Things that make you feel old

I remember taking a piss on trains and being able to look down through the hole and see the ties/track go by.

 

This. A million times this.
I'll reference or quote some movie or TV show from the 80s or 90s and then get blank stares, which of course leads to a long-winded explanation of the joke that makes it not funny anymore. And then I just shake my head both at their ignorance and my shame.

I think that age gap also made one of my former co-workers (a black guy) think I was a flaming racist one time. We were shooting a short weekly video during football season. He was new, and this was early in the season so he didn't know much about the teams. I tried to throw it to him to add a comment at the end of a segment and he just sort of clammed up without adding anything. We cut, and without thinking I threw out the line from Major League, "He's not the best color guy in the business for nothing, folks."
He did not get the joke.
He also had no idea what a color analyst was.
He was not amused, even after I and our photographer spent five minutes explaining both to him.

 

Hey, whatsa matter man? We're going to come around at twelve with some Puerto Rican girls that's just dyiiiiin' to meet you.

 

Was watching a game show today, and the contestant had to give clues for the answer "Abbey Road." The Beatles were never even mentioned, and the players never even came close to guessing the answer.

 

I banged knees with someone on the bb court in July and since then I've fallen victim to the dreaded "arthritis" in my knee. An x-ray five years ago showed my ortho and me that I had very little cartlidge left and I had the knees (then) of a 60 yr old in need of a knee replacement. But for 5 years I just went on like normal. Now, total bummer. Don't feel confident running at all or cutting and I'm facing retirement from the hoops court. (Only saving grace is I can still golf.)

 

Surprised no one has mentioned Erectile Dysfunction yet. We are on page SIX.

 

Every once in a while people will bring up a "Where were you when ____ happened?" conversation.

Several co-workers remembered their teachers wheeling TVs into their rooms to watch coverage of 9/11.

When 9/11 happened I was working where I'm working now, doing the same #*&$ing job I was doing then.

A few others -- my smoking hot co-worker mentioning her mom, and I realized her mom was 3 years older than me... watching awards shows and realizing I don't know who any of these people are, and I don't care... I went back to the first city I worked in television and drove by the two TV stations where I worked. Both buildings had been torn down.

 

Auston Matthews is exactly a month younger than my son and he scored four goals in his first NHL game.

 

If people don't understand your references, are they really 'pop culture' anymore?

 

Yesterday, we were going through the newscast (I anchor with two producers, a reporter and photographer -- they're all 22 to 24). Trump and women's reproductive rights came up and I mentioned that, in the 1980s and early 1990s, abortion was a political fault line in May regions of this country. They were all absolutely floored by this.

I am constantly explaining why Bill Clinton's administration is relevant as they were too young to really remember. I tried to explain Y2K. Made no sense to them.

I don't fault them for this as it wasn't their worldview. I've learned to keep my pop culture POV quiet. They've taught me what a "boo" is and how to dap. They're great with technology even if they don't use it to learn context for their stories.

Many, many non-major metro newsrooms are like this. You need to have an old person (or at least one with extreme knowledge of history -- I'm pretty solid on everything back to World War II thanks to my late grandparents encyclopedias and the annual updates from 1954 to 1977 they received). You need someone who matches the prime demo of your target audience (25-54 year old viewers).

The only redeeming factor being the old man: I make 90. They make 30. For now...

 

When Rickey Henderson retired there were no more players my age in baseball. That realization hit pretty hard.

 

On the "I admit it" thread, in my post about cold calling sources, I could've added the totally truthful statement, "that was before texting." And, actually, it was before cell phones, period.