In honor of my 34th birthday, I thought I do a pseudo-meme in the spirit of those reports about what this year’s freshman class knows about/has experienced. Just because it’s interesing how much the world has changed in my lifetime.

Politcs/World Events: There have been seven presidents since I was born (though Nixon resigned when I was 2). I’ve voted in four presidential elections, but there has only been two presidents since I started voting.

I remember the Challenger explosion (I was at school); when AIDS was a big deal in this country; when the Berlin wall came down; Tiananmen Square; the day the first Gulf War started (I was in my dorm room at college); the Iran hostage crisis (third grade); and when the next big war was supposed to be with the Soviet Union (though, prophetically, I said in a high school government class that the next war would be in the Middle East; everyone laughed).

Life: I learned to skate on rollerskates with metal wheels. My first bicycle had a banana seat. I learned to drive on a stick shift. I slept on a waveless waterbed. I played outside for hours with the neighborhood kids without parental supervision. I learned to twirl a baton because it was the “in” thing.

Fashion: I have worn at any one time: bell bottoms, short shorts, culottes, knickers, wooden clogs, leggings with oversized sweatshirts, miniskirts, torn and pegged jeans, banana clips, big hoop earrings, shoulder pads and probably many other fashion trends I can’t think of right now. I have had a Dorothy Hamill bob, big permed hair, and feathered bangs. I have bleached my hair (but only on accident).

Music: I have listened to LPs, 8-tracks, tapes, and CDS, but not MP3s (yet). The first tape I bought was Lionel Ritchie’s “Can’t Slow Down”. My musical tastes evolved from John Denver/Neil Diamond to Prince/Michael Jackson to Rush/Boston to Sting/REM to Dixie Chicks/Sheryl Crow. My first concert was Barry Manilow. The last concert I went to was the Flatlanders. Or maybe Shawn Colvin.

TV: I remember watching the final episode of MASH. I watched (with my family) The Love Boat, the A-Team, Magnum P.I., Simon and Simon, and The Cosby Show. I mourned the cancellation of Misfits of Science. SNL was Dana Carvey, Dennis Miller, and Mike Meyers, not Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi. I remember life before remote controls, the day we got our first VCR, and watching TV in black and white (though that was probably because my parents held off buying a color TV, and not because there weren’t any).

Movies: The first movie I have a vivid memory of is Raiders of the Lost Ark. I was devastated the year ET lost the Oscar to Gandhi. I remember when going to a movie only cost a couple of dollars. I thought Xanadu, The Last Starfighter and War Games were just the best movies EVER. (But that has more to do with personal taste than my age.) I had a crush on Michael J. Fox for years.

Computers/Games: I learned code on a Commodore 64 (on a green and black screen). I remember: when Bill Gates was a struggling computer guy and Windows was just a copy of the Apple method; when modems were outside a computer and talking on a BBS was a novelty; when you had to go to an arcade to play video games; Pong, Pac Man (and Ms. Pac Man) and Tetris. I was really good at Tetris.

There’s probably a lot I’ve forgotten. Still, it’s been kind of fun to rememeber my almost 3 1/2 decades.