Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Careful! Your Age Is Showing

It's funny the things that reveal someone's age. Favorite doll growing up: Chatty Cathy - you're 50's, Cabbage Patch - you're 30's, Strawberry Shortcake - I don't want to talk about it.
Television shows are the same way. Try to talk to someone in their 20's about Captain Kangaroo, Jackie Gleason, or Johnny Carson and you may notice they are texting the nursing home on their cell phone. Looney Tunes might be your favorite cartoon if you remember having only three channels and channel 17 on UHF. But if you grew up with 300 channels then you probably favor Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Tiny Toons. Do you remember being so excited about watching The Wizard Of Oz once a year (in pajamas, on the floor) or every day for a month courtesy of a VCR?
How about favorite shoes from school days. PF Flyers and Buster Brown? Or are you from the Keds and Nike generation? If it's Reefs....once again, I don't want to talk about it.
It is fun to look through catalogs with toys from way back when kids didn't wear seatbelts or bike helmets. But when they start filling up with toys from our children's childhood that's when nostalgia becomes irritation. Is anyone really pining for the good ol' days of the '80s? Not me............I got rid of those jackets with the big shoulder pads a long time ago. And today is just fine with me no matter what my birth certificate says.