Talkin' 'bout my generation

Put be in coach, I'm good
    By Sarah Holley

Pop quiz:

1. Who was Molly Ringwald's crush in Sixteen Candles?

2. What's your favorite Atari game?

3. Name any three songs by Belinda Carlisle, Debbie Gibson, and Tiffany.

4. Give the names of the four Facts of Life girls and Bill Cosby's character's name on The Cosby Show.

5. Do you remember where you were when the Challenger went down?

Using the vast intellect I derived from my Intro Psych course, I will postulate that these questions were answered fairly easily by the majority of the senior class but were a bit of a struggle for the frosh. Why? The answer is simple: for the freshmen, most of this stuff was before their time (ouch, it hurt to say that!).

For the first time, I feel like there is a perceptible generation gap between my class and the freshman class. Were we this young when we were freshmen? It doesn't seem possible. I'm sure that seniors of the Class of '96 chuckled at our smiling, innocent faces as we rushed around joining every possible activity while playing the name game ("Oh, you're from California? Do you know my cousin from San Francisco?"), and stressed about things like Intro Chem and whether or not our fake IDs were good enough. But this year it feels like more than that.

Let's begin by looking at the logistics of the situation. Most of us seniors were born in 1976 or 1977. Most of the freshmen were born in 1980. That's an entirely different decade. Think about this: a person born in 1980 didn't even make it out of elementary school until the '90s. When we were 12, frosh were eight or nine. That means we babysat them!

If this just seems like a silly matter of numbers, then watch the reaction of any senior when a frosh tells them the year they were born. You will likely get a long pause, followed by a response of, "Man, I feel old!"

The fact of the matter is that we are old! We grew up in a different time than those only a few years behind us. While we missed Generation X (defined as "a group of people born between 1961 and 1972, typified by a college education, dissatisfaction with career opportunities, and pessimism"), we can definitely place ourselves with those who consider themselves "Children of the '80s." We were at the tail end of the generation that grew up with tight rolled jeans, breakdancing, and Family Ties. Freshmen missed all this. They grew up in a different age; their childhoods were colored more by early '90s events and culture than the events and culture of the '80s.

The other day, I heard someone say that the Safety Dance was going to be cancelled because the freshmen couldn't relate to the music. While this vicious rumor turned out to be completely unfounded and untrue, it made me stop and think. We have era-specific dances all the time. Who doesn't love to throw on their favorite bell-bottoms and butterfly- necked shirt and do their best Travolta imitation? I specifically remember going to a Bar Mitzvah party with a '50s theme. We girls sported our poodle skirts and patent leather shoes while the fellas strived to resemble to James Dean. It was cute and amusing, but the people having the most fun were the parents.

While most of us eighth-graders considered watching our parents swing to the tunes of their childhood one of the most horrifying events conceivable, I realize now the meaning of a party like that. The clothes were more than just costumes to those who had lived in that time. The music was more than something on oldies stations--there were memories attached to it. It was a part of their history, and that party contained elements that defined our parent's generation. So I have to wonder, what will the Safety Dance mean to the freshmen and to the classes coming in after them?

Up until now, I think it was safe to say that in the eyes of the world we seniors were still considered kids. We keep up with trends and follow the latest music. Our youth has been the great equalizer that has kept us seniors in the same demographic group as freshmen. But now we are old enough to have reached the point where we can comprise an actual "generation." We have a past, and we have memories. We can talk of our childhood and what we did "when we were kids."

Perhaps that is where I'm seeing the generation gap. The borders of a generation are defined by history. They are created when the collective cultural or social characteristics and attitudes of an age group are significantly different from those of the next. Maybe what I am seeing now is the invisible line that is forming between us, the children of the '80s, and those who have come after us, whose appellative designation will be determined when their generation's formation is complete.

So, I guess I'll just sit back in my hypercolor t-shirt, pop in my Bangles cassette tape, and let time tell what the next generation will be like.

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