You know you're old when...

Parent Cafe
1

I thought it would be fun to talk about things we took for common back in the day that would totally mystify current college kids. Typewriters and correction fluid almost go without saying…

Today I just thought of end-of-term postcards for grades, I don’t know why. We’d leave a self-addressed stamped postcard at each final so that we didn’t have to wait for the break to be over to get our grades. I imagine this practice died out with the rise of the internet. I always thought it amusing that the postman knew how every college kid on the route was doing, and hoped he didn’t have a disappointed look on his face when he handed over our mail with the telltale card …

2

… when you were a student, a sombrero was just a hat…

3

I work with kids. You know you are old when they think iPads are old and Monopoly and Don’t Spill the Beans are new.

4

You realize you are old enough to be the parent of many of your younger co-workers.

5

When you realize your Mom was the same age as you are now when you got married (51). I think back on that, look at the pictures and she seemed much older and more mature than I am now!! Um…guess not :((

6

^^^. I am just now experiencing that and it really makes me feel old. At my old Company, we all started out as young in our 20’s…now, most of us were in out 50s when I was laid off. I always felt youthful. Now, in this new Job, only 1/3 are in their 40s and up. I feel so old there…and I have to wear readers now! Sigh…oh well.

7

@GMTplus7 what’s a sombrero to kids the days ?

When you realize they can’t remember 9/11.

8

I also work with kids. I feel old when I realize some of my current kids are the children of some of the first kids I worked with!

9

When your kids start talking about how the generation younger than them is different than they are.

10

We were talking about registration for college courses the other day. We used to set alarms to wake up at like 4 am to register on the “new and modern” phone registration system…it was sooo much better than going in person and waiting in line at the registration building!

11

…when they like some classic hard rock music that’s still popular and I realize that, when it first came out, I was younger than they are now.

12

When you see a Doctor and think he/she looks too young to have finished college let alone med school.

13

…when your barber offers to trim your eyebrows.

14

when you have to explain to your kid why one wants to move like jagger and what lets get it on and marvin gaye references.

there is a lack of cultural understanding among young people these days.

:-j

15

When the songs you listened to in high school are on the oldies station!!!

16

When you watch a special on Bill Gates and the announcer goes to great lengths to describe what punch cards were.

17

When Bill Gates, your contemporary, is no longer the “boy” genius.

18

When you have cataract surgery and almost wish you hadn’t, since you can now see the lines and the age spots and the (ugh!) facial hair.

19

You are old when you see it in a mirror, MY mirror does not leave any room for guessing. In regard to punch cards and such, while they were out of use even when I started in CS, and I am sure that I am the most ancient person here, believe it or not, the programs that were written for punch cards are still operational, yes, all those ancient languages are still alive and run many systems. So, punch cards are not “very dead”, so to speak, although they do not exist anymore.

20

when you’re bobbing your head all day like you’re in a bollywood film, to get the right focusing from your progressive lenses