Friday, August 24, 2007

Am I Old? So What!

Looking through my old files, I found the following. The original title was "You're probably aged 25 to 35 if . . . " - but that was about 10 years ago, so the new title is "So I'm turning 40 this year, so are many of my friends, we still sort of remember this stuff." I have annotated some of the items that didn't age well, in my opinion.

And Happy Birthday to C in DC!
  • You wore anything Izod, remember those windbreakers that folded up into a pouch you could wear around your waist.

  • You owned a Jordache anything, or you remember when Jordache jeans were cool. (Someday I can tell you about the entire morning I spent trying to get on WNBC radio (660AM) to win Sasson jeans, which went to my sisters.)

  • In your grade 9 and 10 class pictures, you're wearing an Izod shirt with the collar up.

  • All‑skate, change directions, means something to you.

  • In high school, you and all your friends discussed elaborate plans to get together again at the end of the century and play 1999 by Prince over and over again. (Did we even manage to stay up past midnight?)

  • You rode in the back of the station wagon and you faced the cars behind you in the tail gunner position.

  • Schoolhouse Rock played a HUGE part in how you actually learned the English language. (and American History - "I'm just a bill, yeah, only a bill . . . ")

  • You ever dressed to emulate a person you saw in either a Duran Duran, Madonna, Rick Springfield, or Cyndi Lauper video.

  • You actually know who Rick Springfield is. (but wait wasn't he just on General Hospital again . . . SINGING!?)

  • You're starting to believe (now that it wouldn't affect YOU) that maybe having the kids go to school year‑round wouldn't be such a bad idea after all. (Especially now, if we have kids, right?)

  • You ever wanted to be gagged with a spoon.

  • You remember Bo and Luke Duke. (Though as previously discussed on this blog, I preferred Jon and Ponch.)

  • There was nothing strange about Bert and Ernie living together. (And now that I have a child of my own, I never make up my own words to the stories I read him, nope, not me.)

  • Knickers and leg warmers were cool. (Well, OK, not really.)

  • You learned to swim about the same time Jaws came out and still carry the emotional scars to this day. ("You're gonna need a bigger boat.")

  • You ever wanted to learn to play Stairway to Heaven on the guitar and choreographed Dancing Queen by yourself in your room.

  • You were afraid of the Sleestaks on Land of the Lost. (In the "Everything Old is New Again" - Coming Soon - The Land of the Lost Movie!)

  • The first time you ever kissed someone was at a dance during Crazy for You by Madonna.

  • You ever used the phrase "kiss mah grits" in conversation.

  • You had ringside seats for Luke and Laura's wedding. (Again with the General Hospital - I was a CBS soap watcher, wait, did I just write that down?)

  • You know who shot J.R. (Again, coming soon, Dallas - The Movie, with John Travolta as J.R. Ewing.)

  • This rings a bell: "And my name is, Charlie. They work for me." (We already saw that movie.)

  • You ever had a Dorothy Hamill haircut.

  • You sat with your friends on a Friday night and dialed "8‑6‑7‑5‑3‑0‑9" to see if Jenny would answer. (See Rick Springfield)

  • You owned a pair of Rainbow suspenders just like Mork used to wear. (Um, no, I didn't. I swear.)

  • You remember when your cable TV box had the three rows of numbers and you had to move the selector switch accordingly.

  • You could sing 99 Red Balloons in English and in German. (99 Luft Ballons . . .)

  • Feathered hair.

  • Your jaw would ache by the time you finished those brick‑sized packages of Bazooka gum.

  • The phrase "Where's the beef?" still doubles you over with laughter. (Oh, Clara, how we miss you.)

3 comments:

Unknown said...

i'm only 30 and i know EVRY ONE OF THOSE.... AND "8‑6‑7‑5‑3‑0‑9" is, or at least WAS a real # when i was a teenager in my hometown - not that i ever called it.......

Kim Ayres said...

I turn 41 in a couple of months, but most of these mean little to me - must be a cultural/US thing. However, some do strike a chord - I still feel a slight wariness about swimming in the sea; I can still play stairway to Heaven; and Daisy Duke left quite an impression on my formative years...

Archivalist said...

The other day I heard, as supermarket "muzak," the real versions of "99 Luft Ballons" (auf deutsch) and "Blitzkrieg Bop."