The songs (i.e., music videos) that I post in this blog are familiar to me, obviously. I was 20 years old when 10cc's "The Things We Do for Love" came out in 1977. Today it hit me: What do young people think of these songs? Consider one of my students: a 21-year-old. He or she wasn't even born when that song came out, and may never have heard it. When I was 21 (in 1978), a 33-year-old song would have been made in 1945. There is no way in hell I would have listened to such a song! I would have considered it my parents' or grandparents' music. Things like this make me feel old.
Addendum: It gets worse. Ronald Reagan left office before today's 21-year-olds were born. He means to them what Dwight Eisenhower means to me. All my knowledge of Eisenhower (which is limited) comes from things I have read about him, for I was only three when he left office. I have always thought of Eisenhower as part of ancient history, alongside Coolidge, Hoover, and FDR. Is this how young people think of Reagan, the man who so shaped my consciousness?
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 