Saturday, September 5, 2009

How to Feel Old

In a bar conversation, I said that Obama needs to be "more LBJ", and a young lady who was part of the discussion said "what's an LBJ?'. She thought I meant something like a "PBJ', but with an "L" instead of peanut butter. Maybe "liverwurst".
It made me feel old.

3 comments:

Lockwood said...

Interesting point. I doubt if someone had said during the Carter administration (my late teens) that "he needs to be more like FDR," I would have known the reference. I certainly would have by the Clinton years.

I didn't "get" history until I was maybe mid twenties, and didn't really pay much attention to it until shrub came in. Developing interest in economics and history of science drove much of my learning about the subject. Then we had a president who knew less than I did. That was some powerful motivation to catch up.

Mauigirl said...

Scary, isn't it? One of the new assistant brand managers at my company (she's probably 25) didn't know who Bob Hope or Bing Crosy were either. How do people grow up with so little historical context?

Demeur said...

Sad to think that nobody's curious about our past or even current events. The twitter generation will be enthralled by reality shows like a cat with a lazer pointer. LBJ isn't that "laughing but jealous" in twitter talk?