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Location: Removing a snake out of the neighbor's washing machine
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I work with someone who is approximately 31 years old(I am fifty).
Occasionally I will bring up a topic(a song, a car, an event, etc.) that existed or occurred before she was born, but well after I was. IE, a song from when I was 16(1986).
Her typical reaction - to my mention of the song, or anything else before her birth year: "Why would you ask me about something that happened before I was born?"
This exchange happens about 1-2 times per week, sometimes when the music system where I work plays a song from 1979(when I was 9) or 1987(two years before her birth).
My question: Would you consider her response rude, or being critical of subjects older than her?
Location: Removing a snake out of the neighbor's washing machine
3,095 posts, read 2,046,862 times
Reputation: 2305
Quote:
Originally Posted by wit-nit
Some people like to live in the present not the past.
And as said above a possible generation thing.
I live for neither the present or past. I just live!
In that context, I do find such responses as "That was before my time" or "Why should I care about something that happened before I was born?" to be disrespectful, and more seriously, closed-minded. It implies that, in the case of my young colleague, the world did not exist before her birth, and therefore, she doesn't need to know about it. Another male colleague, born in 1981, isn't quite as blunt about it, but reacts with "That's before my time".
When I was only 18, or 27, and someone introduced me to a car, a building, or a piece of music or album that came out before my birth, I just nodded, "Ok", and later on tried listening to a radio station that played music from that era, etc. In many cases, I became a fan of it, in a few, I just forgot about it. Never did I shoot out "HOW old is that??" or, "I just care about stuff from now!"
Is it a Millennial perspective? Both of my co-workers: "Gary"(39) and "Amy"(31) were born in the 1980s.
Location: Removing a snake out of the neighbor's washing machine
3,095 posts, read 2,046,862 times
Reputation: 2305
Quote:
Originally Posted by PAhippo
But you seem to be trying to judge them by your interests. Some people
are just not into the past, especially if that's all someone talks about.
If you want to start a conversation with these people, find another topic.
It's not about their interests, or mine. It's about those co-worker's reaction to my mentioning of things that existed during that part of my life before they were born.
Location: Removing a snake out of the neighbor's washing machine
3,095 posts, read 2,046,862 times
Reputation: 2305
Quote:
Originally Posted by motormaker
Not rude at all. Are you doing it constantly
to antagonize her?????
No!
We work in the second hand industry, and quite often the following two things happen:
We get in an item that I remember from my childhood or teenage years, or, the store music system plays a classic hit from the '70s or '80s, which represent a fair thirty percent of what we hear there. The rest of songs are 1990s up until six months to date.
So I'll comment to "Amy" about the classic hit or the early '80s toy or appliance, and she'll reply, "I don't care, it's before I was born, I just want to price it and get it out in the sales floor"
Location: Removing a snake out of the neighbor's washing machine
3,095 posts, read 2,046,862 times
Reputation: 2305
Quote:
Originally Posted by PAhippo
or maybe she doesn't want to drive down your memory lane.
If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what
you've always gotten. You know how she's going to respond. Don't
initiate it.
The responses to my nostalgia are not unique to 'Amy'. She, and others her age or plus/minus five years, just happen to share a workplace with me.
I'd say I'm in the 75th percentile, age-wise, out of 32 people who work there.
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