Boomer culture was the first to refuse ever to go away

I suppose that when younger people who weren't around when the music of the '60s and '70s was actually popular listen to it and it sounds dated to them. Ditto with the movies and television shows; movies without CGI and TV shows that were a lot less risque.

Cybill

I suppose they look at Cybill Shepherd and Katharine Ross and see women on the far side of 60, and not the stunning beauties they were when they first showed up in the movies.

Maybe we were the first generation that refused to let go of our culture. When I was in high school from 1963 to '67, there were no oldies stations to play the songs we loved when we were younger, and there were no television stations devoted to shows that were no longer in production. Stunningly, there was no way to own a copy of a movie, unless you were very rich. The only way we could see "Casablanca" was by watching for it in TV Guide or going to a Bogart Festival.

Katharine

Believe me on this. If you've seen "American Graffiti" and think there were radio stations like that, there weren't. Everything that got played was what was popular at the time, except for maybe one oldie per hour.

I'm not going to tell you that's a bad thing, even though I've got an iPod Classic (160 GB) almost full of old music I love, as well as probably 50 different TV series I enjoy on DVD and well over a thousand of my favorite movies on Blu-Ray and regular DVD. I'm perfectly capable of wallowing in the pop culture of the 63-plus years I've been on earth anytime I want.

Ironically, I have only two television series from my youth, and neither is one I watched much in first run. If I ever get around to seeing all the episodes of "Twilight Zone" or "Outer Limits," I'll be seeing most of them for the first time. I think nearly all the rest of what I have is from the mid '80s on, except for another one I've never watched -- "Monty Python's Flying Circus."

Old TV shows seem dated to me in a way old movies don't. Many of the movies I make an effort to see now were released before I was born. I'd much rather watch a great drama or an old western than see an extravaganza that looked like it was shot almost entirely in front of a green screen.

As for the music, I spend a lot of time now listening to stuff I never listened to as a kid -- Glenn Miller, the Andrews Sisters, even Spike Jones. There's a life to it that so many things lack these days.

I think I was in my late 30s before I ever heard "Der Fuehrer's Face," and it was years after that when I finally saw the Donald Duck cartoon for which Spike Jones provided the soundtrack.

That's not just dated, it's history, but there is something about it that is so much more interesting -- and yes, fun -- than anything I'm seeing these days.

I think there is a very good chance that if I ever find myself old and alone, I will sit on the couch all day and immerse myself in a world that existed before I was born. I can fall in love with Rita Hayworth or Teresa Wright, I can admire Jimmy Stewart and Spencer Tracy or wish I could be Clark Gable or John Wayne.

Times Square 1948

I'd be happy hearing President Roosevelt on the radio, keeping me posted on what was happening at home and abroad, and I'd probably find myself rooting for the Indians or the Reds (since I did spend 10 of my first 13 years in Ohio).

I'd like to think I would root for the Dodgers, but in their pre-Jackie Robinson days, they were just a little too down and out. I would have loved to see New York in the '40s. My first view of the city was in 1957, and Times Square was closer to the '40s than it is to now.

I used to go to New York quite often, but since I was there in 1981 for my little cousin's funeral, the only times I have been there since were in the mid '90s for my sister's wedding and a same-day excursion from Atlanta to Queens and back for a fantasy baseball draft.

But I'm digressing very badly. That seems to happen to me a lot lately; I start thinking of something and the memories just flood over me.

Some are dated, some aren't. It's true even with the music. A Beatles song from 1966 can sound fresh and new, but a song by the Rolling Stones seems stuck in that time.

Maybe someday I'll figure it out.