How old am I

So I'm being a good teacher and preparing my lesson for tomorrow.  Part of it reminded me of this story from my childhood involving a winter jacket with zip-off sleeves.  Then I'm thinking about how these kids probably have never seen one of these jackets, maybe never even heard of them.  To them, the 80's are this crazy "retro" time when kids played hopscotch and ate Fiddle Faddle.  Okay, maybe not that, but it's when their parents were in high school and wore these things called "Swatches" and drove "DeLoreans" while wearing "leg-warmers". 

Some things these kids have no real-world knowledge of:

• The Soviet Union & Cold War
• TV's with antennas
• The Berlin Wall
• A president not named Bush or Clinton
• Car windows you roll down manually
• VCRs
• Cassette tapes
• A black Michael Jackson
• Floppy disks
• Cartoons on Saturday morning TV
• Sports stadiums without corporate names (Hey kids, lets all go down to Initech Field! God bless the Pistons for still playing at The Palace.)
• Computers with green or amber monitors
• NINTENDO for cryin out loud...
• New Coke
• Acid washed jeans
• Banana clips
• Perms
• Sticker collections

Yes, some of these things are back in an ironic way, but not in their beautiful God-fearin' original form.  Another scary thought... I'm old enough to be their mom.  I don't mean this in an If-I'd-gotten-knocked-up-in-high-school sort of way either.  They're 13-14.  I was 22 when they were born.

Blah & I were talking about the old days of the internet, as I mentioned here before.  It's amazing how much has changed in the 10 or so years I've been online.  I can't even fathom what our children will have and not believe we lived without.  

I'll be 35 in a few months.  It may as well be 65 the way I feel right now.  I'm old-lady Leavitt planning a lesson for these whippersnappers.  Excuse me while I get out my cane & shawl.