Am I old or even worse outdated?

I never feel that I am an adult, though supposedly I am. I guess it’s because I associate being an “adult” as having a mortgage, a spouse and kids, things I also associate with my parents and being outdated. However, that being said I don’t feel old or outdated either...that is until I talk to younger people especially born in the eighties. A decade I thoroughly remember and at times wish I didn’t. That’s right folks I remember the excitement of cable TV, VCR’s, Much Music, MTV, and many wonderful and not so wonderful things, big hair and neon clothes to name a few, of the eighties.

I no longer get asked for identification at liquor stores, bars or restaurants. I remember thinking it was so great the first few times I didn’t get IDed. But the first time someone called me Madam at the grocery store I was shocked to discover they were actually talking to me. I think I aged on the spot. Really it was rather a harsh reality check. As I said I don’t feel old and outdated. I figured at a certain age we were all the same, you know once you pass the 20 threshold we are all comrades with similar memories and experiences. However, a conversation or I should say reminiscing with a friend about the first music video TV show and what a big deal it was....he replied uh I was born in 1984 and I have no idea what you are talking about. Obviously I was the only one doing the reminiscing! Yes I felt old and outdated. However, since then I have had many of those experiences and conversations and I know they will continue as I age. I don’t have to like it but I will have to get used to it...I guess.

A friend of mine recently had a co-worker born 1989. 1989 FOLKS! I mean they don’t even have a reference for the eighties, they missed it all! I don’t know about you but I remember 1989 very clearly. I remember things like acid wash jeans, Varnet shirts, Oakley sunglasses, Bon Jovi, Guns N’ Roses and Poison. Ahh the memories... I guess I just outdated myself, however, there is a ray of sunshine for us who feel outdated and even old.

Last year I went to the Bon Jovi concert in Vancouver. It was awesome by the way so was the George Michael Concert but that’s another story. I felt outdated buying tickets, some of my co-workers even sniggered, but I didn’t care and I went anyways. I left the concert feeling young, why you ask? Well because I was fighting 40 something women in line to buy merchandise. Basically I me felt young because I realized that while at Bon Jovi’s height and for years afterward I was a TEENAGER. Who knew that my youthful feelings would be returned by being shoved out of the way by large breasted women fully clad in acid wash jeans, jean jackets and Bon Jovi concert shirts from 1980 something. Might I add there were plenty of people dressed this way and not just women, men too. It was awesome, honestly I almost felt 15 again...almost no big hair and no acid wash this time around.

So when I feel outdated and old, when I have conversations with people who vaguely remember life before dvd players, cell phones, the meaning of those immortal words “Luke, I am your father”, Sixteen Candles, the Breakfast Club and many many other things from my youth. I remember the Bon Jovi Concert and I know that I am not so outdated. Nor do I feel that I have to become an adult completely. I know that in ten years time I can attend a concert wearing an outfit from my youth and not look out of place just like those 40-somethings did at Bon Jovi. I gives me hope people. I makes me realize that I am not outdated or even old, as I feared because there are others, people from generations before, who are even older and more outdated than me. And that makes me smile. I have another 40 plus years before I truly feel old and outdated. You know, when I am eighty-something instead of thirty-something.

Food For Thought

Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional. ~Chili Davis