Among the interesting stuff I’ve unearthed while decluttering and packing for our move to Enumclaw, is the following list from my brother-in-law Don Ford. I was thinking it’d be fun to blob about it – till I remembered that hardly anybody reading this is old enough for the test. Here it is anyway, as an artifact of prehistoric times, and as an indicator of which generation you’re part of.

”Do you remember a time when . . .

Decisions were made by going “eeny-meeny-miney-moe?
Mistakes were corrected by simply exclaiming, “Do over!”?
”Race issue” meant arguing about who ran the fastest?
Catching fireflies in Iowa could happily occupy an entire evening?
It wasn’t odd to have two or three “Best Friends”?
The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was “cooties”?
Having a weapon in school meant being caught with a slingshot?
A foot of snow was a dream come true?
”Oly-oly-oxen-free made perfect sense?
War was a card game?
Baseball cards in the spokes transformed any bike into a motorcycle?
Taking drugs meant orange-flavored chewable aspirin?
Water balloons were the ultimate weapon?
Nearly everyone’s Mom was at home when the kids got home from school?
Nobody owned a purebred dog?
You’d reach into a muddy gutter for a penny?
You could buy a wax Coke-shaped bottle with colored sugar water inside for one cent?
Your family had home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers?
They threatened to keep kids back a grade if they failed . . . and they did?
You got your windshield cleaned, oil checked, and gas pumped, without asking, all for free, every time? And you didn’t pay for air? And you got trading stamps to boot?

Don’t worry if you flopped the “test”. According to today’s demographers and the U.S. Census Bureau, the age of each of us supposedly fits into a category. If, like me, you can never remember which one you’re in, here they are:

Generation Z (Gen Z): born in or after 1997
Generation Y (Gen Y or Millennials): born 1981 – 1996
Generation X (Gen X): born 1965 – 1980
Baby Boomers: born 1946 – 1964
Silent Generation: born 1928 – 1945 (Octo-woman’s generation)
Greatest Generation: born before 1928. (Uncle Don’s generation)

So unless you’re in one of the last 2 or 3 generations listed above, the answer to Uncle Don’s question “Do you remember?”, has to be “Nope.”

And if you’re a Gen-Zer, you’re entitled to definitely consider the list of questions to be hopelessly “cheugy” (pronounced “chew-ghee”). I just learned the word this week. According to the Seattle Times, it’s a Gen-Z word meaning old-fashioned, “old hat”, or “so yesterday”. Sounds like it’s right down my alley.