Am I Really Already Retro – Birthdays and the Aging of the Next Generation

As we move through life, there are certain moments that hit us, which stop us in our tracks and make us think ‘Damn, I’m getting old.’

No such event accomplishes this better than a child’s birthday.

This past weekend, my oldest son turned 6. While I cannot believe that so much time has already gone by, but it was not this number that brought home my age, but rather one of the gifts he received.

His uncle bought him a collection of games for his new Xbox 360. ‘Retro Games’ I have gone through the list, and all of these games were made in or after 1991. It includes all of the Sonic the Hedgehog games, which my son loves to play.

Looking at them, I can remember when they were the height of graphics and the gameplay was fast and out of this world. Now, these piece of my youth are being repackaged and sold as freaking RETRO!! I’m 28, but that makes me feel old!

I don’t care about age, it is just a number after all, but seeing items of my youth labeled as retro still hurt a little.

On the other hand, the two of us had hours of fun running around the two-dimensional world chasing rings and leaping over robotic fish, lobsters and insects of all descriptions.

Out of it all, I think the thing that hurt the most was that half of the time… he beat me.