”1981ers” refers to people born in or after the year 1981.  Coined by me and my friend Francis Arel in New Jersey, it was originally used to refer to people younger than us who just “didn’t get it”—who were clueless or unappreciative of their situation.  Mostly we were talking about our mutual friend/cousin who we used to think was a bit of a brat.

On the road (and the blog) I started using the phrase “1981er” with Lara in Brazil when we hung out with a bunch of annoying younger backpackers who just didn’t “get it”—they didn’t really respect the cultures or locations they were in; they were loud backpacker-types that traveled in droves with their own food and music, and never let any of their surroundings sink in.

That’s not to say I feel all “1981ers” are annoying; there are many exceptions to the rule, and I will say that I do respect and perhaps even love a few people born in 1981 and later.  David Sebastian from Vancouver for one, was a great guy to travel with, with our similar travel styles and senses of humor.  (Later on, when I met his father, he mentioned that we even had the same intonations in our voices.) Most often I never saw David Sebastian as someone younger than me as we were on the same level of maturity (or is it immaturity?) In fact, the only times we felt the age gap is when I mentioned how I saw Disney’s Aladdin in college, when he was only ten.

Of course, years have passed and the people born in 1981 are generally more mature and less annoying these days, and that I should probably refer to the annoying young backpacker set as “1985ers” or something, but “1981er” just has a nice ring to it, and I’ll stick with it, the way Conan O’Brien still does his futuristic “In the Year 2000” predictions bit, even after the turn of the millennium.