President Joe Biden, born on November 20, 1942, is extremely old. Decades ago, Ronald Reagan had to famously counter a critque that he was too old to run for office. Yet Reagan was still younger when he left office after eight years as president than Biden was when he was first sworn in.
On Sunday, Biden celebrated his 80th birthday. Nothing wrong with being old, except that for a president with a proclivity for the smell of very young children and the views of flamboyant Gen-Z Tik-Tok influencers, there is a remarkable amount of modern amenities that didn’t even exist when Biden was born.
Pop Tarts
The beloved American sweet breakfast wasn’t invented until President Biden was a full 20-years-old. The original pop tart flavors we know and love — strawberry, cinnamon sugar, blueberry, and apple currant — weren’t available to Americans until November of 1964.
Credit Cards
The first credit card was invented by John Biggins in 1946, four years after Biden was born. American Express didn’t produce its first plastic credit card until the president was 16-years-old.
Cable Television
Today, people are singing a funeral dirge for cable television. Streaming services are taking over, and ratings for most of the mainstream shows are plummeting as they embrace woke policy positions only a small fraction of the country even care about. But Biden was six-years-old before even cable television was invented. Netflix and Hulu likely haven’t even crossed the octogenarian’s mind.
Cat Litter
It’s unclear if in the olden days people didn’t allow their cats inside the house, or if they simply had a more regimented cleaning routine than modern day folks, but cat litter is actually a relatively new invention. Edward Lowe is credited with inventing the first kitty litter in 1947, when the president was 5-years-old. The invention took off in popularity, and Lowe eventually developed the Tidy Cat cat litter brand.
Sugar Packets
The first sugar packet was invented in the mid-1940s by Benjamin Eisenstadt, and it wasn’t until 1957 that Eisenstadt experimented with saccharin to create Sweet n’ Low, the popular no-calorie sweetener. Biden was 15-years-old before he could even sweeten his unsweet iced tea while keeping his figure nice and trim.
Computers
Forget laptops and tablets and Chromebooks, baby Biden didn’t even have access to a computer. The first modern computer wasn’t made public to the world until the 1970s, and weighed 27 tons and cost $500,000. The Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIC) was revealed to the news earlier, in 1946, but still many years before Biden was born.
Costco
Biden couldn’t get a hot dog and a soda for the great low price of $1.50 until he was 24-years-old. The first Costco in Biden’s home state of Delaware wasn’t opened until he was 56-year-old.
Wheeled Luggage
Biden had to carry his bag free style, no matter how heavy, at the airport until he was 18 years old, when Bernard D. Shadow invented rolling luggage. Shadow patented his invention two years later, in 1972, when Biden was 20.
Despite being extremely old, however, Joe Biden dispelled any fears that he lacks the capabilities to serve as leader of the free world in an interview with 60 Minutes reporter Scott Pelley.
“How would you say your mental focus is?” Pelley asked the president.
“Oh, it’s focused. I’d say it’s — I think it’s — I— I haven’t — look, I have trouble even mentioning, even saying to myself, my own head, the number of years. I no more think of myself as being as old as I am than fly,” Biden elucidated. “I mean, it’s just not — I haven’t — observed anything in terms of — there’s not things I don’t do now that I did before, whether it’s physical, or mental, or anything else.”