A couple months ago this inter-office memo came thru the pipeline...

It kind of made me reflect how, after experiencing a dot-com downsizing, I had feared I'd be out of place starting a new career in television at age 28. I figured I'd stick out like a sore thumb in between the just-out-of-college frosh and the TV veterans running the place.

Just as the memo described however, there was such a generational mix without a one-to-one heirarchy correlation. There were people in their late 50's starting their first TV job too.

It just proves something I had forseen for years.. That the concept of what-do-you-want-to-be-when-you-grow-up was gone.. supplanted by what-do-you-want-to-do-this week.. We all live so long now that, before we die, we will likely have many chapters in our work career, and life overall for that matter..

But I was a little disheartened by some of the generational differences described.. Not because I disagree with them, but rather because they are true, and this was my first time confronting that. I think growing up, I always thought/wished/hoped that the 'slacker' ethos would fade for people my age, and that eventually we'd just 'get our act together'. The memo is blatant about warning GenY about us: 'uhh you might just want to skip those guys..' And so it's apparent that the slacker label is stuck with us til the end, giving rise to some interesting projections in my mind.

For instance, when us latch-key kids do get old.. that will mean that seniors will then be regarded as lazy! So rather than spouting off when-I-was-your-age tales of hiking miles to school in blizzards, etc., we will telling these young nuts to 'relax!'

Which brings me to these so-called echo-boomers.. I suppose appropriate, because I have been saying for a while now that they are bringing it all full-circle. For better or worse, we are back to goose-steppers. This obviously scares me. These are the kids that will soon be installing the street-corner surveillance cameras. We've only just had a taste of the new McCarthyism that I suspect they'll be brining forth. But I guess that will eventually relegate me to being the paranoid delusional conspiracy nut in the old folks home, once the new status quo has set in.

Not worth saying much about the boomers, since they've already been overly celebrated and then thoroughly scrutinized. But the memo acts as a final confirming message to them: Get over yourselves!

And lastly, it made me realize that my folks are technically 'silent generation' since they were born during Dubbya Dubbya Two, rather than right after. The confirming facts are that my folks were already married when the sexual revolution set in.. and that my father still refers to any music that is too loud or otherwise annoys him as 'acid rock'.

So that's all I got.. Excuse me while I go watch I Love the 80's on VH1 now..

-FONG