The thirtieth anniversary of the first 8-track you ever listened to in a car of your own.
It just dawned on me that if Back to the Future were remade today, Marty would go back in time 30 years to 1980.
Which is pretty damn close to the Hot Tub Time Machine premise.
Which means that, to kids today, the early-to-mid 1980s were as long ago as 1955 was to me in the mid-1980s.
Ow.
You’re really old if you can remember this.
I just read that if they made Back To The Future now, and went back the same amount of time as they did in the first film, they’d go back to 1980.
(via jhnbrssndn)
Using your DSLR
To take a picture of a serial number so you can zoom in and read it.
Watching a movie that was set in the present when you were 21, but it looks like a period piece now.
“29 years old at the time of the 9-11 attack on America 27 years old on the first day of Y2K 25 years old when Princess Diana was killed in a car crash 22 years old at the time of Oklahoma City bombing 22 years old when O. J. Simpson was charged with murder 20 years old at the time of the 93 bombing of the World Trade Center 18 years old when Operation Desert Storm began 17 years old during the fall of the Berlin Wall 13 years old when the space shuttle Challenger exploded 11 years old when Apple introduced the Macintosh 11 years old during Sally Ride’s travel in space 8 years old when Pres. Reagan was shot by John Hinckley, Jr. 7 years old at the time the Iran hostage crisis began 4 years old on the U.S.’s bicentennial Fourth of July 2 years old when President Nixon left office”Now this just makes me feel old.
I remember most of these. I remember i used to watch every single shuttle launch when I was a kid - of course I wanted to be an astronaut. I watched that thing blow up, and didn’t know what was happening - no one did - for a good several minutes.
I remember Reagan being shot by Hinkley. I remember wondering who Jodie Foster was. I remember being scared.
I remember the Iran hostage crisis, mainly because it’s when I learned what “Delta Force” was, and it seemed so exotic and cool. Like the A Team.
I remember the Berlin Wall - my friend Heather was there on an exchange studen program from alaska to germany and days after it happened, a piece of the wall arrived in the mail for me. I still have it.
I remember protesting and marching for Desert Storm, marching up the streets of boston, feeling alive and rebellious and like it would make a difference, starting my ill-fated activist career that followed with a confrontation with BU about a Tipper Gore appearance that marked my first appearance in the AP.
I remember the bicentennial. It was such a big deal in alaska, we were still so proud to even be a state. And it was the year my sister was born. I remember those special quarters. I remember the parade.
Sadly, I don’t remember Nixon leaving office. I rememeber my parents talking about it, but not it happening.
God, I feel like that old I/O tower in Tron.
I remember them all, but just barely. I remember it more as having a new President Ford than as Nixon resigning.
You remember when a second line meant an actual, physical, second line, complete with a phone to dial.
The Interview
I don’t think the passing of years hit me until a student came to me five or six years ago because he had to interview someone who “had been alive during the Vietnam War.”
Once I hit my mid-20’s, age didn’t seem to matter as much. I still feel really young inside, but I’m not. I don’t usually ask how “young” someone is; I just try to see if we click.
Another thing that definitely ages me is I’ve lost track of popular music. I still try things once in a while, but give me the Beatles, the Beach Boys, the Stones, and other groups from the 60’s and 70’s any day.
I’m closer to the end of the ride than the beginning, but that’s the way it has to be.
The first time a kid you don’t know calls you “sir” or “ma’am”.
Which feels awful—but not nearly as bad as the first time an adult does.
