Regular readers of the Poppy page know of my affection for “The Andy Griffith Show” and I’d like to add I am no longer surprised that I am You-don’t-know-who-Aunt-Bee-is? old. However, I was not prepared to find out that I’m now You-don’t-know-who-Eddie-Murphy-is? old. True story.
Standing near a middle school student who used a punch line from Eddie Murphy Raw that had apparently been repurposed on TikTok—I had to explain to the group who said it first and when. They had no idea he was famous as a stand-up comedian before he was “that guy in The Nutty Professor.” Of course we Gen-Xers thought Raw was the height of cultural humor at the time, but thus endeth the lesson because there was no way in the world I was going to explain to a Gen-Z or an Alpha what Eddie was talking about when he said it in 1987. He’d have been in Facebook jail for eternity, or at least a neck brace if he did that show today.
Similary, I had an I-was-today-years-old moment recently when I heard a young person start a sentence with “In the late 1900s…” I’ll wait while you process that too. I think the rest of the sentence was something about how long it must have taken to e-mail videos to each other.
These, naturally, got me thinking about all the attendant comparisons to be made. Youth and maturity both have their advantages and drawbacks but let’s just say I think Marty McFly must have lost his mind when he time traveled back to 1984 and then freaked out and spent a lot of time and energy to get back to 2023. While I don’t miss the worrying-about-nuclear-war-with-the-Russians 80s, I can’t say I’m enjoying the worrying-about-nuclear-war-with-the-Russians in 2023 either. Still, who needs global peace when you can dance like a “Thriller” zombie and wear shoulder pads that make you look like a fashionable linebacker?
Plus, I would definitely stick around long enough in the 80s to invest a few bucks in Apple, and pre-plan exactly when to move my stock options from Blockbuster to RedBox to Netflix. I would also be at the airport—resume in hand—when Elon Musk immigrated.
This millennium does have its perks but we can, perhaps, all agree that adulting in any decade is not as much fun. I love having 10,000 songs on my phone rather than 10 songs on a CD but I still spend most of my time listening to podcasts about finance and Bible history. Those are great, but probably don’t qualify as “fun”. I can order shoes from the other side of the world and they show up at my front door in 48 hours but it’s probably been 45 years since anyone got excited for me and said, “Wow, I bet you can run really fast in those!”
I remember playing video games in mall arcades, enjoying my friends (in person) and eating junk food. Today, I’d be hunkered in my bonus room, playing alone, talking to strangers in the game on a headset. And yet, the down side was having to continue shoving quarters into the machine because Pac-Man only gave us one extra life at 10,000 points and then never again for infinity. There were no ‘health’ items to eat to make the game last longer. Score one for 2023 I guess.
One thing I’m happy about in my 50s is that my generation adapted to the Information Age and enjoyed the new conveniences as we aged. We are tech-savvy without being tech dependent, which is a great thing. What this means is that I don’t spend my time taking selfies with my new shoes—which don’t make me run faster—for likes. However, I do spend a lot of time Googling whether the new pain in my chest is a torn muscle, allergies, reflux, or if my heart is going to explode before lunch. Okay, that’s a weird trade-off, but I am none the less really good at it.
So, to all the young people out there dreaming of the day you can pay your own rent, complain about taxes, and buy your own ticket to whatever you want—just remember, adulting is a rollercoaster of joys and pains. But hey, you get to eat ice cream for breakfast, literally, whenever you want.
Better yet, even the inimitable Sheriff Taylor himself couldn’t make you eat another vegetable if you don’t want to. Totally worth it.