Are you feeling old?

If not, consider this:

• The people who are starting college this fall across the nation were born in 1980!

• The Iranian hostage crisis occurred before they were conceived.

• They have no memory of a time before MTV.

• "New Wave" is their PARENTS musical generation!

• Cyndi Lauper, Boy George, the Pretenders, the Kinks, the Sex Pistols -- are all old music they have heard of, if they have heard of it at all.

• They have no meaningful recollection of the Reagan era.

• They were prepubescent when the Persian Gulf War was waged.

• If they have heard the name "Oliver North," it was probably as a losing Congressional candidate, or perhaps in some obscure survey history text's reference, such as might be made to Huey Long or Teapot Dome.

• Black Monday 1987 is as significant to them as the Great Depression.

• Their world has always included AIDS!

• Having not lived through the Disco Scare, they can romanticize the 1970s.

• They see "Family Ties" as something middle aged ladies watch.

• They watched "Star Wars" years ago, when they were kids -- on video.

• Atari predates them, as do vinyl albums and cassette audiotapes; they may have heard of an 8-track, but probably never actually seen (or heard) one.

• From their earliest years, a camera was something you used once and threw away.

• As far as they know, stamps have always cost about 32 cents.

• The oil crisis is history of which they probably know nothing -- and why anyone WOULDN'T buy a Chevy Suburban is beyond them.

• Most of them have probably never seen a real nun, even if they went to Catholic schools!