19 months.

(July 2012/November 1982.)

The phrase, “when I was your age,” is usually completed by a parent or grandparent telling a child how hard life was back in the day, when they had to walk 10 miles to school… in the snow.

But see, I was born in April 1981. That means my toddler and Elementary school years took place in the overly-synthesized, fantasy decade we now refer to as The Eighties.

We didn’t have the Internet or cellphones or iTunes, but that was okay. Because we had Saturday morning cartoons, Big Wheels, and “regular” Nintendo. We drank red Kool-Aid and watched the Smurfs. And life was good.

So now I think about my son and how his toddler and Elementary school years will take place almost exactly 30 years after mine. (I was 29 and a half when Jack was born.)

To be honest, I fear that his young years won’t be as cool as mine were.

Because when I was exactly his age now, it was November 1982 and Michael Jackson had just released Thriller, the biggest selling album of all time; while E.T. was the movie on everyone’s mind, having been released just a few months before.

Maybe it’s inspired by me currently watching the final season of Lost again right now, but I am very focused on the “flash-sideways.”

In other words, I’m constantly comparing the happenings and culture of how things were when I was my son’s age.

Something you will be seeing more of here on The Dadabase are articles were I feature two similar pictures: One of my son in modern day, followed by me at the same age, doing something likewise.

(I recently scanned like 64 pictures of my childhood from November 1982 to January 1984; which I will be sporadically using from here on out, as related to Jack’s age.)

So I trust you will enjoy the time-traveling that is headed your way. We are on our way to my favorite year ever, 1983.

I’m assuming most Dadabase readers also were young kids in The Eighties. Let me ask you:

Am I being overly nostalgic, or did we really grow up in the best decade ever for being a kid?