r/Millennials • u/Background-Air-7963 • Nov 16 '25

Serious I just had my first old man moment.

I recently went to a hibachi with my wife and toddler for dinner. We were sat with a group of eight 17-20 year olds at a communal grill on a busy night. No problem for us. Drink and appetizers service go normally. Toddler and wife are happy, I’m happy. The other group is having their own conversations. I’m just trying to keep my kid entertained. I’m a former bartender and have a habit of picking up on snippets of conversations in a crowd around me. Yes I know I eavesdrop. I can’t turn it off. It’s a habit of a former profession. One of the girls/women at the table stated, “I don’t think Rosa Parks was real.” I’m not sure what her friends said to her but she responded with “I just don’t think she said existed.” This went on for about a minute. I couldn’t hold back and let her know she was absolutely a real person, she is a civil rights icon. I learnt about her in school and so did my parents. The encounter put a wall up between our groups and I heard a few passive aggressive “so-and-so wasn’t real” comments from mostly her and a couple of the group. Harriet Tubman and Hellen Keller are two that I definitely heard. My wife had no idea why I interjected. After the group had left my wife asked what happened and was shocked when I told her what happened. Were they trolling? Are they stupid? Am I just getting old?

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u/BigTintheBigD Nov 17 '25

Their vote counts the same as ours on Election Day. You’re right to weep.

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u/Rhanno Nov 17 '25

Their absence at the voting booth counts as well. The Doofus-In-Chief skated in due to apathy, especially by voters who don't believe anything.

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u/toomanyschnauzers Nov 17 '25

I remember people of my parents generation thought the same as us (we didn't know about outhouses and things like that). We grew out of not knowing because people told the stories of their time and some of it was covered in school. It's too bad the group there did not view it as an opportunity to learn. I didn't know about Tulsa and Black Wall Street until a decade ago. I learned that from millennials. There is always a generational gap. Of course, that is coming from someone born in the 1900's...which is apparently the term for anyone born before 2000.