The One where it was 1996, like, yesterday

As the year of the quarter-life-crisis continues, gentle reminders keep popping up that I should be freaking out. It seems one of the major feelings that associate with this is extreme nostalgia, coupled with a desire to be colouring-in the naughty corner.

About 2 weeks ago the hashtag: #WhatDoLaaitiesKnowAbout had its day to trend on Twitter. The South African community was plunged into a nostalgic frenzy, and the international community were probably thinking "wtf is a laaitie?" Until they made the translations and developed the #TodaysKidsWillNeverKnow hashtag that even Ellen has been sharing anecdotes with.

As if the hashtags weren't enough to make me feel as ancient as the Nokia 3310, my baby brother celebrated his 19th birthday about a week ago! 19!

I still remember the day I was happy to hear the news of the arrival of my future minion, complete with Tom-Cruise-Jubilation jump on the couch. All which came to a grinding halt once I'd lost the only-child limelight, culminating in a bubblegum in the hair incident.

I can't believe that after all these years my "bring me a snack" minion is a real man, legally driving and everything that goes with it. But he will always be a "laaitie" to me. Lie - tee - one who is younger than oneself, often in a generation or two below. And with that classification is a host of experiences that that generation will never have to "endure".

When I think of such situations I picture myself as a pensioner overlooking some grand lake, remembering the "good old days". And then to add even more fire to the flames, Josh asked Jarryd and I this weekend if "that's how we did it in the olden days", when we told him about show & tell days at primary school. I remember when I asked my gran about the "olden days".

The things I miss the most about my olden days include:

1) Being able to spend R5 at the corner shop on a Casper Ice-cream and pockets full of sweets & Holey Moley's, and still have enough to play Pac-Man on the arcade machine inside the shop, till my uncle had to come looking for me because I'd been missing for a while. (And they didn't want a repeat of the green-crayon incident).

2) Games that stimulated our imagination and kept as entertained for hours with limited graphics and requiring nothing but patience and good hand & eye coordination.

The nostalgia for these are so bad, that Le Boyfriend and I have downloaded an app that contains the old 64-in-1 cartridge games. (If you don't know what a cartridge is you're a laaitie)

3) Or better yet, playing outside till you got called in for supper or a bath and to fix up the latest knee-scrapes. Do kids even FALL these days?!?

4) Having my mom dress me. No worrying about the #ootd post or if my skinny's weren't tights in disguise. And nevermind that the Rambo jeans or corduroy pants didn't match the check-shirt, or my unruly curls. I was simply free to enjoy the stains that came with a day well spent.

So here's to spending the rest of my quarter-life-crisis year with lots of #WaybackWednesdays #ThrowbackThursdays #FlashbackFridays and remembering that the beauty in getting older is that experience brings memories that last a lifetime! :)