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Made to feel very old.

(69 Posts)
Usedtobeblonde Sat 08-Nov-25 23:12:56

On another thread today someone was shocked when a young family member didn’t know about Star Wars.
One day this week I had an invitation from some company I deal with to enter a competition in which the prize was 2 tickets to an evening at the Albert Hall starring Cliff Richard.
As I am most certainly NOT a fan, I joked to my GD who is 27 that if I entered I was surely bound to win the prize I did not want.
She just asked “ who is Cliff Richard??”
That is when I felt very old indeed.

GrandmasueUK Sun 09-Nov-25 10:47:14

My favourite band was the Monkees and when my two grandsons (aged 8 and 10) were here from Portugal. in the summer we watched one of the episodes being shown on television. They loved it, so I got my DVDs that my daughter bought for me a few years ago and every evening we watched a few, at their insistence. I could hear the younger one singing the theme while he was playing with his toys. I have a set of coasters with the Monkees on and the same grandson said, "Look Granny I posed the playmobil figures like the coaster" and he had posed them like they were shown on the album cover. When we video call they often talk about them and ask if they can watch then again when they come back at Christmas. They introduce me to their music too, because their mum and dad go to gigs in Portugal and they listen to music in the car when they travel. I enjoy some of it, but I do feel old or I've turned into my parents when I realise I can't always understand the words, or complain there isn't a tune. grin

Witzend Sun 09-Nov-25 11:04:16

Can’t say I’m at all surprised. TBH if I bumped into e.g. Taylor Swift in the street I wouldn’t recognise her and couldn’t tell you the title of any of her songs.

It does please me, however, that my elder Gdcs (10 and 9) adore Queen and can (and do) sing along very lustily to Bohemian Rhapsody and e.g. We Are the Champions in the car!

petra Sun 09-Nov-25 11:11:59

Magenta8

I am surprised by what my GCs don't know sometimes but I'm surprised by what they do know as well. One of my DCs, aged 10, had never heard of Marilyn Monroe but on another occasion when I mentioned Scott of the Antarctic they asked "Do you mean Robert Falcon Scott?"

Worryingly, all my GCs seemed to have known about Charlie Kirk before he was shot but I didn't.

Did you know the film stars/ singers that your parents enjoyed when you were 10 years old?

paddyann54 Sun 09-Nov-25 11:39:27

Petra my parents and my granny loved music it was played in the house or sang as part of our daily life .Consequently we knew all sorts of music from the early music hall stuff through the pre war ,the swing era and classical .
My kids were raised with music and I love the grandkids sending me new things they know I ll like . Many years ago my daughter and I were in hmv ,when we got the counter the assistant was amused by our choices ….I was buying Rudimental and my 30ish daughter had a Frank Sinatra album.
There are some fantastic young artists around nowadays but they are generally less wel known / commercial .
Currently I.m listening to Hozier and early this morning I watched a full concert at The Roundhouse with the amazing Paolo Nutini .on YouTube .

Magenta8 Sun 09-Nov-25 11:51:10

petra Yes I did Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Mae West, Caruso, Maria Callas and many more.

I was not judging my GC in any way, I was just mildly surprised as I thought Marilyn Monroe was more famous than Captain Scott.

Esmay Mon 10-Nov-25 11:34:29

I wasn't a fan of Cliff Richards so I wouldn't enjconcert ncert - but I know what you mean .
I loved Jimi Hendrix ,John Mayall and Cream .
I don't know if teenagers are aware of them. . .

Allira Mon 10-Nov-25 11:45:04

petra

Magenta8

I am surprised by what my GCs don't know sometimes but I'm surprised by what they do know as well. One of my DCs, aged 10, had never heard of Marilyn Monroe but on another occasion when I mentioned Scott of the Antarctic they asked "Do you mean Robert Falcon Scott?"

Worryingly, all my GCs seemed to have known about Charlie Kirk before he was shot but I didn't.

Did you know the film stars/ singers that your parents enjoyed when you were 10 years old?

Yes.

Perry Como (Magic Moments), Bing Crosby, songs from musicals such as White Horse Inn and Operattas (my mother sang).

My oldest brother liked traditional jazz, Chris Barber etc.

Magenta our junior school class was taken to the cinema to watch Scott of the Antarctic in the 1950s and Scott Expedition to the Antarctic is still on the school curriculum today.

joannapiano Mon 10-Nov-25 11:56:29

My cousin went to school with Cliff. He is the same age.

Alison333 Mon 10-Nov-25 14:06:27

My 12 year old GD is an Elvis fan! I must ask her about Cliff Richard.

Tallulah21 Mon 10-Nov-25 14:43:43

My grandson started singing a James Brown song the other day. He was amazed that I knew it as it’s sampled in a kids film. We have regular song choice swaps in the car and it’s great to learnt what they like currently as well as introducing them to some classics.

Musicgirl Mon 10-Nov-25 14:45:05

joannapiano

My cousin went to school with Cliff. He is the same age.

My Dad was eleven days younger than Cliff Richard so every October we would have a joke about who looked younger. My Mum had been a fan of his as a teacher, which, of course, meant that l could not admit to liking him as a teenager. My favourites as a teenager were Abba, Blondie, the Boomtown Rats and, a little later, Adam and the Ants. As I have grown older, I have appreciated the music of the fifties and sixties more. The Elvis/Cliff fan divide was replicated a few years later with the David Cassidy/Donny Osmond fan split among girls who were a few years older than me. I occasionally watch Pointless and normally dread a pop music round because I have never heard of most of the "stars" or their songs but these are the ones that generally have the highest scores. I had a low score for I Don't Like Mondays (Boomtown Rats). My mother surpassed herself with a pointless answer - Jimmy Young, which I wouldn't have known, either, although I remember him being a presenter on Radio 2.

Lizzies Mon 10-Nov-25 14:52:20

I remember the Christmas when my younger sister and I were given 45’s, she got the Beatles and I got Cliff Richard! I was most disappointed. I thought he was soft.

Aely Mon 10-Nov-25 15:23:30

I used to sing along with Eve Boswell back in 1955, Pickin' a chicken with you..." My Mum was a big Perry Como fan. He sent me to sleep, so boring.
I liked the Beverley Sisters. I have Green Fields in my record collection along with "New Fangled Tango" by Lena Horne, another (rather inappropriate for my age) song from my childhood.
One of my favourites songs was "Red Sails in the Sunset", the Nat King Cole version released in 1951, although the original dated from about 1935.
My sister and I used to really annoy my then 36 year old mother by dancing around the kitchen to Rock around the Clock (Bill Hailey and the Comets) back in 1955 when it came on the radio. She thought it was the devil's music.

My Aunt would entertain me with recordings of Mario Lanza, the Italian Tenor, on fragile 78s. I appropriated the survivors when she died in 1991.

So yes, I do remember the music that was around in my mother's day, and the artists who recorded them.

sandye Mon 10-Nov-25 15:43:21

I had been lucky enough to get tickets to see Bruce Springsteen and was telling a co-worker about it. She said never heard of him to which I replied come on! you will be telling me next you've never heard of the Beatles! Well the answer was well I haven't!.

Barbadosbelle Mon 10-Nov-25 17:34:28

Bluebell

Well, Sinatra, Bennett and Martin were before my time but I knew of them and their music.

Maybe it was because my mother had the radio on all Sunday morming whilst she was preparing lunch and sang along to all the songs (she had a good voice -
sadly not inherited).

I still love those three artists but they now make up a quartet with Michael Buble.
.

Crossstitchfan Mon 10-Nov-25 17:43:30

Erica23

My friend took her Granddaughter 15 to Liverpool for the day they were planning what to do first.
My friend said she’s like to visit the Beatles museum. Granddaughter said she wasn’t keen on visiting a museum full of insects ! She’d no idea.

This is priceless!

Crossstitchfan Mon 10-Nov-25 17:53:59

I absolutely loathed the Beatles! Loved Elvis and I liked some of Cliff’s songs, but not all.
Now, at my great age, I have a varied selection of songs I like, but don’t much like songs from the 60s even though that was ‘my’ time.
My son-in-law introduced me to Metallica some years ago. I wasn’t impressed, but then found that they had recorded songs with the (I think) San Fransisco orchestra and they were beautiful.

sunglow12 Mon 10-Nov-25 17:54:51

Always thought Elvis better than Cliff and preferred Rolling Stones to The Beatles too then it was Blur of Oasis ?

Dottydots Mon 10-Nov-25 17:55:58

The Everly Brothers were my favourites. I used to dream of snuggling up between the two of them.

Mojack26 Mon 10-Nov-25 17:57:23

Allira No thank goodness

Xlotl Mon 10-Nov-25 18:17:56

Oh Gawd - I was talking to the grandchildren about when I was young (the Beatles and all that) and the youngest said “Was that when everything was in black and white” shock

Dizzyribs Mon 10-Nov-25 20:23:11

The first time I felt old was actually in my mid thirties when I said to a colleague “it’s as bent as a nine bob note”. Their blank look said it all- it was very difficult to explain the saying in a few words. It was followed a few years later when my daughter came home from school and told me that they were studying Greenham Common in History lessons.

WithNobsOnIt Mon 10-Nov-25 20:28:19

It's called the Generation Gap and part of getting old. I'm afraid. Happens to us all.

Went to the only branch in town of a well known high street bank a few weeks ago. Having problems with a card pin number.

Served by a delightful and very helpful young lady called Dolly who sorted my problem out.

I asked her, if Dolly was her real name.

She said it was, and l asked her had she ever heard the famous song Hello Dolly by Louis Armstrong and she said no.

So l.told her to get it up on YouTube as she might enjoy it

At about age 11. l also remember watching TV with my family and hearing Mrs Mills tinkle the ivories This was when l was hoping to be a trainee young Mod.

Not my scene at all.

But she was terrific women pianist.. A National Treasure. Gran and Mother really loved her.

Happy Memories.

😻👍🌻

X

keepingquiet Mon 10-Nov-25 20:34:32

I was quite surprised when I heard my GC mention Charles Manson the other day!

Esmay Mon 10-Nov-25 20:49:55

I felt really ancient on Sunday .
After the Remembrance service I was chatting to one of the rather elderly ladies who cleans the church .
We walked up the road together and then she stood by to see me cross the road safely.
Careful ,she called out .
It wasn't as bad as a man ,
who dragged me across the road in our High Street when I didn't actually want to cross and was protesting .