Songs of Innocence: Cultural Memories that First-years Just Can't Remember

No matter how young you are, there's always someone else who will make you feel old--even if you're just 21 and a Harvard senior.

Adults got a jolt when Beloit College in Wisconsin released a "Class of 2003 Mindset List" last month, which named 43 news events and bits of popular culture that today's college first-years do not remember.

The Beloit list notes that first-years never saw Walter Cronkite say, "That's the way it is," have always known a woman on the Supreme Court, and have no idea what a "churchkey" is. (It's a type of can opener.)

"Today's 18-year-olds have had a narrow experience with popular culture," Beloit English professor Tom McBride told USA Today. "They can't be counted on to understand certain references that are second nature to us."

But baby boomers aren't the only ones who may start to feel that shock. Some members of Harvard's Class of 2003 were born as late as 1982, a full half-decade after the oldest seniors--who were born in 1977.

To seniors' chagrin, some events and images that shaped their childhoods are just history to first-years.

"I was just saying to a friend, 'Oh my God, you were born in 1981," says Roxanne D. Lanzot '99-'00. "You just don't get it."

Material Boys and Girls

The early '80s were a veritable cornucopia of classic kids' movies. In 1984 alone, studios released "Footloose," "Romancing the Stone," "Gremlins," "Ghostbusters" and "Sixteen Candles"--movies that most first-years don't remember in their full-screen glory.

"I watch it now and I realize how incredibly dated it is, but Molly Ringwald was the most chic, most fabulous teenager I'd ever seen," says Eliza W. Harrington '00 about "Sixteen Candles." "At that time being a teenager was just about as amazing as you could get."

The biggest movie of 1984 was "E.T.," the highest-grossing film of the 1980s and the fourth highest of all time. Many a senior at one time snuggled into bed along with a stuffed alien.

Jesse I. Needleman '00 remembers watching the cuddly extraterrestrial film over and over as a child.

"I had an illegal copy on videotape the year after it came out," he says.

Lanzot enjoyed the movie with more old-fashioned technology.

"I had E.T. records on vinyl," she says. "It was mostly instrumental music, but I would listen to my E.T. records all the time."

Early '80s music also left a mark. By the '90s, Michael Jackson was most famous as a punch line on "The Tonight Show," but back in 1983, "Thriller" was just plain cool.

"We did a gymnastics show to 'Thriller,'" Penelope A. Carter '00 says. "It was just us in black sweatpants, but we got to wear scary face paint and take turns jumping on the balance beam... We all felt very cutting-edge."

But Harrington was a Madonna fan. "Like a Virgin" was a hit in 1985, the same year the superstar singer married actor Sean Penn.

"I'd go over to my friends' houses and put on 'Like a Virgin' and wear outfits like that and dance around," she says. "Me and all my friends would wear leg warmers, gloves with no fingers and ponytails coming off the sides of our heads."

Tuning In

On January 28, 1986, schoolchildren across the country gathered around TV screens to watch the launch of the space shuttle Challenger, whose crew included a New Hampshire high school teacher, Christa McAuliffe.

The shuttle's flight lasted 73 seconds before it exploded, killing all on board and setting back the American space program.

"That was the single biggest news event that affected me and my family," says Dipti S. Kandlikar '00.

Kandlikar says the shock was even greater because of the attention surrounding McAuliffe's flight.

"It was civilians, and it was something you didn't expect," she says. "We were all happy and excited that this [flight] was happening."

Lanzot remembers watching the explosion live with her class.

"It crashed on television!" she says. "I didn't want to be an astronaut any more...[Before the explosion,] we would have to draw pictures of what life would be like on a space station--we stopped doing that."

Writers in their twenties have called the Challenger explosion the most significant news event of a generation. But for current college students, that memory may be fading fast. Even many seniors say they were too young to be genuinely moved by the tragedy.

"I don't think I knew enough to appreciate what had really happened," Dave E. Rosow '00 says.

Earlier news events, like the 1984 presidential election, seem to have disappeared from students' memory almost entirely. Few have memories of Ronald Reagan's landslide victory over Walter Mondale.

"I remember thinking I would vote for Reagan, but now of course I hate Ronald Reagan," Rosow says. "He was so much more telegenic than Walter Mondale.

The choice was simpler for Emily T. Kuo '97, now a student at Harvard Law School.

"I took Ronald Reagan's side because he liked jelly beans," Kuo says.

And when Rock Hudson was diagnosed with AIDS in 1985, catapulting the disease into the public imagination, seniors were not quite old enough to follow the story.

"I didn't understand at that point," George Y. Oliver '99-'02 says. "There were two acronyms, AIDS and ARC (AIDS-related complex)... I didn't really pay attention, though."

The 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles--when first-years were still sucking thumbs--was more memorable to most seniors.

"I had this really sweet blue polyester athletic bag with red handles that said 'Summer Olympics,'" Needleman remembers fondly.

In particular, seniors remember pixie-like gymnast Mary Lou Retton.

"She was on the cover of everything!" said Ben A. Lanson '00.

New Coke and Old Age

The youngest first-years can watch tapes of old movies or read history books about Ronald Reagan. But who among them knows what New Coke really tasted like?

"For a while that was all there was--there was no 'Classic Coke,'" Kuo says. "New Coke was bad. It was more like sugar water."

In 1985, Coca-Cola replaced its traditional cola with a sweeter, Pepsi-like alternative. Sales plummeted, and the product was yanked.

"At the pool I went to during the summer they had a soda machine, and all it had was New Coke," Needleman says. "I was forced to drink it, but not happily."

But other product innovations were more popular.

Few first-years were aware of Cabbage Patch Kids when they caused a frenzy in 1983, selling out right before Christmas Day.

"I went to the place where they make them in Georgia and got one just before they were mainstream," Harrington says.

And remember when personal computers were nothing more than a novelty?

"We had a Tandy from Radio Shack," Lanzot says. "You had to subscribe to the magazine and in the magazine they sent you code, and if you ran the code it would create pictures that would move. You'd leave the pictures on your screen all day long."

Seniors say they are startled to think that the students sitting next to them in lecture are so much younger.

"It is weird seeing people who look my sister's age," says Lanson, whose sister is a first-year in college. "There was a Dins show recently and a guy stood up and said, 'I was born in 1980.' He was roundly booed."

Talking to someone who doesn't share childhood memories can make even a college student feel old. But seniors, take heart from administrators: it's possible to grow older gracefully. Dean of Freshmen Elizabeth Studley Nathans says she didn't join in most of the signature moments of the '80s childhood.

"No to the films, except 'Gremlins' and 'Revenge of the Nerds,'" Nathans said in an e-mail message. "No to Cabbage Patch Kids, no to Atari but yes to TI-99 (which was the slightly more sophisticated version of Atari; you could program it, but it also had great games)."

Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68 is more philosophical. Our own cultural moments are shorter than we think, he says.

"Once you get past your own cultural generation, being out of touch by one generation or three doesn't matter much," Lewis said via e-mail. "It only matters when you get into a group with two different generations of students and suddenly realize that not only do you not get their jokes--that you are used to; they don't get each other's jokes, either."