Sunday, May 20, 2012

What makes you feel old?

I saw this collection of items on Buzzfeed last week, 48 Things That Will Make You Feel Old.

I'll be honest. There's nothing on that list that makes me feel old. Most of it was culturally significant long after I stopped caring about stuff like that. Most of it is from the 1990s. I graduated from high school in the early years of that decade. I'm a child of the 1980s.

That reminds me. I read or heard an interview with Britney Spears years ago. She said that she grew up in the 1980s. No, you didn't. You were born in 1981. Your formative years were in the 1990s. Just because you and your parents choice of career stole most of those years from you doesn't make it less true. There are quite a few of us who were lucky to grow up in the 1980s. And I'm serious about that. The 1980s were a fantastic time to be a kid.

Anyway, give me a minute to put away my mini soapbox. My point here, is that I'm 38 and none of the things on that list made me feel old. Not much does, honestly. Most of the time I'm still waiting to feel like a grownup, much less old.

But there's one thing that will do it. It's when I flip around the radio and hear a song from my childhood on the local oldies station. It happened on Sunday. I was driving home from a writers conference and "Easy Lover" by Phil Collins and Phillip Bailey was on. That song came out when I was 11.  And that song's old in comparison to other songs from my childhood that I've heard on the oldies station. I distinctly remember being played at junior high dances that have been played on the oldies station.

For some reason that kills me. I start thinking, "No way can I be old enough to have songs form my childhood on this station." Then I remember that my 20th high school reunion is coming this summer, and, yeah, I'm old. Even if I almost never feel it.

Your turn. What makes you feel old?

1 comment:

  1. Having a great nephew and I'm only 33. I don't even have kids, yet.

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