Aug 20, 2008 8:06 am US/Central
In The Know: Old And Busted
(WCCO)
Each year, Beloit College in Wisconsin produces a list of cultural landmarks for the new class of freshmen. They're all points of reference in their young lives. Tonight, Don says, get ready to feel very, very old.
The incoming freshmen have always lived in a world in which tax returns could be filed on the Internet. There were always cell phones and caller ID.
These 18- and 19-year-olds always knew where they were in the world because GPS always existed in their lives. There was never a time when Nintendo Game Boy wasn't glued to their hands.
Karaoke, water in plastic bottles, Windows 3.0 and higher. But, they don't know that there was once a real typewriter with keys.
They never heard Roseanne Barr murder the national anthem. Pee-Wee Herman's "Playhouse" ceased to exist before they were born. Gasoline stations never had attendants who might wash your windows or check your oil and tires.
Watergate? Forget about it. One incoming freshman recognized, though, that was the apartment building where Monica Lewinsky lived.
On the poignant side, Harry Potter would be entering college with them. Yes, even boy wizards start to feel old.
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