At coffee break, I began my story with, “We used to go down to Old Town on Saturday nights and. . .”
One of my listeners interrupted to ask what Old Town was. Impatiently I explained that it was sort of Chicago’s Haight-Ashbury in the ’60s. I paused, noticing the confused looks on the faces across from me. Turns out that none of these 20-something Generation X’ers had heard of Haight-Ashbury either.
Technological advances, as well as cultural changes, had given me a frame of reference different from theirs. If I’m not careful, I thought, I’ll be labeled an “old-timer” at 48.
I shouldn’t say “album” when I mean CD, nor should I make references to memories such as:
– The phone shaped like a shoe on the television comedy “Get Smart” being the only “cell phone” seen by most people.
– The early Technicolor that made Bozo’s hair flicker from orange to red and then back to orange.
– Calculators appearing only in the breast pockets of the nerds who would spend $100 in 1960s dollars for them.
– The picture of a penguin with icicles suspended from its beak to entice customers into Woolworth’s “Air-conditioned!” interior.
– The newly invented pantyhose being considered too extravagant because of having to throw out both legs if only one ran.
– Disposable diapers being considered a luxury to be used only on trips out with the baby.
– Billing errors being blamed on computers, yet no one knew what computers looked like or where they were kept.
– High-school typing class equipped with only one IMB electric typewriter among the many manuals.
– Office workers hand-writing their messages for the telex operator to send.
– Having to specify in the video store if your VCR was Beta.
– Home-pregnancy tests, ultrasound pictures of fetuses and previews of babies’ gender being material for science-fiction novels.
– As a reward, high-school seniors on the honor roll being allowed to leave study hall to enjoy a cigarette in the student smoking lounge.
– Babies and children hardly ever riding in child car seats (other than the flimsy ones that had a steering wheel attached for Junior’s amusement).
– Girls not being allowed to wear slacks to school, even on Chicago’s 30-degree-below-zero wind chill days.
– The only short haircuts considered acceptable were those worn by male sportscasters.
– The Beatles, in their matching business suits and combed Prince-Valiant hairstyles, being seen as a sign of youth decadence.
– Divorced parents, teen pregnancies and unwed motherhood being whispered about.
– Violence in the schools, except for the rare fistfight between boys, being unheard of.
My 80-year-old father’s memory list would include:
– Electricity being available but most homes still having gas lights.
– When an airplane flew overhead, neighborhood kids running outside, shouting, “Aeroplane! Aeroplane!”
The pace of technological and cultural changes gains speed with every passing decade. Twenty years from now, today’s Generation X’ers will reminisce. They may begin a story with, “I used to send e-mail” and be interrupted by a young upstart who asks, “What’s e-mail?”
