Most 30-something people feel like they are straddling the line between old age and youthfulness. I’m talking more or less about experiences as opposed to physical attributes or signs of aging.
I could speak in front of a group of 12 year olds and share childhood experiences that would make their eyes glaze over. Perhaps I could talk about the days when I used to cut out hockey cards from a box of Kraft Dinner(tm) Macroni and Cheese. Hockey cards? What are those? Or maybe I could tell them about the rotary telephone we used to have. How about using a computer with IBM OS/2, MS-DOS, and Windows 3.1?
I’m sure the kids would be thoroughly impressed that a dinosaur had been trained to speak fluent English. Let’s face it, when I was a kid the world was different. Osama Bin Laden and Iraq were among America’s allies. Pierre Trudeau was Canada’s Prime Minister. I had a Gordie Howe hockey card. The Cold War was still afloat. Eventually, the Gulf War happened. Jerry Garcia died. Canada had its first and only female Prime Minister (who lasted a few months, I might add).
And now, as life marches on, my kid is starting to eat things other than milk and my nephew is in University!
That said, it wouldn’t take long for my “old guy” facade to be burst. All I would have to do would be to find some 60+ year olds. After all, I didn’t even reach the “age of majority” until the late 1990′s. I totally missed the 1970′s. I’d have to rewind a long time to reach JFK’s tragic assassination. Bertrand Russell was in the grave for a solid decade before my pimply face came along. And World War II? That’s almost ancient history.
I’m not a spring chicken. In the grand scheme of things, I’m the son of an egg of a spring chicken. So it would seem that “oldness” is quite relative, especially when you are 30-something or 40-something. And I suppose I will spend the rest of my 30′s feeling squeezed between being an “old guy” and a “young guy”. In the mean time, do you want to come over to play some bocce ball?