End of Youth/BOY I'm glad I'm not a teenager!!
There are about a MILLION reasons that I'm glad I'm a grownup now.
Today's teenagers have it way hard. (although the clothes ARE cuter now...hmm)
Wait! no. I'm still glad I'm a forty year old. Life seems extremely stressful for kids these days.
For instance ... college admittance.
Shit, back in the day, all you needed was an SAT score and a pulse to get into a state school. From what I hear now ... it ain't so easy. And it was reasonably priced back then. Can you imagine paying $87 dollars per month for rent, or $470 per term for tuition? I thought not. Although, to be fair, 87 big ones got you a room in a haunted flea infested house with linoleum floors throughout, dirt tunnels in the basement leading GOD KNOWS WHERE, temporary walls constructed of sheetrock and random holes allowing baby kittens to come in and out at will.
Still! party! Twenty hours a week in the M and F handbag section and I was sorted for rent, noodle and cheese money, Egg food and the occasional beer!
In addition, when I left the Virginia -Tutu house behind (so named for the 138 year old woman who owned it and her horrible dog) and finally found the right school, it turns out you DIDN'T EVEN HAVE TO TAKE MATH TO GET A B-A DEGREE!! you got to choose between math and a language. Say what you will about the University of Oregon, it HONORED people like me. go DUCKS!
I think the requirements are a bit stiffer now.
But I got to take classes such as the following:
Shakespeare until it was coming out my ears.
Novels classes. From every conceivable time period - British and American. Novels you would read for pleasure anyway. Sure, writing the papers sucked. But still. Rock the fuck on.
Chaucer - the big English major requirement. The textbook and class was in Olde English. That went over well.
Dylan and Others. The late Dr. Strange taught this class. We studied the lyrics of Woody and Arlo Guthrie, Robert Johnson, Jim Morrison and of course BOB DYLAN. The best part of this class was studying frantically for the final with my friend Laila. It turns out she lived in a home once owned by Ken Kesey and had found an old phone book of Kesey's tucked away somewhere(I KNOW! what are the odds?) with guess who's number in it? yes. the big B's. We debated. Should we call him? So Bob ... tell us - what the hell are you talking about? We decided against it. But I wrote in my final about that and made the prof so happy he gave me extra credit. Laila did NOT turn the book over, so missed out.
I also got to take a folklore class that allowed me to interview my grandmother about her life and art for my term project. Another folklore class was dedicated to the study of urban myths. It was like going to camp.
Now, that was back in the late '80's. I can't call these Mickey Mouse classes, exactly, because they were challenging. And it DID suck to have to write my papers on a manual typewriter.
But if I were in college now, I don't know if I'd feel free to choose the meandering path through me education that I did then. First of all, it costs so much now, I would have hated to ask the rents to pay for a fifth year, like I ended up doing back then. Also, it's possible that I might be convinced now that English Literature isn't the most lucrative major to choose. I might have bowed down to the man and taken computer, economics and marketing classes rather than acting and dance. Because the pressure on the kids today to get out and get a good job and not spend time finding themselves seems to be a lot stronger now than I remember it being.
I don't think I could handle it.
So why am I talking about this today? Well. It's a milestone ... the 25th anniversary of MTV, which really, when I think about it, provided the soundtrack of my youth. I was either watching MTV or was listening to some record album that I had bought because I saw the artists on MTV.
Here's one writer's take on the changes wrought over at Music Television.
He says it much better than I could. Also, for that article, please note. He actually had to watch MTV. I can't afford full cable so I don't even get MTV, but it sounds like I'm not missing anything I want to see. Don't get me wrong. I watched every episode of the Real World up til the Hawaii season. But everything else. yuck.
In 1982, however -- It was the SHIT. The first time I saw MTV, I was with Nicole at a weekend babysitting gig she had. The house had cable and we sat there and watched videos ALL WEEKEND LONG.
The only other thing I remember is that house had a bright red heart shaped bathtub built for two.
Anyway so we finally got cable in my neighborhood the following summer and I ended up spending many a happy night up til five, usually accompanied by my brother and at least one of my girlfriends waiting... waiting ... waiting through endless Asia and Ratt videos for the elusive Adam and the Ants (me) Duran Duran (Cindy) or Bow Wow Wow (my bro) video. Ah. Good times.
In other areas ... I never would have been able to cultivate my addiction to tobacco if I were a kid today. No ... back in the day, you could buy clove cigarettes at the mall's tobacco shop and even at the 7-11 with nary a carding.
Plus, there weren't all those rules about having an adult in the car if you were a teenaged driver.
Random thought: I wonder what I'll reminisce about when I'm 80.
If you are a parent and are reading this, be nice to your kids. They have it much harder than we ever did.
(although a cell phone when i was 17 would have REALLY come in handy.)
xoxo love! kisses!
Today's teenagers have it way hard. (although the clothes ARE cuter now...hmm)
Wait! no. I'm still glad I'm a forty year old. Life seems extremely stressful for kids these days.
For instance ... college admittance.
Shit, back in the day, all you needed was an SAT score and a pulse to get into a state school. From what I hear now ... it ain't so easy. And it was reasonably priced back then. Can you imagine paying $87 dollars per month for rent, or $470 per term for tuition? I thought not. Although, to be fair, 87 big ones got you a room in a haunted flea infested house with linoleum floors throughout, dirt tunnels in the basement leading GOD KNOWS WHERE, temporary walls constructed of sheetrock and random holes allowing baby kittens to come in and out at will.
Still! party! Twenty hours a week in the M and F handbag section and I was sorted for rent, noodle and cheese money, Egg food and the occasional beer!
In addition, when I left the Virginia -Tutu house behind (so named for the 138 year old woman who owned it and her horrible dog) and finally found the right school, it turns out you DIDN'T EVEN HAVE TO TAKE MATH TO GET A B-A DEGREE!! you got to choose between math and a language. Say what you will about the University of Oregon, it HONORED people like me. go DUCKS!
I think the requirements are a bit stiffer now.
But I got to take classes such as the following:
Shakespeare until it was coming out my ears.
Novels classes. From every conceivable time period - British and American. Novels you would read for pleasure anyway. Sure, writing the papers sucked. But still. Rock the fuck on.
Chaucer - the big English major requirement. The textbook and class was in Olde English. That went over well.
Dylan and Others. The late Dr. Strange taught this class. We studied the lyrics of Woody and Arlo Guthrie, Robert Johnson, Jim Morrison and of course BOB DYLAN. The best part of this class was studying frantically for the final with my friend Laila. It turns out she lived in a home once owned by Ken Kesey and had found an old phone book of Kesey's tucked away somewhere(I KNOW! what are the odds?) with guess who's number in it? yes. the big B's. We debated. Should we call him? So Bob ... tell us - what the hell are you talking about? We decided against it. But I wrote in my final about that and made the prof so happy he gave me extra credit. Laila did NOT turn the book over, so missed out.
I also got to take a folklore class that allowed me to interview my grandmother about her life and art for my term project. Another folklore class was dedicated to the study of urban myths. It was like going to camp.
Now, that was back in the late '80's. I can't call these Mickey Mouse classes, exactly, because they were challenging. And it DID suck to have to write my papers on a manual typewriter.
But if I were in college now, I don't know if I'd feel free to choose the meandering path through me education that I did then. First of all, it costs so much now, I would have hated to ask the rents to pay for a fifth year, like I ended up doing back then. Also, it's possible that I might be convinced now that English Literature isn't the most lucrative major to choose. I might have bowed down to the man and taken computer, economics and marketing classes rather than acting and dance. Because the pressure on the kids today to get out and get a good job and not spend time finding themselves seems to be a lot stronger now than I remember it being.
I don't think I could handle it.
So why am I talking about this today? Well. It's a milestone ... the 25th anniversary of MTV, which really, when I think about it, provided the soundtrack of my youth. I was either watching MTV or was listening to some record album that I had bought because I saw the artists on MTV.
Here's one writer's take on the changes wrought over at Music Television.
He says it much better than I could. Also, for that article, please note. He actually had to watch MTV. I can't afford full cable so I don't even get MTV, but it sounds like I'm not missing anything I want to see. Don't get me wrong. I watched every episode of the Real World up til the Hawaii season. But everything else. yuck.
In 1982, however -- It was the SHIT. The first time I saw MTV, I was with Nicole at a weekend babysitting gig she had. The house had cable and we sat there and watched videos ALL WEEKEND LONG.
The only other thing I remember is that house had a bright red heart shaped bathtub built for two.
Anyway so we finally got cable in my neighborhood the following summer and I ended up spending many a happy night up til five, usually accompanied by my brother and at least one of my girlfriends waiting... waiting ... waiting through endless Asia and Ratt videos for the elusive Adam and the Ants (me) Duran Duran (Cindy) or Bow Wow Wow (my bro) video. Ah. Good times.
In other areas ... I never would have been able to cultivate my addiction to tobacco if I were a kid today. No ... back in the day, you could buy clove cigarettes at the mall's tobacco shop and even at the 7-11 with nary a carding.
Plus, there weren't all those rules about having an adult in the car if you were a teenaged driver.
Random thought: I wonder what I'll reminisce about when I'm 80.
If you are a parent and are reading this, be nice to your kids. They have it much harder than we ever did.
(although a cell phone when i was 17 would have REALLY come in handy.)
xoxo love! kisses!
posted by Queen of Cheese | 7:23 AM
2 Comments:
ahh, yes...early MTV. i remember it well. now, all they show are hideous, wealthy teenagers planning their obnoxious, blowout sweet 16 birthday parties.
it's not pretty.
and i'm with you -- i would not want to be a kid today. but i suppose every generation says that. or do they?
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