Kids these days

Once every year I am reminded that I am slowly but surely getting old (this year, I even get to share my day of remembrance with a deceased civil rights leader...). Though I've managed to skip the balding, the beer gut, and the wife and kids so far, year in the last few, without fail, there has been something to remind me that things aren't the way they used to be:

Everyone here remembers the early-mid 90's right? You know, when your bike wasn't cool unless every piece of aluminum on it was anodized in a different color? When bar-ends were all the rage, and michelin still made tires in iridescent green? In fact, everyone made tires in iridescent green. it was the ONLY color for a MTB tire. Yes, of course you do. Your non-cyclist friends are still questioning your sexual orientation as a result of that time period. Looking back at it, YOU might be questioning it too, but I digress...

I recently put together a bicycle with these most-decidedly vintage tires:



As I was carrying it down the stairs earlier this weekend in an undergraduate MIT dorm where my friend is resident advisor, some brazen young whipper snappers pipe up and ask, "so those tires are green, does that mean they're ECO-friendly?"

"No," I said. "It means they're from 1994"

[blank stare]

That's it, these kids were still crapping their pants as a matter of course during the real green revolution. Now, they're just pains in the ass. [opens can of sodi-pop with one remaining tooth]

(if you're in Boston on Monday and reading this, come help me celebrate not having gray hair just yet!)

The Wrench

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/balf/3743426690/