Makes me feel old

I'm only in my 30s, but people sure do have a way of making me feel as though I'm a thousand years old.

I noticed not too long after I graduated from high school in the late 1980s that songs I grew up listening to in the 80s were being called "classics" by local radio stations. This started happening only about five years after 1989.

A local station that used to play hit songs from the 70s, 80s, and 90s eventually dumped the 70s and changed their tag in commercials to "playing the hits of the 80s, 90s, and today."

Today, in a blog page at madonnalicious.com, someone wrote in about her (or his?) experience seeing Man-donna at Roseland Ballroom, and here's what she wrote:

A DJ wearing rhinestone headphones takes the stage and gets the crowd moving with retro hits like 'Raspberry Beret,' 'Don't You Want Me Baby' and 'Billie Jean,'

"Retro?"

Oh my gosh, the 1980s were not that long ago.

He's writing about "Raspberry Beret" and "Don't You Want Me Baby" the way I might about "Purple People Eater," "I Wanna Hold Your Hand," "Heartbreak Hotel," and "Can't Get No Satisfaction."

LOL! I know! I love me some 70s and 80s music. And, what's really surprising, is that some folks actually consider some early to mid 90s music "oldies" too!

I guess if it's been more than 10 years since it dominated the radio, then it's an oldie!

I was skimming through a heavy metal music magazine at the store today, and someone referred to Guns N Roses (and a few other 80s bands) as "ancient."

Reminds me of an old Vanilla Ice interview where he made some kind of comment about Madonna having a "great body even though she is 35 years old."

Now that Vanilla Ice is in his late 30s or early 40s, I wonder what he thinks of that comment now?

When you're a teen or in your 20s, 35+ can seem very old, but once you get to 35, you realize it's not.

Wanna Feel Old blog

A few samples from their blog:

A Savage Fact [Savage Garden pop duo]

Savage Garden haven’t released any new material in ten years

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A Brain... and an Athlete... and a Basket Case...

[The Breakfast Club movie, released in the 1980s, was about a group of high school teens who get detention]

Ah, The Breakfast Club. A defining moment in film history.

Right. Shall I depress you with how old the actors are now?

* Judd Nelson - 49
* Molly Ringwald -41
* Emilio Estevez - 46
* Anthony Michael Hall - 40
* Ally Sheedy - 46

… and if Paul Gleason, the teacher in charge, was still alive, he’d be 70 years old.

Sincerely Yours… The Breakfast Club

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A lot of you have been emailing me...
… that Kurt Cobain killed himself 15 years ago this week.

Except one person, who emails: “15 years ago, kurt cobain was shot dead in his house”. Oh, you crazy conspiracy theorists. Why can’t you feel old like the rest of us?!

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Oh boy [Quantum Leap TV show]

Quantum Leap’s first episode aired twenty years ago. There have been no new episodes for fifteen years.

Also, it was *set* in the year 1999. That’s right, Quantum Leap was set ten years ago. How science has failed us.

Wow, I used to watch Quantum Leap as a kid. A lot of things these days make me feel old.

This post has been edited by Mihoshi Marie on Apr 8 2009, 07:46 AM

When I see clubs having Retro 80s nights. You know what else? My 25th year reunion is in June.

I felt old when I saw that my 10th (tenth) HS reunion was being announced, so don't feel bad

What I found annoying was that the 1980s were being dubbed "retro" and 1980s pop songs were being referred to as "golden oldies" only by around the mid or late 1990s.

One thing that made me feel slightly old:
back in the early or mid 1990s, I used to watch the teen, night-time soap/drama called 90210.

(I did not like the show but I watched it. Part of the reason I watched it is precisely because I hated it, which sounds odd, I know.)

The part that makes me feel old about this "90210" business is that a 'sequel' version of this show started a few months ago.

They have a new cast of teens playing new characters, and the original cast members are now depicting 30 - 40- somethings who work as doctors and such.

Seeing pop stars who were in their 20s or 30s who I used to listen to when I was a teen turn age 50+ or 60+ makes me feel a little old.

It's bizarre to see them as they are now, eg., balding, with beer guts, wrinkles, etc.., when in my mind's eye, I still see them as they were in magazines and posters on my bed room wall when I was a teen, with a full head of hair, trim physiques, etc.

Oh, Grow Up ... or not
by Karen Linamen

You'd think getting my driver's license would have felt like a milestone on the road to adulthood. Instead, it was something that happened several months later, the day I drove my parents' Plymouth sedan to a record shop and bought my first album.

For those of you who think albums are a place to upload photos on Facebook, let me assure you that they were once the best way to listen to your favorite banks, like Three Dog Night or the Eagles.

But on that particular day in 1976, for my first grown-up purchase, I was gunning for the debut album of a band called Boston. And as I parked in front of the tiny storefront with psychedelic posters plastering every window, I felt a small thrill. Boston had lured me here for "More Than A Feeling," and the idea of buying rock 'n' roll filled me with nervous excitement.

Walking into the dim little store, I flipped my feathered Farrah hairdo and approached the counter. I'd never felt more grown-up, car keys in one pocket and a $10 bill burning a hole in the other.

"I'd like the latest album by Boston," I said nonchalantly, as if I made these kinds of purchases everyday.

The clerk snickered and said, "Their latest album? They only have one album." He didn't add the word moron. He didn't need to. I wanted to run screaming from the store.

Instead, I squared my shoulders and said pointedly, "Then, my little man, you'll have no problem figuring out which one I want, will you?"

Oh wait. That's what I wish I'd said. What I really said was unintelligible as I mumbled a string of apologetic words, handed over my money, and fled with album in hand.

The good news is that I got my music. I also got the experience of longing to feel grown-up, feeling grown-up for real, then feeling like a kid pretending to be grown-up - all in the span of about six minutes.

Since then I've purchased houses and strollers, crown molding and blenders, even life insurance and reading glasses. And yet, I eat pumpkin pie for breakfast, buy helium balloons so I can suck out the gas and talk like a duck, and decorate my entire house like a pirate ship once a year.

In other words, some days I feel mature enough to handle whatever life throws my way. Other days I feel like a pretender, as if someone gave me high heels and a checkbook by mistake.

Sometimes, when I'm at sophisticated events surrounded by people acting like grown-ups, I turn to acquaintances next to me and whisper, "Don't you think it's strange that everyone thinks we're grown-ups? And do you ever wonder what will happen when they realize that we're not?"

Most of the time they admit they're had these same thoughts. Maybe they're humoring me, but I don't think so. I think most of us live with an ever-shifting kaleidoscope of emotions about where we are at any given moment on the teeter-totter continuum of maturity.

Which is why it makes sense just to relax and enjoy the ride. And if you ever have a day when the pressures of being a real grown-up are getting you down and you need a break, give me a call. I'll fire up the Plymouth and we'll go for a spin. I'll even pop in an eight-track of Boston.

Welcome to my world, Flea. I hear hit songs from the 70s in the grocery store!!! I'm talking about pretty edgy stuff with big bad words and such. In Safeway? My "retro" started somewhere in the 90s so I guess that's par for the course. I was in the bank not too long ago and heard a song by the Split Enz, circa late 1970s. I couldn't believe I was hearing it. Gotta tell ya, I went home and downloaded it. Great song.

Welcome to my world, Flea. I hear hit songs from the 70s in the grocery store!!! I'm talking about pretty edgy stuff with big bad words and such. In Safeway? My "retro" started somewhere in the 90s so I guess that's par for the course. I was in the bank not too long ago and heard a song by the Split Enz, circa late 1970s. I couldn't believe I was hearing it. Gotta tell ya, I went home and downloaded it. Great song.

I remember as a kid (which would be 1970s to mid 1980s) hearing songs from the 1960s used in TV commercials.

Car commercials back then would use songs by the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.

I knew that society was thinking I'm old when I started hearing songs from my era (the 1980s) in TV commercials.

When the current 20-somethings hit their 30s and start hearing Britney Spears songs in commercials, they'll know it's their turn.

You really know you're getting old when you don't bother to keep up with the latest fads, trends, or pop bands.

That happened to me sometime in my mid or late 20s. I just stopped caring who the latest, greatest pop and rock bands were.

I only kinda keep up a little bit these days, and that just to be informed - and sometimes it's incidental.

(For example, if I'm surfing the web to read up stories about politics, I might see a headline about Lady Gaga, or whomever the current hot pop singer is. If not for that, I would still be totally ignorant of who Lady Gaga is.)