Friday, June 11, 2004

Seriously, I'm not that old

While working this week, I was struck with a frightening realization. I was thinking about Ronald Reagan and how he was the President when I was born. Then I realized that I was surrounded by a lot of people who have only experienced the presidencies of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush and they probably don't remember the election(s) of Bill Clinton. A few were born at the tail end of Reagan's final term, and a few were born during George Bush's presidency, but it seemed like most of them had only ever known Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. I'm soooooooooooooooooo old. Not really, but it seems like it.

I imagine that if I had started talking about my time in elementary school to them it would have gone something like this:

Me: "I remember back when George Bush was president...."
Young Child: "Well, yeah, he's president now."
Me: "No, the other one."
Young Child: "Who?"
Me: George W. Bush's father was the 41st president of the United States, in office from January 20, 1989 to January 20, 1993.
Young Child: Oh, I wasn't born till 1993, I don't remember him.
Me: Don't you people study history or anything anymore?