Question to all readers: If you look at my profile picture, how old would you guess I am? 18, 19, 20? What if I told that picture was taken in the year 2001! It was. I was a junior about to be a senior in high school. Would you believe that I’m about 8 weeks or so from turning 35? Yes, 35 years old. I don’t believe it myself, but here’s to genetics. 

Hey slow down! A middle-aged woman is walking here! So get off your electronic devices momentarily and let me walk on by without getting run over. I always say this on my way home from and to work. I live not too far away from two large schools: one high school and one grade school. Typically, if I’m driving home and have to sit at the light, it’ll drive me mad when kids today will have to cross the street. And when kids especially high school kids cross the street and they move very slowly. The light will be green and before each child is done crossing the street, the light turns red. Imagine my middle aged self after a long day after work: I’m tired, hungry, sleepy and now you’ve made me angry. Kids today have iPads, iPhones all of these technology that us older generations never had.

I could’ve used Siri’s help when it came to school especially writing numerous term papers in English class. Or math class. I was in a DMV a few years back, getting my license renewed and you could imagine my anger to see that the written test is now online and on a iPad. I told the lady at the DMV: “Back in the year 1999, I had to use a number two pencil and filled out a multiple choice paper test.” Must be nice! She said when I was your age the only calculator they had was a thing called an abacas. Then asked me if I knew what one was. Yes. I’m not that young. Truth be told, I’m an old soul. I love all things from 1990’s and further back. Myself would’ve love to see iconic events in person instead of watching them on the History Channel or YouTube such as: the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show, Neil Armstrong walking on the moon, Elvis live in concert, Woodstock and etc. If you saw any of these events in your lifetime, good for you. If you missed it like me, oh darn.

I love checking out vintage things. I listen to classic rock music such as Styx, Foreigner, Pink Floyd, Rolling Stones, Eagles, Bog Seger, David Bowie and more. Don’t ask me about today’s music. I don’t know who is who. I know who Beyoncé is. I know Taylor Swift. But others I don’t have a clue as too who they are. Same thing goes with TV shows. I grew up on Full House, Boy Meets World, Saved by the Bell, Roseanne, The Simpsons, Married with Children, The Golden Girls, Cheers, Night Court, Coach, Mr. Rogers, The Cosby Show, and Family Matters, That 70’s Show, Home Improvement and more. My parents may have followed Miami Vice, Dallas, Quantum Leap, Colombo, Murder She Wrote and more. If you were to asked me what my favorite show is now, I would say “nothing.” I’ve watched “Stranger Things” and seen others a little, but I’ll stick with my vintage shows. “House of Cards” is a good show to watch for us grownups.

During my childhood, I was addicted to family sitcoms. Shows like Full House, Roseanne, Home Improvement, The Cosby Show, Boy Meets World, Family Matters were all relative to me. I could relate to each of those shows. Number one, they are funny. Always. Number two, there were a lot of lessons and messages in their shows. When high school came, I was addicted to Married with Children (more during this time), That 70’s Show and Saved by the Bell. I did miss out the whole Friends show. Not that I don’t love Jennifer Aniston, but I didn’t follow that show.

So if you are older like me and born before 2000, then check this out:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/smart-living/100-photos-that-kids-born-after-the-20th-century-will-never-understand/ss-BBLT2Pa?li=BBnb7Kz

Remember these?

Man, I felt like the oldest woman alive as I perused through the slides. Anything before 1970’s and up, I don’t have memory of. But my dad remembered the color TV one from his own childhood. He said: “You were the coolest kid on the block if you had a color TV.” Oh yes, you are! One of my favorites is the 8 track tapes. My mother had a serious 8 track collection and that included Chicago, Three Dog Night, The Doobie Brothers, and a crap load of disco music. Think Bee Gees and the Fifth Dimension. I still have nightmares when I hear the song “Wedding Bell Blues.” I did mankind a favor by breaking my mother’s 8 track machine (by accident!) when I shoved one of my Hot Wheels cars in the slot and it got stuck and fell over. Goodbye, 8 track machine. It was nice knowing you.

In each of the family shows, I could easily picture myself in that family. If I was on Full House, I would either be Stephanie mixed with Uncle Jesse. Stephanie was a middle child (I’m the only one!) but she was a spitfire and was quite the smart mouth. That’s me in general. I’m obsessed with rock and roll so Uncle Jesse was my man. If I was on Home Improvement, I would’ve been Mark. Mark was the outsider of the family and I felt that way in school and in society. I would also be more like Al Borland as an adult with a mix of Tim Taylor. Al is the smart one and knows what he’s doing. Whereas Tim is somewhat knowledgeable, but is accident prone. I’ve had my share of Tim Taylor accidents throughout the course of my life. In Family Matters, I felt like Steve Urkel because I wore glasses and was a little weird as others would say about me.

It would be a dream to be Kelly Kapowski for a minute. Remember in Saved by the Bell, she was every guys fantasy and had two of the hottest guys follow her everywhere: Zach Morris and AC Slater. I was more like Screech Powers because I wasn’t the popular one. Everyone of these shows made me laugh until I couldn’t anymore and I miss these shows too much. One of my favorite shows now is the Big Bang Theory and imagine my frustration that it ends next year. There goes my usual Thursday night show, what else am I going to watch now? Reruns are fun for so long. The point being is that I lived vicariously through these characters and identified to a certain extent with these people. Watching shows and movies are like an escapism for me. They really clear out the clutter in my brain and I focus on the show. I can watch something and feel like I’m there with the characters.

Do you have a personal favorite old nostalgic show or film that relates to you? One that you have to see everyday.