forgive them, for they know not what they've missed

The beach chairs are packed away. The ice cream man's stopped coming around after dinner. The summer's over, and it's time to get back to work. For most of us, it's also the time of year when we focus on getting the kids back to school, but for this spring's crop of college graduates, it's the first time in more than 15 years that they AREN'T returning to school.

Nope, it's time for their first reality check. It's time for them to gain a whole new understanding of what their parents meant when they told them school might not seem like fun, but it beats the alternative—work!

Good jobs are hard to come by these days. Still, many of those bright, eager, energetic young graduates have found jobs, which they're starting this month. Some of them have even found themselves working in the logistics profession. In fact, a few of them just might be coming to work for you.

To help you understand where these folks are coming from, consider their frame of reference. Most of the people entering the workforce this fall after four years of college were born in 1982. They have no substantive recollection of the Reagan Era. Their most vivid memories of Ronald Reagan are of his recent state funeral, not his presidential accomplishments. In their lifetime, they've known only one Pope. They were pre-teens when the Soviet Union broke apart. They don't remember the Cold War. They don't remember the Berlin Wall.

They're too young to remember the Challenger disaster. Tiananmen Square means nothing to them. They confuse LiveAid with Woodstock. They have no idea why we occasionally refer to CDs as albums.

They can't conceive of a television with only 13 channels or without a remote control.

They've always had an answering machine. And they've never lived in a world without VCRs, which they already consider an antiquated technology.

They've never heard of the "I've fallen and I can't get up" or the "Where's the beef?" commercials. There's a real possibility that the only banking they've ever done has been with a wall-mounted ATM rather than a human bank teller. Their home has always had a personal computer with Internet access. To them, the Dark Ages date back two years ago when they still had to use those slow dial-up connections.

They were born the same year that Sony introduced the Walkman. They know of no Tonight Show host other than Jay Leno. They never saw M*A*S*H in prime time. There's always been at least one 24-hour TV news channel.

As far as they're concerned, popcorn has always been cooked in the microwave. They've never seen Larry Bird or Magic Johnson play basketball. The Vietnam War is as far removed in history to them as WWI, WWII and the Civil War.

They respond to references to classic movies like "Caddyshack" and "Animal House" with blank stares. To them, Michael Jackson has always been white and had a small nose. Kansas, Chicago, Boston, America and Alabama are places, not bands.

They've also grown up in a world in which they expect everything to be there when they want it. They don't bring a lot of patience to the party. And that means … they'll probably be perfect for a job in logistics!