An Annual Exercise in Feeling Old
Beloit College has released its annual Mindset List that "looks at the cultural touchstones that have shaped the lives of today’s first-year students" and basically tries to orient the old folks who teach the kids to how "kids these days" think. College freshman this year were born in 1988.
Ah, 1988. I was a freshman in high school that year, leaving behind public school for a new start with fresh batch of classmates at Catholic high school. I didn't get to "walk" at the graduation ceremony from Junior High School because I was a 7th grader. Actually, I think they would have probably let me walk with the 8th graders, but I didn't know or like many of them, I was awkward, and I wanted to play with the band for the ceremony instead.
I don't remember too many other specifics about 1988 really. It's not that I don't remember junior high, just that I can't think of anything truly momentous that happened other than leaving it. No first kiss, no first job, these things came later. Things start to come into better focus well into my freshman year of high school which would bring us into 1989.
I don't believe I had ever used a computer at that point. My dad was sort of an early-adopter, but I don't remember what year he got a PC, and even then it was DOS prompt and didn't have a GUI, so I wasn't interested. It was probably a pretty expensive little toy, too, so I'm not certain he would have let me play with it. Although I do have a memory of playing Oregon Trail. . .
I know home computers existed because Steve started college in 1986 and he was a computer science major.
Speaking of Steve and feeling old, imagine my shock when I recently found out that Sesame Street was starting its 37th season this year. Sesame Street has been around FOREVER. And yet, somehow, Steve pre-dates Sesame Street. . . Harsh.