2008 happens to be the 20th anniversary of the year I graduated from high school and moved from my parents’ home in London, Ontario to Ottawa. Twenty years since high school – ouch!
There was a fun article in the Ottawa Citizen last week that I would link to here if only I could find it online using their inefficient and rather annoying search engine. It listed a series of pop culture anniversaries that will be celebrated this year, many of which I’m sure will make you scratch your head and say, as I did, “Holy crap I’m getting old!”
For example, did you know it’s already been ten years since:
- the FINAL episode of Seinfeld (it seems more like it should be ten years since the debut!)
- the debut of Dawson’s Creek (I used to love watching this before we headed out to the Clocktower for pints on a Friday night.)
- the debut of Sex in the City, of which I have only ever watched maybe two episodes.
- the release of Brittney Spears’ first single, Baby One More Time.
In addition to my graduation from high school and life-alterning move across the province, it’s been twenty years since:
- the debut of Roseanne.
- the release of Bobby McFerrin’s Don’t Worry Be Happy AND Public Enemy’s It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (somehow, they’re better juxtaposed)
And, not from the article and not a nice round number, but because I got it on DVD for Christmas to replace my almost worn through copy, can you believe it’s been 21 years since the 1987 release of The Princess Bride? I just watched it again last weekend, and it’s as good as it’s ever been. I even considered Westley as a middle name for the baby!
It’s been 25 years since I started high school in 1983, in addition to:
- the finale of M*A*S*H (always a favourite show in my house when I was growing up. I have fond memories of watching M*A*S*H and Barney Miller with my dad, and imagine they had a lot to do with the strong cheeky and ironic streak in my own sense of humour.)
- the theatrical release of Flashdance and Risky Business. C’mon, admit it, you either owned a torn sweatshirt that sat canted off one shoulder, or a pair of RayBans.
- we were stunned by the revelation that Darth Vader was Luke’s father in The Empire Strikes Back. (This wasn’t in the article either, but significant enough in my own childhood to make its exclusion from the article seem like a heinous oversight.)
It’s been 30 years since:
- the release of Grease and National Lampoon’s Animal House (I didn’t actually see Grease until VCRs appeared on the scene in the early 80s, but I had a photonovel that I wore to dog-ears, and my next door neighbour had the soundtrack. We spent endless summer vacation days alternating between playing Grease and the Partridge Family that summer of 1978!)
- the debut of Dallas and – the one that inspired me to blog this article in the first place – the debut of Mork and Mindy. 30 years of Robin Williams… I’ll let you make your own editorial observations on that one!
Holy crap, I’m old.
Just a little reminder that if you haven’t already done so, you can vote for me (and a whole raft of deserving others!) in the Best Family Blog category of the Canadian Blog Awards. You can only vote once per round, and voting for round one ends January 21. C’mon, you want to keep me in this so I can continue to pester you to vote for me in the finals, right?
Time sure goes too fast now, doesn’t it? I remember when 1080 seemed SO far away as my two friends and I perched ourselves on the picnic tables in the Junior High school yard contemplating the future! Love your post and visit often! I went and voted for you too! Have a wonderful day!
I would consider naming a second son Desmond, just because I like the character so much on Lost.
I had the Grease photonovel too!! My mom took me and my friends to the movie for my 10th birthday. I recall one of my friend’s mothers would let her go as she didn’t think it was appropriate. At the time I couldn’t understand what the problem was. Needless to say most of the theme of the movie went completely over my head, and years later I couldn’t believe MY mother took me to see it!
Sin – I totally have a crush on Desmond!!
D – Thanks for depressing the hell out of me, since I graduated just about then – and I think helped you move!!!! Those were some times, weren’t they! I remember joking about the year 2000 as some abstract concept and laughing about how really old we would be, wondering how many kids we’d have by then, which brand of flying car we would drive, and which planet we would headed to for vacation….
Excuse me while I reminisce about Jennifer Beals and her oh so perfectly ripped sweatshirt……
I was just thinking the same thing – how old I get and thinking about writing about this worldwide shared subject on my blog also… You know why ? Yesterday, at my local sushi restaurant, while I was waiting for my order, I “read” Cosmogirl. There was an article about “the sexiest man of your birth year” and the latest year mentioned was 1979.
I was born in 1978… yes, the year Grease was released (I didn’t know that) and yeah, you’ll think I am young. But I am turning thirty in exactly 1 month and three days. But I am still young – and we are all young in our minds, aren’t we ? 🙂
But I did not want to write about this in my comment. No, I just wanted to share the thought that globalization IS what’s actually very old. I am French (from France I mean) and I know more than half of the movies/TV shows you mentioned (and of course Britney and Bobby MacFerrin).
I love, love, love The Princess Bride!!
Me? I’m very old. My husband and I started dating in high school and one of our dates that first year was to see the original Star Wars. The balcony of the theatre was a smoking section. Inconceivable. Really.
28 years since “Luke, I am your father.”
25 years since “Sister? I have a sister?”
(can you tell I was a total and complete dork?)
I graduated in 1987. My 20-year reunion was this past summer. Innnteresting. Verrrry Interesting……
That even makes ME feel old! Reminds me of a radio phone-in I listened to a couple of years ago, where teenagers were talking about their favourite old tv shows. Most of them said their favourite old show was Friends…and I was sitting there thinking “Hmmm, yeah, I probably would have said Three’s Company (a favourite from ages 3 to 5. I called it “Jack”). What are those stupid kids talking about, Friends is a brand new show!”
Anyway, we miss you!!!
You’re old? Honey, come talk to me. I’m a year away from my 25th high school reunion.
Okay this one isn’t pop culture but some Gen Xers might be affected. A maternity ward in a Montreal hospital hasn’t been renovated since 1958. Yes, 50 years ago. See:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2008/01/18/qc-sacrecoeurmatward0118.html? I am so glad you’ll be at the Montfort, any day now, eh?
Thanks for the aging memories. I was raised on MASH and Barney Miller too. Throw in WKRP, and you’ll know every joke I’ve ever told.