"Old people" meme

[thistlechaser]

I usually hate memes and lists of questions to answer, but this one amused me. It was written "for the OLD PEOPLE on tumblr", and while I'm not a tumblr person, I spotted it on isiscolo's LJ, so I'm borrowing it.

1. How many jobs have you had, and which was your favorite?

Quite a few. My first job was as a floor person/cashier at a discount store named Cheap John's ("Where the prices are INNNNNNSANE!"). My favorite one was working at Alta Vista (the top search engine of its time, before Google existed).

2. When did you first connect to other people via computers?

1992, the year I graduated college. Graduating college? Pshaw, nothing special. Discovering I could talk to other fans and RPers from all over the world? Life changing.

3. Were/are you on AOL? Compuserve? LJ? Dreamwidth? A Listserv? Other?

All of them, including the net before AOL existed.

4. If you went to college, does your major match your career/current job?

No. Psych degree, and now a technical writer.

5. Have you had a mammogram? Colonoscopy?

Yes, no.

6. When did you get your first cell phone? What was it like? (Did it have a screen? Could you text? Was it a brick or flip?)

I don't remember the year. I've only ever had three cell phones, and I kept my original one for as long as I could, but the carriers stopped supporting it (it was analog). I described it as a brick. My second one was a flip phone. My third and current one is an iPhone and the first one I could text on or use as a camera.



7. When did your family first acquire a color TV?

I don't remember. My father was big on having the newest, bestest tech, so I'm sure we got it early on.

8. When did your family acquire a second TV?

I'm not sure about this one either. I know we did have two at some point, but it doesn't stand out in my memory.

9. Did you ever own “designer jeans”?

Yeah. "Everyone" wore them in school, so I tried to stuff my fat self into them as well.

10. Have you ever been to a disco?

Not exactly, though the roller skating rink I used to go to played disco music and had one of those disco balls.

11. How many places (towns, states, countries) have you lived in?

Hm. One country (US). Two states (NY and California). I think five towns (three in NY, two in California).

12. Have any of your contemporary friends died? (I.e., people more or less you age.)

Not people I personally knew.

13. Are your parents still living?

One is, the other isn't.

14. Do you have any gray hairs?

Yep! I love them so. I think gray hair is pretty, and by the looks of the hairs I have, it'll be glossy and bright silver.

15. Did you or your family own a Betamax?

No, my father tossed a coin and got VHS, so we got lucky I guess.

16. How did you spend New Year’s Eve 1999/2000?

At home online.

17. What’s the oldest article of clothing you still wear?

Ummm. Jogging pants I wear around at home maybe? But they're not very old. When summer comes, it'll likely be the shorts I wear around home, since they'll be a year old.

18. Do you eat your vegetables?

No. :(

19. Are the privileges of adulthood worth the responsibilities?

Though sometimes I'd like to go back to the "simpler" times of being a kid, I think being an adult is better. I can live my own life and make my own choices.

20. Do you feel like an adult?

Very rarely. Even doing things like my taxes or driving, I feel like I'm just muddling through and faking it.

21. Is youth wasted on the young?

I don't really like that question. The young need that time to grow up, find themselves, learn how to function in the world, etc. I suspect we'd enjoy all that time off when we were older (whole summers off!), but that's the way the world works -- young creatures of any species need that time to play and learn.

Comments

[hamsterwoman]

One weird side effect of these memes is that they're making me realize that people on LJ whom I think of as "about my age" are in many cases actually quite a bit older than I'd thought... Like, you're one of the "my age" people, but apparently actually 8 years older than me :)

Alta Vista, huh? I remember Alta Vista! It was my first window onto the 'net when I was first starting college :)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Online folks usually guess that I'm younger than I am, so it's probably me and not you. :)

And glad to hear that about AV! I worked in the spam defense group (we did web searches on things and deleted any spam results), so I always felt like I was helping to make the net better for everyone. Nowadays it's all automated, but it was a great job at the time.

[voidmagus.livejournal.com]

I have no idea how old anyone is. I too remember AltaVista. My first forays into the internet were around 1st grade, getting into BBSs. I remember in 3rd grade a friend getting AOL, and I wondered why the crap someone would limit their access to the crap AOL was limited to.

I was in college at the height of Napster, and subsequent fall, and rise of the Gnutella networks.

My first job was cook, later advanced to functioning latenight chef. Degree in CompSci, and employed in that field now.

For my limited time to adulthood, I would never trade any bit of it, no matter how horrible, for childhood. My childhood was like adulthood, but without freedom or respect.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Whenever I try to guess how old folks are, I find I'm always wrong. I had thought you were a lot older, but apparently I was off by decades. The net didn't become a thing people could use until late in my college years.

You're right about adulthood vs childhood. While there was so much less you had to do, there was even less freedom or choice.

[gonzostar.livejournal.com]

LOL. This is awesome. I'm wondering if I'm "old enough" to do it myself. Right on the border, I think. (I'm 34)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

People of all "adult" ages are doing it, so you should if you want too!

[postingwhore.livejournal.com]

I was going to do this, then saw the disco question...yeah, I think I'm still too young for this meme! XD

About what is the designer jeans question, anyway?

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

If you want to do it, do it! :)

Designer jeans like Jordache and a couple other brands. Old brand names.

[mousewings.livejournal.com]

My first phone was a flip phone. I used it until it died. I should donate it for the parts someday. It's type is now in a museum.