I am old.
Many of you will laugh at that once you learn I’ve only been around for a whole quarter of a century, but let me assure you ? I am definitely old.
Just the other day I was walking through Oxford Middle School when I overheard a student asking what an “LP” was. My jaw hit the floor. The generation gap opened up nice and wide before my feet.
Now don’t get me wrong, I was raised as a member of “Generation X:” the first born of the yuppies from the flower power era.
We had the Apple computers in almost every classroom with the large floppy disks and “run” commands.
The Artari was the toy to have at the time, and tape cassettes had almost completely eradicated the need for eight tracks.
In fact, today there isn’t even a single record in my home, or even a record player; our stereo is one of those tape deck/CD changer systems with equalizers.
But hearing someone explain what a record was gave me a nice dose of reality – I am old.
Youth today are being raised in a completely different place and time even from my generation.
They are even more technologically oriented with personal computers in every home that have Intel Pentium IV processors.
They pop CDs and digitally remastered DVDs into advanced, surround sound entertainment systems. The Internet is common vocabulary for kindergartners.
I caught myself thinking back and realized I had seen the advent of most of these everyday must haves.
I was there when the CD replaced the tape player, when the DVD became better than the VHS and when the World Wide Web became accessible to everyone.
I watched as the Atari became the Nintendo, and then the Sega, and now the X-Box. (I know, there are numerous game systems in between, but we’ll save that one for another column.)
Finally, I figured out what had shocked me – I was nostalgic for the “old days” – and that was when I decided I was “old.”
Now I can picture myself pestering my own son with tales of “when I was your age.”
I actually find myself understanding my parent’s and grandparent’s need to talk about “when they were young.” I miss playing my “45’s” on my Mickey Mouse Club record player.
There are several generations out there that have no concept of the things I grew up with and took for granted.
They see my beloved LPs and Atari as obsolete, just as I once saw eight tracks and “Beta” VCR systems in the same way.
But hey, it’s not so bad being old. I think I’ll enjoy boring my son with my childhood tales, and it’s always fun to have information someone else might not have.
Plus I know the inevitable will eventually happen, someday, at some time, in some place, that middle schooler will hear someone ask “What’s a CD?”