That Used to be My Line

Yesterday I was setting up for an Embassy Halloween event with a woman/girl who works in the Economic Section of the Embassy (I don't remember her name). Anyway, as we were setting up, the DJs were getting their system ready and playing some music in the interim. At one point she said to me "is that Alanis Morisette? Don't they have anything more current or at least more Halloween themed to play?" She's new to the Embassy so I told her that Alanis Morisette is about as current as these particular DJs get and at least it wasn't the sountrack to Grease. A few minutes later another song came on and I said, "see, like this for example, I'm pretty sure this is early Debbie Gibson." To which she replied, "Debbie who? Never heard of her, she must be before my time."


BEFORE MY TIME!!! I was stunned into silence, noteworthy in and of itself. My jaw hit the ground, well almost since my 6 months pregnant self got in the way. I couldn't believe it, I thought "when did I become so old that anything wasn't before my time?" Granted, Debbie Gibson was definitely a short-lived phenom (something she knows too having since reinvented herself as Deborah Gibson and shifted her focus to live theater) but, come on, in her heyday she was big, you remember, "Lost In Your Eyes", "Electric Blue, "Only In My Dreams" (I know some of you are humming these right now!).


I was reminded of when I worked in the US Senate and a colleague asked me what year I was born. When I told him 1976 he visibly paled and said "You mean, Nixon resigned before you were born? How old does that make me?" I realize now that this conversation took place almost a decade ago (that I graduated from college a decade ago, and HS, well, let's not even talk about that). So now I'm the one shocked, pale and having to accept the fact that at 31 I am apparently and officially...old? Or at least, I have been replaced by whatever comes after Generations X and Y. I suppose at this point my only recourse is to spend all of my time with Baby Boomers. (Speaking of which, who comes up with these generational monikers anyway? - Can I have that job?)