\u201cWhat was it like living through the 80s, Brian?\u201d read the writing on the whiteboard.<\/p>\n
Grrrrr!<\/p>\n
Those darn college kids. Little whipper-snappers. Children of the \u2014 gasp! \u2014 90s. Nineties?!? Can that be right? Did they \u2014 gulp! \u2014 did they really grow up in the 90s?<\/p>\n
The dry-erase board with the cutesy, sarcastic little question written on it snickered at me. So did the students gathered around the office of the student newspaper that I advise.<\/p>\n
\u201cHar, har,\u201d I grumbled at them as they gazed at this \u201cdinosaur\u201d \u2014 me \u2014 squinting his tired eyes to read the board. \u201cYes, I have worn parachute pants and they\u2019re actually quite comfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Little buggers, asking me what it was like living through the 80s?!?
\n
\nOne of the journalism kids had written it after he learned \u2014\u00a0and it had royally shocked him \u2014\u00a0that I will turn 37 in a week or so. The concept seemed rather incredible to him \u2014 the number so high and almost mythical. Shoot, he probably didn\u2019t have $37 in his bank account. So how COULD he comprehend a number so large? And from a time so long ago \u2026 before he was even born \u2026 before there were even iPods.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid you ever have a mullet?\u201d one of the students asked. The room filled with laughter.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d I shot back. \u201cI had this very same hairdo the day I was born. And I also came out with five o\u2019clock shadow.\u201d<\/p>\n
They were really razzing me. In their eyes, I was now an \u201colder gentleman,\u201d or just plain old.<\/p>\n
It had never been like this before. Thirty-six never seemed that big a deal around them. But this new number sparked a different reaction. Maybe it\u2019s something in the sound, or that it just sounds so humongous.<\/p>\n
But I don\u2019t feel old, which is probably what bothers me the most. I\u2019m strong, healthy and in shape \u2014\u00a0young for my age. Yet, despite how I feel, my age doesn\u2019t sound that young anymore. These kids were proving it with their gasps, giggles and questions like, \u201cso how did you download music with an abacus?\u201d<\/p>\n
Grrrrr! I hope hair starts growing out of their ears.<\/p>\n
Somehow there never seemed to be that much of an age gap between us. Obviously I was older, and hopefully wiser, but suddenly it\u2019s feeling like a gulf of time between us. There\u2019s at least a 15-year difference between my age and the oldest of the students I work with. Think of it this way: In the state of Florida, you need to have lived that many years just to get a learner\u2019s driving permit.<\/p>\n
To think of the shock I felt several years back when I realized students weren\u2019t even born when the first \u201cStar Wars\u201d movie came out. Now it\u2019s even worse: this batch missed the entire trilogy, not to mention \u201cRaiders of the Lost Ark,\u201d \u201cGhostbusters\u201d and \u201cBack to the Future.\u201d They also think VCRs are something you can cure with a shot.<\/p>\n
Like I said, it doesn\u2019t bother me that I\u2019m getting older \u2014 I\u2019m fine with that \u2014\u00a0rather it\u2019s that people THINK I\u2019m older. Like I\u2019ve passed some imaginary demarcation line that separates them from me. That I\u2019m no longer young, and am now a full-fledged member of the fraternity of adults because of the years I\u2019ve lived.<\/p>\n
Strange how a number can begin to define you like that. And how a bunch of college students will look at you differently because of it.<\/p>\n
But I need to get past that. Who cares if they think I\u2019m getting old? I know better.<\/p>\n
So what was it like living through the 80s? It was great, I should tell them, especially being around to see the whole \u201cStar Wars\u201d trilogy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cWhat was it like living through the 80s, Brian?\u201d read the writing on the whiteboard. Grrrrr! Those darn college kids. Little whipper-snappers. Children of the \u2014 gasp! \u2014 90s. Nineties?!? Can that be right? Did they \u2014 gulp! \u2014 did they really grow up in the 90s? The dry-erase board with the cutesy, sarcastic little question written on it snickered at me. So did the students gathered around the office of the student newspaper that I advise. \u201cHar, har,\u201d I grumbled at them as they gazed at this \u201cdinosaur\u201d \u2014 me \u2014 squinting his tired eyes to read the board. \u201cYes, I have worn parachute pants and they\u2019re actually quite comfortable.\u201d Little buggers, asking me what it was like living through the 80s?!?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2010-nutshells"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=472"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":500,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472\/revisions\/500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}