Post: remember when..

Posted by 30 year old.. on 5/01/05

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I don't feel "old" but I remember when..

In my senior history class (in 1993) we learned about
impeachement; none of us knew anything about how it worked
at all. At least Ken Starr gave us all a history lesson :)

My freshman year of college, we had a debate in class
about whether talk shows (like Oprah) degraded or
exploited people, were too sensationalistic, caused people
to do anything to get on t.v. etc. Someone mentioned
the "reality" show "The Real World", and only about half
of us (19 years olds) had seen the show. We knew MTV as a
station that had music on it :).

I couldn't watch the news when I got home from
school/work.. I had to wait until 5. If I missed it at 5
or 6, I had to wait until 10-- if that was too late, I
missed it. Somehow I survived :). Also: if my newspaper
got thrown out before I saw it, I couldn't read the paper
that day unless I could borrow a copy.

I found shows like The Cosby Show had enough plot to keep
me interested. Now I watch the reruns and they seem almost
as quaint as Leave It To Beaver. Is this because now that
I'm 30 I'm no longer as concerned about the problems of
the teens on the show, or is it because I'm now used to
shows like Desperate Housewifes or Law and Order? Discuss
amongst yourselves :).

Roseanne was the most contraversial show on t.v. and Ozzie
Osbourne was a has been rocker from my parents generation

In a class freshman year someone said "The only war we
know is the minor Gulf war.." and we all nodded in
agreement. Is that war going to be renamed Gulf War I :)?

Liberals called themselves "liberals" (that's not an
attack on liberals; I'm a proud Democrat)

What we now call "camis" were 2 things-- pajama tops (for
the white cotton ones) or lingerie.

My list of things to have ready when I needed to leave in
the morning did not include "cell phone".

I was friends with my neighbors, but not someone living in
South Africa that I met online.

You had to do something another than be willing to eat
bugs to get to be on t.v. and be famous

I could not define any of the following words:
E-mail
E-anything (E-commerce, e-banking, e-trading)Download
Blog/blogger
instant message/IM
internet
chat room (Is that like a break room? :)
website (is that where there's a spider web that keeps re-
appearing? :)
online (is that like "are you on board with this
project? :)
text message
HDTV
reality show-- is that a show where a real person gets a
makeover :)?
reality show whore (she's an actual whore, not just an
imposter who wears slutty clothes :)
crank (probably some kind of tool :)
"urban" problems
Bushism (but I did know "Qualyism" :)
Al-Queida
Uzbeckastan (pardon my spelling)
Fox news
recharge my cell phone
See how much smarter I've gotten in about 7 years :)?

The following words had different meanings:
In Box: an actual box of things to do, filled with actual
papers :)
Paris Hilton: a nice hotel in France
spam: a cheap but disgusting lunch meat
flame: what a large fire created
White Water: water found in the Colorado river
Travelgate: the gate you go to to get on your plane, bus,
etc.
9/11: the number you call in an emergency

I am getting old, aren't I :? When I get distressed about
the state of the world, I remember this difference:
When I was in high school students wrote and acted out
orginal plays. One featured two guy roommates who seemed
to be lunatics-- I thought the play was about insanity. A
friend finally explained to me that they were gay and in a
relationship but not only could they not kiss, cuddle,
hold hands or make any reference at all to being "more
than friends" they couldn't say "gay". This script had
been through about 8 editings (and now made no sense) and
the students involved never complained because they knew
they couldn't do anything about it.

Peace!

Posts on this thread, including this one

remember when.., 5/01/05, by 30 year old...

Re: remember when.., 10/05/05, by Rajit Ravichandran.