anything
OK - I was born in 1949. I'm not that old. But what I've always found interesting is the time relations for different generations.
For example, I was born 4 yrs after the end of WW II, my daughter 42 yrs after. 42 yrs before my birthday was the Panic of 1907 or the Wright brothers first flight. Or Linbergh's flight was 22 years before my birth, the moon landing 18 years before my daughter's (and my parents and my grandfather lived through both, my grandfather was 28 when the Wright brothers flew, 90 when Armstrong walked on the moon - he met the Kaiser when he was in the German cavalry, well before WW I).
When I was born there were 1 or 2 computers, when I got out of college I worked on the second microprocessor based product ever, my daughter could run Windows Paint at age 3 (and wants to do graduate work on the Crusades).
Or my mother used to note that one of her favorite sounds was the clop-clop of the milk wagon's horse every morning. My father left home at age 13 to work as a "hired man", plowed with draft horses, and milked by hand.
Even with my sisters - they're 6 and 12 years older than me - one was a Sinatra fan, one an Elvis fan, and the Beatles were on Ed Sullivan when I was in Jr. HS (or middle school as people say nowadays).
It must mean something.
(of course the response from my generation would be to quote Mr. Natural - "It don't mean shit")
Seinfeld and The Simpsons
I find that current undergrads are much less likely to get any Seinfeld or Simpsons references.
badger: for some of us, it means
the Singularity is coming, quickly. assuming we don't blow ourselves to pieces and/or ruin the planet for life, people like me look at narratives like yours and say that human consciousness is on the verge of a major evolutionary moment.
i'm old too--
they should have mentioned "flesh" crayolas, and that 18 year olds have always had "winter break" and not "Christmas vacation" in their public schools-- and a "midwinter" one too, for many.
Goosebumps and yada yada yada yada
....was a children's horror book series written by R.L. Stein.
He made me forever frightened of ventriloquist dummies and lawn gnomes( his came alive in the middle of the night and did insidious things).
I'm 25 and I don't get who half of these people are.
BUT I do get Seinfeld jokes. Because you know, I'm the master of my domain, but I'm not gay.... not that there's anything wrong with that...and last night we went to her house and yada yada yada...
you know you are young when
you don't remember when building giant walls at borders was something only America's enemies would do
you don't understand why state-sponsored torture was ever thought to be a shocking crime against humanity
you don't know why the UN exists or what it is supposed to do
you never experienced an America where government transparency and citizen privacy were considered normal
you can't remember a time when government spying on citizens was supposed to happen only in foreign countries
you can't remember a time when the word "McCarthyism" suggested the most recent shameful episode in American history
you can't remember seeing the fall of the Berlin Wall on television
you can't remember a time when television was the best way of getting news
you don't know which computer company was responsible for the first really successful computer graphical user interface
you think the 1960's aren't relevant today
you don't know when the sexual revolution took place
you can't name the decade in which AIDS was first discovered
you think that people in Texas always voted Republican
your parents can't remember the 1960's
and know you are really young when
you don't know the origin of the phrase,
"generation gap"
amen
it's horrifying what's considered normal now--truly.
the horrifying normal
cannot be changed immediately but starting now it could be really different in five years time...this site, and other sites like it, is certainly part of the solution.
from your lips to
everyone's ears.
: >
thanks, daily dem.
that hurt, but i thank you anyway. i'm too tired to add all that your comment inspired; it would be depressing anyway. but thanks for the excellent points.
it just came out that way
no hurt intended, I promise. I taught 18-20yr olds from 1990 to 2007 so I guess you hit me where I live. As for being tired...there is always tomorrow for writing more. And by the way, your comments inspired me, too.