ECnetnews for the week of January 26-February 2
If you're feeling old in this first month of the new year, you might
not want to read on. This should make a lot of folks feel older anyway,
considering these facts about the college freshman, born in 1980, who
will entering Erskine in the fall of 1998:
- The Iranian hostage crisis occurred before they were conceived.
- They have no memory of a time before MTV.
- Cyndi Lauper, Boy George, the Pretenders, the Kinks, Alice Cooper,
Blondie, etc... are all old musicians they may have heard of on an
"Oldies" radio station.
- They have no meaningful recollection of the Reagan era.
- They were pre-pubescent when the Persian Gulf War was waged.
- Black Monday 1987 is as significant to them as the Great Depression.
- Their world has always included AIDS.
- Having not endured the Disco Scare, they can romanticize the 1970s.
- They see "Family Ties" as something middle-aged ladies watch.
- They watched "Star Wars" years ago, when they were kids -- on video.
- Atari predates them, as do vinyl albums and reel-to-reel audiotapes;
they may have heard of an 8-track, but probably never actually seen (or
heard) one.
- They have never lived in a world without Velcro or "Post-it" notes.
- They learned typing on a computer and have only seen typewriters on
display next to slide rules in the school museum.
- The phrase "surfing" refers to the Internet and the Beach Boys must
be the Beastie Boys mispronounced.
- From their earliest years, a camera has been advertised as something
you used once and threw away.
- As far as they know, stamps have always cost about 32 cents.
- The oil crisis is history of which they probably know nothing --and
why anyone WOULDN'T buy a Suburban is beyond them.
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