Sometimes I Forget How Old I Am...

My 2-day assignment was a 4^th grade class for Thursday and Friday.

In Social Studies, they are studying the geology, climate zones and famous people of our home state, California. Thursday's lesson plan naturally included earthquakes.

"If you remember our last big earthquake in 1989..."

As soon as I said it, I realize that these little people didn't even exist yet.

I had to back track and explain what it was like when the earthquake happened. I told them how building I was working in seemed to bounce up and down for what seemed like a long time but was actually only a few seconds.

I looked out the 2^nd floor window of my office to see people parked on the side of the street. They were walking around their cars looking for the flat tire or something they hit that made their car swerve so suddenly.

All the power was out and no telephones or radio stations were working. It took me 2hrs to drive home when the normal commute should have been 20mins. All the traffic lights were out and everyone was trying to get home.

They listened intently and asked many follow-up questions. It was an ideal topic for a homework assignment. I assigned the writing assignment to interview a parent for their recollections to share on Friday. Imagine my surprise when more than a few came back saying that their parents did not remember much of anything and instead asked a grandparent for the interview.

Since my own granddaughter is currently a 3^rd grader, I should have realized how outdated anything before the new millennium actually is.