For the 30+ crowd - Updated list

[Yorick]

Well just for the record, I'm nearly 31 and I found it perception shifting. It made me look at my own life a little differently. Just as I, a lover of history, can only discover what being alive during World War II was like through at best second hand recollection, so too will those younger than I.

Growing up with the fear of nuclear war PERMANENTLY affected many of my contemporaries attitudes to long term planning, momentary living, sense of security etc. This was the world we became self aware within. People born after may KNOW the information, but they will never FEEL what it felt like. As it ever is with those that go before us.

I wish I'd been alive - as an adult male - in the 60's/70's hippy movement, just to experience firsthand the attitudes and feelings of the era for example.

So that's how I read it. No put downs, no jokes, no belittlement, just a sobering reminder that time is moving on, I'm getting older, and the world is changing.

And I thankyou Charean for posting it and shifting my perception just a little.

[Donut]

Originally posted by Melusine: No offense intended at all, but what a horrible bunch of generalisations... It's hardly surprising that some young people don't even want to learn anymore if this is the prevalent attitude of the older generation anyway... But luckily I know most people think differently. Personally I thought the other list, the one with lots of nostalgic recollections of past fads and events, was a lot more fun than this one. It's just so untrue... the ones about the WW2 and other historical events - as if the youth of today doesn't care about that at all. My younger sister doesn't see the WW2 as ancient history at all, while a lot of 30 and 40 something politicians seem to have a LOT more trouble remembering it.

Well it made me laugh young lady. aaah - oh for the days of steam trains!

:;

[Charean]

This was a trip in the retro for me. I was born in '64, and remember a lot of this. I learned about Kennedy secondhand - he was killed the year before I was born - and some other things that were monumental at the time - like Vietnam, I was a kid and it didn't really affect me (my father was 45 when I was born, and no one in my family was drafted). There was a lot I had to learn in school that I didn't live through.

This makes me feel old because the people who are graduating college were born in the year I graduated high school.

My mom had an 8-track player in her Duster (and every Duster had a dent in the fender!). I remember when a VCR was 4 foot square and you practically needed a crane to pick one up. I grew up with Mork and Mindy, and my mother was hooked on Star Trek - the FIRST RUN!!

Mel, this was meant for the older folks - the youngsters will not get the same feeling because they did not live through the drastic changes that we remember. I remember a time before computers - when what the government had as a supercomputer is better suited to a calculator now. I respect your opinion, but this really isn't meant for you.

Every parent will remember things that the kid will only learn about. My biggest regret is that my dad (who was born in 1919) didn't tell me more of what life was like when he grew up. He lived through the Great Depression. Those would have been amazing stories - but that is all they would be to me. It wasn't my life experience. My dad fought in WW2 and I have pics from that era. But again, it is history, not life, to me.

This was a look at how life has changed for us. Nothing more.

[ 10-12-2002, 01:47 PM: Message edited by: Charean ]

[Attalus]

LOL, well, I was born in 1948, (ooh, the first half of the defunct 20th Century! [img]tongue.gif[/img] ) Yorick, I am quite sure you would have been interested in those times, (the sixties), but I quite frankly hated it. Remember when Amy Madigan, in Field of Dreams, told the woman that she didn't experience the sixties, she had two fifties and a seventies. I only wish that I had. Political feelings were much higher then than now, and we on the Right felt quite disenfranchised, since the Democrats in power were the war party, and the hippies and the SDS were rebelling aginst them. Where did that leave us? I was very thankful when the sixties were over, even if the music got worse, disco was better than the March on Washington. And, not only do I remember where I was when Kennedy was shot, I remember quite distinctly being a lot more worried about Governor Connally, and not upset about Kennedy, at all. Strange days, those.

[Ronn_Bman]

Originally posted by /)eathKiller: I remember using a record player, but not an A-track... [/QB]

LOL!

Kind of the thing the thread was talking about. Actually it was an 8-track, and it sucked! No skipping to the next song. You skipped to the next group of songs, and if your song was last in that list, you waited through the others. No fast forward or rewind.

8-tracks sucked!

I wish I had some old 8-tracks.

[Cerek the Barbaric]

First things first.

Mel - You have to understand the origin of the list. It was originally generated by an American University (can't remember which one) and distributed to the professors to give them some "perspective" on the views and ideas of the incoming freshman class. So it is "aimed" almost exclusively at American teenagers. Yes, some of the items on the list ARE huge generalizations, but this was designed for a Uni that was expecting several thousand incoming freshman....so the generalization was fairly accurate. Certainly there will be some individuals who are FAR more informed than thier peers, but this is just meant to give a "general view" of that age group. It's not meant as a criticism either. It's just meant to help the professors realize that some of the events that they lived through and consider "common knowledge" are not "common" at all to those who did NOT live through them.

Now, onto the list itself. I first saw this "type" of list about 3 years ago...and it WAS a real "eye-opener" for me. For one thing, I was one of the people stuffing Big Macs into those styrofoam containers. I also chose 8-tracks as my "medium preference" the first time I joined the Columbia Record House Club. I seriously regret that I actually sold a "case" with 8-10 of my last 8-tracks in a yard sale several years ago. My wife actually has a working portable 8-track player (unfortunately, it is NOT one of the ones with the PLUNGER handle [img]graemlins/verysad.gif[/img] ).

I also grew up with "The Fonz", Mork, and the Sweathogs. I attended a community college my first two years out of high school and they were JUST beginning to teach Electronic Data Processing. I learned to program in BASIC on a TRS-80 (affectionately known as the TRASH-80). I remember when electric typewriters were "cutting edge" and "hand held calculators" cost more than a cell phone does now. Speaking of which, I remember when the only people with "phone in their cars" lived in Hollywood.

I LIVED in Jordache jeans and loved to "strut around" in my Members Only jacket. Nike and Adidas were the major footwear, but I never wore the Izod alligator. My taste in shirts ran more along the line of Lightning Bolt and Ocean Pacific.

I remember when Alice Cooper was considered to be the equivalent of Marilyn Manson. I listened to songs by America, Kansas, and Asia on 8-tracks marketed by K-tel. One of my last family vacations was to Myrtle Beach, SC in 1980, where my uncle and aunt took my mom and dad to hear an unknown country group that was the "house band" for a local tavern called The Brewery. They went there 3-4 nights during the week (I was only 17, though, so I had to stay at the hotel). So, I wasn't with my parents or aunt an uncle when they had a chance to meet Randy Owens and be introduced to his brother and cousins from Fort Payne, AL. But we soon heard more from them, because it was the next summer that those some guys got their first recording contract in Nashville - and a group called Alabama began a career that would dominate the country music scene through the 1980's.

Gee, somebody mentioned a Duster. I also remember the Maverick, Capri, and a sporty little car from Ford called the Pinto. But I won't even mention the Gremlin or *choke* AMC Pacer [img]graemlins/1puke.gif[/img] (ooops....I just did [img]graemlins/blush.gif[/img] )

I also remember when all phones sat on the desk. I remember the innovative "slimline" models that actually had the rotary dial on the handpiece. [img]graemlins/wow.gif[/img] I only thought that was cool....then they came out with PUSHBUTTON phones!!! [img]graemlins/wow.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/wow.gif[/img]

I remember the FIRST "skateboarding" fad. It came along shortly after people grew disillusioned with their Mood Rings, Pet Rocks, and CB radios (Breaker! Breaker! Good Buddy. You got your ears on?)

On a more serious note, I remember my parents telling me they could recall exactly where they were and what they were doing when they heard that Kennedy had been killed (I was only about 6-8 mos old). I didn't really understand what they meant until I heard about the Challenger. I was lying on my bed in my dorm room and my roommate was just sitting down at the desk/table that our room was furnished with. I also remember where I was when I heard about Reagan being shot, but for some reason, it didn't carry the same impact. There is a chronoligical anomoly that most of the President's that have been assassinated were elected in years ending with 0 ---- I remember EXPECTING to hear that someone had killed (or attempted to kill) Reagan.

Well, that's enough "Ramblin Down Memory Lane". So keep the shiny side up, put the pedal to the metal, and Keep on Truckin'! [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]

[DragonMage]

On the 'down' side:

My father was in Vietnam, so I grew up hearing some of the horrors when he'd get together with buddies who'd survived and chat with them. He never knew I listened.

I remember being at home (my parents let me stay home just for the launch) and watching live as the Shuttle blew up.

I lived in constant fear of being 'nuked'. I even wrote a short story about it once to try to deal with my fear of dying like that - or worse, surviving such a holocaust.

I grew up with stories of WWII from my Grandad and stories about the Great Depression, but it didn't seem as real to me as Vietnam and the Cold War.

I, too, remember when Reagan was shot, so I can 'feel' a bit of what my Mom talked about when Kennedy was shot, but it still isn't the same.

On the 'up' side:

I remember when the ice cream truck would come down the street with loads of kids running to meet it.

I remember when you could go to the movies for $1.50. I saw Jaws and Star Wars opening weekends!

I remember when you had to mow lawns and do housework to earn your allowance, where now most of my friends just 'give' their children an allowance each week for 'free'! [img]redface.gif[/img]

I had to earn my first car (a 1973 Chevy C10 Stepside with wood bed and a 350 V8 engine) and had to walk to work for three months to earn the money to insure it so I could drive. !!!

I remember M*A*S*H and Family Ties and Growing Pains. I remember when the Olsen twins were babies on Full House. [img]redface.gif[/img]

OMG! I am getting on in years! Somebody get me my walker! [img]tongue.gif[/img]

P.S. - I just remembered, too, that my first computer was an Adam with dual tape drives (used a freaky Chrome tape) and I taught myself BASIC on it. Two years later, we had apples and Macintrashes at school to learn on.

P.P.S. - BTW: My dad still has an 8-track player AND 8-track tapes too! And they all work! He rigged up something at home to copy them to a reel-to-reel and then on to tapes and is now working on getting them to CD on his computer.

HEY! Anyone remember Jello Puddin' Pops! And YOUNG Bill Cosby? How about Fat Albert???

Edited for typos.

[ 10-14-2002, 10:35 AM: Message edited by: DragonMage ]

[John D Harris]

HEY HEY HEY it's FAAAAATTT Albert Na Na Na Na going have a good time Hey Hey Hey
I remember Increditable edilbes, the most terrible crap you ever wanted to eat. Space bars, tang, G.I. Joes, the 11 1/2" ones, and when toy guns didn't have to look like toys.

[Aelia Jusa]

Originally posted by DragonMage: I remember when you had to mow lawns and do housework to earn your allowance, where now most of my friends just 'give' their children an allowance each week for 'free'! [img]redface.gif[/img] I remember M*A*S*H and Family Ties and Growing Pains. I remember when the Olsen twins were babies on Full House. [img]redface.gif[/img]

I think lots of families still work on the old teach em the value of money thing. Don't lose faith in parents just yet!

LOL I remember Family ties and baby Muhchelle on Full House too! Unfortunately. Uncle Jesse just couldn't stand to leave so he moved himself and wifey into the attic. Uh-huh. Now the Olsen twins have their own billion dollar empire!

[Timber Loftis]

Originally posted by /)eathKiller: ... I remember using a record player, but not an A-track... .

An A-track? What was the title of the thread?