I get this sent to me every Sept -and it always makes me feel old.
https://www.beloit.edu/publicaffairs/mindset/

You're right, if you don't ride hilly terrain you really don't need more than 10 gears. Back when I lived in New Orleans which is completely flat I don't think I used more than 3 most of the time just to adjust for the wind. Even if you do ride hilly terrain like I do in Colorado, 5 in the back 14-28 and a 52-42 in front is fine for most rides under 50 miles. I installed a wide range 14-34 on my Bottecchia because you really might want lower gears when you're 80-miles into a century and have to cross a mountain pass but the spacing between those gears is really too wide so a 7-speed freewheel would be nice. That said, I have no complaints with 10-speed Ergo/STI and I wouldn't put them down but I don't consider them necesary for most uses.

Parent: "It's a thing to play records on."
Kid: "What's a record?"
Parent: "It's like a CD but black with grooves on it."
Kid: "What's a CD?"
Parent: "That's the things we had before iPods...oh get away kid and quit bothering us"

Many years ago now, when I was 27, I had just gotten out of the army and moved back to my hometown. One Friday evening my cousin, who was around 19 and whom I probably hadn't talked to since she was 13 or so, called and asked if I wanted to hit a few clubs with her and some of her freinds. Well it sounded like a good idea, especially since I had been gone so long and didn't know the night scene any more so I agreed and off we went. So we're in this dance club and I'm just chillin' and talking to Niki and her girlfreind when a guy walks up and asks if either of them would like to dance. They both politely declined but after the guy walked away they busted up laughing..."Can you believe that old guy asked us to dance??!!" they exclaimed. I glanced over at the guy again who was now on the other side of the room. "Hmmm", I thought, "he doesn't look that old...certainly not any older than me"...DOH! I didn't go out with them too much after that

Somewhat OT- I once met a bike machanic in his early 20s who didn't know who Sheldon Brown was......

That's nothing, I met one in his forties or fifties who didn't either and when I explained that Sheldon Brown had complete instructions online for doing exactly what he was telling me couldn't be done he told me he didn't put much stock in anything some old internet bike mechanic said. I didn't get the work done there.

I am perfectly happy with my 10 and 12 speed bikes with friction shifters also. And my mountain bike has such a large spread on the wheel cluster that I never have had to shift the front derailler off the big gear.

My dad calls road bikes "ten speeds" and every once in a while calls cars with manual transmissions "four speeds"

Huh? What kind of mountains do they have where you live? You ride on a 42-44t big ring all the time? I have an 11-34 cassette and I ride the 32t middle ring most of the time but there are definately times when I need that 22t granny ring. I hardly ever use the 42t unless I'm on a paved road.

I can remember when everybody called a manual transmission a "standard transmission" since automatics were options on almost everything.

OK, the experience can go both ways:

Back in the fall of 2005, when I'd just picked up my first bike to return to the sport after a complete 28-year absence (and I mean COMPLETE, I'd never heard of Greg LeMond, etc.), I start tearing the Raleigh down for a complete repaint and rebuild. Having given my tools away twenty years earlier, I dropped by a LBS about a half mile from work in the hopes that the mechanic there could press out the crank cotter for me.

I walk into the store and am immediate gobsmacked by 28 years of changing technology. Well, they had two wheels, I guess that funny shaped thing is a frame, I recognize handlebars, can't find any shift levers, and there is a seat, so I guess they're bicycles.

And then I realize that the kid behind the counter is looking at my Raleigh frame with equal amazement. Turns out he'd never seen a cottered crank before.

Postscript: Over the past four years, said LBS has turned out to be a decent place to deal with, the head mechanic started wrenching bikes back when I did and was a wonderful font of information during the year or so it took me to catch up, and the kid behind the desk is a fairly constant riding partner. And yeah, they know me well enough to know they're never going to sell me a complete bike. They were completely amazed the day I came in and said I wanted to look at the Raleigh Sojurn.

Since I am 68, maybe I've just forgotten, but what the heck is an "E-ticket"?

The E-tickets were the tickets for the VERY BEST (most expensive) rides at Disneyland back in the fifties and sixties.

Glad you asked. I was thinking it can't be your airline ticket 'cause those are relatively new...

Seventies too:

In 1960, the wife & I stayed at the Disneyland hotel during part of our honeymoon. All our friends had given us an envelope filled with their left over tickets. We had a great time.

And why "It's a Small World" was an E Ticket I'll never know... unless it was for the tormenting staying power of the song in your head.....

I got blank stares from my kids and their friends when I was talking about an old car with "three on the tree".

I had to explain how they used to put the gear shift there, and the car had three forward speeds, usually not synchronized in first so you couldn't shift back without double clutching. More explaining.

My daughter's boyfriend, also 22, is an auto technician and did not know what points and condenser were.

*sigh*

It's always been the same. When I was a kid, I liked jazz, 60's soul, and knew a lot about music on a broad base (this was in the 80's). Most other kids I knew didn't know what any of it was, and wouldn't accept that anything could be good if it wasn't in the charts.

Likewise, I knew my old cars, motorcycles, and to a lesser extent, bicycles, but nobody else did. I not only knew what a reel-to-reel was, but how to use one; nobody else did. Most people never look beyond what's in their immediate world - after all, how many of you are knowledgeable about things from 20 years before you were born? I am, but I'll bet I'm in the minority even here.....

Good point, Sammy. I was born in '42 and can't tell you anything about what was happening in '22.

Agreed Sammy. I guess I was lucky in that my grandparents and even some of my great grandparents (at least until I was in my teens) were around when I was young and lived nearby so I just kind of picked up on some of the older stuff by osmosis. I can remember my grandfather playing his old country music records on this huge console thing that was more a piece of furniture than a audio system. I used to listen to the "60's at 6" on AM radio before FM was popular which I'm sure all my freinds thought was odd in the 70's. I've always considered myself a student of history and have always been interested in old things which is probably why I got into vintage bicycles.

I tried to explane records to my daughter recently.