The first of many senior moments:
Self, for it is he: Yes, lots of cultural references get lost in class. For example when I talk about Nixon, to a good chunk of the class it’s as much history as if I were talking of Ulysses S. Grant.
Youthful colleague: I wasn’t born yet at the time of the Nixon administration.
Self: Might as well shoot me now.
Youthful colleague (twisting the knife): I wasn’t even born in the Ford administration.
Obligatory link to David Bowie, Young Americans.
Incidentally, am I wrong to read significance into the shift from Young Americans to I’m Afraid of Americans?
Pingback: Ed Bott - Windows (and Office) Expertise
My senior moment occurred at the age of 30. Teaching a class at the University of Florida, I was commenting on how we can recall exactly what we were doing when certain events happened.
“I’m sure you can all tell me what you were doing when JFK was assasinated,” I said.
Blank stares and silence.
Voice from the back: “I was four years old at the time.”
Ouch!
I recently had a junior moment:
A colleague of mine mentioned how long he had been at the company. Another collegue stated that he was barely alive at that time. I then muttered that I wasn’t even born yet. The guy sitting next to me started laughing, and made me repeat it. Out loud. Not such a good thing.
This post is the most depressing thing I’ve read all day. And I’ve read some pretty depressing things. Add to that the fact that this year’s 1L class will have a large number of students who were born after my freshman year of college, and I now feel really old. Thanks.
—–
David Bowie great artist and very good lyrics, Young Americans is probably the best pop song ever written http://lyricsmusic.name/david-bowie-lyrics/-/young-americans.html