OT: Old Guys will appreciate this

[verbs4us]

My group at work is mostly very smart 20-somethings, and one of them was working on a project in which she needed to use a metaphor so she polled the group: "Without looking it up, can you tell me who Roger Bannister is?" The answers: "I think he was the Hulk," "He's the new SalesForce guy who works on the 17th floor." "I have no clue." "Wasn't he Lindbergh's navigator?" "Was he a vice president, like under Nixon or something?" It was a nice way to end of Thursday.

[woodworker]

I'm sure that you will get many other examples, but mine for realizing I was old(er):

My question, holding up a magazine cover of Paul McCartney to the young receptionist several decades ago: Do you know who this is?

Receptionist: Yes, I think he's from that group, Wings.

My comment: Actually, he was in the Beatles.

Receptionist: I think I've heard of them.

[Matthew Strongin]

Moved this to the OT.

And that receptionist had to be pulling your leg.

[summilux]

And that receptionist had to be pulling your leg.

Yah, she probably knew both Beatles albums: the Blue one and the Red one.

[j44ke]

The current group of summer associates coming through my wife's law firm were born in 1994. Super smart but they have no idea about anything.

[ericpmoss]

That's an interesting point -- did *we* have any idea about anything when we were that age? I'd like to think so, but while I know I was sharper back then, I didn't even know what I didn't know, and didn't know I should care. I'm much more bitter now. ;)

[woodworker]

Moved this to the OT.

And that receptionist had to be pulling your leg.

I wish she had been. This was early 90's. She was around 20 years old. I'm guessing that she had heard of McCartney and Lennon and that Wings had made it onto her radar ...but recall that the Beatles broke up in 1970. That was whe before she was born.

I'm guessing that it's even worse now when pop culture flips at an even higher frequency.

[Bob Ross]

Just yesterday two young coworkers come into my office and say "Please help us settle an argument: Vinyl LP record albums...are they supposed to be stored horizontally or vertically?"

It's nice to be the go-to guy for something...

[Tom]

And then there's the inverse. I have absolutely no freaking idea who anybody is in pop culture these days. I mean, I know who Quinn Sullivan is because he's an 18 year old blues guitar prodigy that tours with an 80 year old headliner but that's it. Somebody says something about some name and I shrug indifferently.

[monadnocky]

An odd family heirloom - on my wife's side - is a framed picture of Ike and Mamie. I have no idea how it's become an heirloom, it's sort of a joke at this point, but the family has always had it prominently, proudly displayed somewhere. Somehow, I've managed to inherit the picture, so I've hung it up in the basement, in the bike workshop general area.

Everyone who has noticed it assumes it's a portrait of my grandparents. The only person who has correctly noticed? My plumber, who is in his 70's.

As for myself.... is Menudo still a thing with the kids?

[SteveP]

there is a backlog of stuff hiding in there, no doubt.

interesting to note how short was the tenure of the beatles in this day and age when mick jagger and a lot of that crew are still hitting it.

[monadnocky]

Just yesterday two young coworkers come into my office and say "Please help us settle an argument: Vinyl LP record albums...are they supposed to be stored horizontally or vertically?"

It's nice to be the go-to guy for something...

And the answer is?

[verbs4us]

[QUOTE=Bob Ross;861856]Just yesterday two young coworkers come into my office and say "Please help us settle an argument: Vinyl LP record albums...are they supposed to be stored horizontally or vertically?" QUOTE]

I think they're supposed to be transferred to flash memory to play on iTunes while surfing for cat videos and pictures of what friends ate for lunch.

[dgaddis]

When I was 30 (two years ago) I still felt like a kid who just got out of college. All of the jobs I'd worked up to that point I'd always been the youngest guy in the office.

Then we interviewed a college senior. He was a baby. He knew nothing. That was when I looked around and realized I was a grown ass man.

My wife and I were laughing the other day talking about how the kids these days don't know our struggles. We got our first home computer and the internet when I was in 6th grade. The internet was something you had to plan and carve out time to use. You had to get on it. Dial up 56k modem. Make sure no one else is going to need the phone. Downloading a song took 20 minutes. Videos, forget about it.

Now it's in my pocket and accessible at a moment's notice. I can download an entire album of songs in 30seconds while sitting at a stop light.

We are living in the future.

I'll admit I have no idea who Roger Bannister is.

[monadnocky]

I can download an entire album of songs in 30seconds while sitting at a stop light.

I remember in... 1996 maybe? Downloading DOOM over a 24k modem. It took about 2 hours for 2MB.

I'll admit I have no idea who Roger Bannister is.

He's the man who invented bannisters. You know, for something to hold on to going up and down the stairs. Before 1954, these actually did not exist. Caused many injuries.

[Bob Ross]

And the answer is?

Vertically. If you stack LPs horizontally the ones on the bottom of the pile can be damaged from the weight...or from trying to remove them from under all that weight.

[Scott G.]

DOOM ?, you young whippersnapper.

Real games are in ASCII

Star_Trek_text_game.png

[davids]

And then there's the inverse. I have absolutely no freaking idea who anybody is in pop culture these days. I mean, I know who Quinn Sullivan is because he's an 18 year old blues guitar prodigy that tours with an 80 year old headliner but that's it. Somebody says something about some name and I shrug indifferently.

This is absolutely true. My 24-year-old finally got me to watch/listen to Lemonade. That Beyonce is OK.

And I know I was the clueless young guy. My favorite self-incriminating moment (I was maybe 10) was reading an article about Babe Ruth where he was quoted saying, "shit". WTF? That word wasn't invented by some cool guy in the 6th grade at my school?

[nash]

Sort of an interesting thing but it just shows that people know what they grow up with right? For example someone born in 1994 not knowing about the Beatles. Well that sounds crazy at first because they were so huge but that was 30 years before they were born. So would someone born in 1954 know the big music or film acts from 1924? Pretty doubtful. Does pop culture really flip over faster than a few decades ago? I feel like pre war is pretty much forgotten while the baby boomers pop culture is somehow expected to be remembered forever as cannon. Pretty interesting I think.

I'm 35 and my thing is when young people don't know about the Simpson's or seinfeld!

[Hindmost]

"...Vinyl LP record albums...are they supposed to be stored horizontally or vertically?"...

Seriously?

LP storage was what used, wooden vegetable crates were intended for.