I overheard the following conversation while walking on a boardwalk yesterday. It was 90 degrees and I was at the beach. How glorious!
And yes, this is my little guy at the beach, throwing rocks into the water!
Female 1: Did you know Kelly Clarkson says 'Cool beans'?
Female 2: Really? Weird!
1: Yeah, in an interview with the judges she said it! Maybe that's why you say it. Y'know, cuz she was on American Idol when we were little.
2: [sarcastically] Yeah, we were little.
1: No, really! She was on in 2002. We were in second grade!
2: Oh my gosh, I feel so old!
[Ahem. Allow me to mention here that I got married in 2002. Who feels old??]
And then in church today, one of the teen guys from our youth group saw me come in:
Him: "Wow, You look...smaller."
Me: "Smaller?"
Him: "Yeah, a lot smaller."
Me: "You mean like I shrunk or something??"
Him: "Yeah. I mean...um....I don't know. I haven't seen you in a long time I guess...."
At which point, he basically ran away. Um, okay. Thanks?
2 confessions & pardons:
"smaller" in youth-to-adult-speak means "you've lost some weight, but I'm a kid so I'm not supposed to notice those things, oops, I forgot to not notice!"
I once had a teenage boy say exactly the opposite to me. When I found out I was pregnant with Kara, the oldest of the Duvall boys (then age 15) looked at me as if he'd really given this some thought and announced "You're gonna get fat."
um, yeah, thanks.
That is hilarious!! Regarding your first story, I think about things in pop culture contexts all the time. The other day, I played "One" by U2 for our middle schoolers and they, of course, had never heard it (and possibly not heard OF the band). I didn't expect them to be familiar, but still. When I watch Back to the Future, I always remember it came out when I was 9, 'cause MJFox says, "I need to get back to the year 19 EIGHTY-FIVE!!" - and that explains why a lot of youngins' have no idea what that movie is.
I also always think about how old the kids are based on their year of birth and when I graduated from high school. The other day, I thought, "So & so was born in '95, and I was a freshman in college." Then I feel old.
Students today have grown up with reality tv, e-mail, and cell phones - all things I didn't experience till my 20s.
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