Want to feel old? My son had no idea who this famous NJ star is

I will narrow it way down for you. It’s one of the New Jersey stars that had a rest area named after them. And my son had no idea who they were.

You know, like when the Vauxhall Road service area became the Whitney Houston service area in 2023 or when the Montvale service area became the James Gandolfini service area in 2022. But it wasn’t either of them.

So my son, who is 20 years old and entering his junior year at UVM, was in the car with me recently as I was driving him up to Vermont. We were on the Garden State Parkway when we passed one of those renamed service areas, and my son read the sign out loud, then said a thing that made me feel ancient.

“Jon Bon Jovi. Yeah, I know he did something, but I don’t know what.”

I asked if he was kidding. He wasn’t. I asked for further confirmation in disbelief.

“He was a governor, maybe?”

My son had no clue that Jon Bon Jovi was one of the biggest musical stars New Jersey ever produced. He’s performed in over 50 countries. Sold more than 130 million albums.

Nothing.

It was then that it hit me the last time Bon Jovi had a Top 40 hit was in 2007 with “You Want To Make A Memory.” My son was 3. But still, shouldn’t his fame transcend generations, considering his son Jake Bongiovi married “Stranger Things”’ Millie Bobby Brown? A show is famously popular among younger people. My son has even watched it. Yet, nothing.

It made me feel like my uncle when he complained that his kids didn’t know who The Beatles were. It made me feel old.

You know what else does? The following facts are about most 20-year-olds.

Things 20-year-olds never experienced

They’ve never known a world without cell phones.

The iPhone debuted in 2007.

They only know 9/11 as something from history books.

My son was born three and a half years after the tragedy.

They never grew up in a world without social media.

Their parents have always known where they were.

The days of roaming the neighborhood without adult supervision and coming home when streetlights came on were long over by the time they were born.

They’ve never known the hell of dialing a rotary phone, screwing up on the last number, and having to start all over again.

They never knew about having to wait for photos to be developed.

Feeling old yet? OK, how about this?

“Jaws” was already a 30-year-old movie when they were born.

And now it’s half a century.

I thought that might do it.