On being able to tell you're at least middle-aged

[nancylebov]

I spent several minutes discussing how astonishing it is that the 60s are over 40 years ago. How did that happen?

I believe part of the cause is random access memory-- it's possible think about something in the past without retrieving the intervening memories, so it's rather like time teleportation.

If none of this makes sense to you, you'll probably find out soon enough.

Comments

[redbird]

There's also a persistent idea that "long ago"="before you can remember," and I wonder whether some of the ways people talk about it emphasized that: "before your time" and "in my day" may be distancing in ways that "when I was in college/your age/living in Boston" aren't. ("When I was your age" can have a different set of problems, I know.)

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

It wasn't obvious, but I was talking with someone about my own age.

We were talking about how old NLP was (I read one of the first books in the 70s), and that led to shock at how did then get to be so long ago.

I think some of it is "I'm still me, but 45 years ago is supposed to be another era, what happened?"

I've tried to avoid a "kids these days" attitude, and have even made a heroic effort to realize that people much younger than myself will never get around to much if any golden age science fiction, and this is entirely normal, but I'm still not quite used to adults who don't personally remember the Cold War. Soon enough, the same will apply to 9/11. I'm sure I'll get over it.

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

Was watching Olympics sporadically last night, thinking about the mighty rivalries between the U.S. and the Communist-bloc teams, and reflected that many Olympians may not have been born when the USSR dissolved.

Heck, some may barely remember when Winter, Summer, and, for all I know, Autumn Olympics were all held in the same year.

[avram]

A few months ago, at Columbia University's Games Club, one of the new members asked what cyberpunk was. I was about to say "Holy cats, it was the dominant new SF subgenre of the '80s", when I realized that a college freshman in 2009 probably hadn't been born yet in 1989.

(Although, still, I'd heard of the New Wave in SF when I was a highschool student in the early '80s.)

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

I don't know if it's needed any more, but I used to have to distinguish between the New Wave (sf) and New Wave (rock music).

[avram]

As I was writing that comment, I paused for a moment to decide whether I needed to specify "in SF".

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

I think we live in the parts of our lives where great changes happened. And we always live in those parts -- no matter when "now" is, we are always, perhaps, three, and sixteen, and twenty-four, and whichever other times in our specific lives were most critical to us becoming who we are.

So, if "the Sixties" were a time of great personal importance to you, then that's where you are, always, and they can NEVER seem far from you. The Roaring Twenties were never far away from my great-Aunt Beatrice; the Depression's not far from my grandmother (although not in a bad way -- she takes from that a desire to help her family and neighbors); Vietnam's never far from my Uncle Rob, or from my father, for that matter; WWII isn't far from one of my grandfathers; playing football for the University of Indiana, and hanging out with Louis Armstrong are both close to my other grandfather.

The number of YEARS doesn't really matter.

[dcseain.livejournal.com]

Yeah, i agree with what you've said here.

[llennhoff.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes. I remember watching a TV show where the villain of the week was getting out after 25 years in jail. When they had a flashback scene I was baffled by the 80s music and hairdos - I was expecting late 50s early 60s.

I think we should go back to the 70s and get it right this time.

[richardthe23rd.livejournal.com]

One day you turn around and suddenly see 20 years are behind you. Or more. The other day I was commenting on my alma mater's recent success and saying, "Oh, they were lucky to have a 2-8-1 season when I was filming their games back in...oh, crap."

It's like the "older woman" (played by Sally Kellerman) tells Martin Tepper in an episode of Dream On: "You'll be this old in a heartbeat."

[lisa-marli.livejournal.com]

And that is why I am Always 42! Age is not a number, it is an attitude. And I've learned to let the years become a soup from which I pick up the nuggets and savor them.
I will admit my love for the Beatles dates back to when they first appeared on Ed Sullivan when I was 11, but then in another post comment about something current that I enjoy, like Steampunk. My husband is 70, one of my friends just celebrated their 30th birthday. My daughter is 35, Matt Smith (the new Doctor Who) IS young enough to be my child, but that doesn't mean I won't enjoy the view. :D And now that Daniel Radcliffe is an adult... ;) And how do I know he is an adult? My son is a few months older.
Oh, and Ringo Starr is going to be 70 this year, I know because he is 6 months younger than my husband.
Personally, I love that Memory Thing that Professor Dumbledore had. That was an interesting way to deal with the hodgepodge of stuff we have rattling around in our brains.

[sodyera.livejournal.com]

There was a bank commercial that covered this:
Just when you figured out how to be a baby, boom! You're a kid.
And just when you've got the kid thing worked out, you're a teenager.
And just when you got the whole teen-age thing down, you're an adult.

Lesson: don't F-FWD through the commercials.