"How long have you been playing drums?" I was asked on Friday night after hauling my kit into the bar for a set that wouldn't end up starting for a few hours.

Being ever cagey, I said since I was ten.

So ten years or so?

Twenty-seven.

It's been a long time. A while, you might say.

Twenty years ago this week I was going to Kansas State, but I'd already changed my major from Architecture to English and was pretty sure I wouldn't be attending K-State in the spring semester. I hadn't told many people this, though.

Twenty years ago this week the Berlin Wall came down. There was a whiff of freedom in the air.

A few weeks later, twenty years ago, "The Simpsons" debuted as a stand alone animated sit-com. It was a Christmas special. Santa's Little Helper loses Homer a lot of money at the track and the loser dog is fired as a racer and taken home to Homer's loser family. The series would start airing regularly in January, but a bunch of us in my dorm sat in the basement rec area watching this new show.

There were two TVs (probably 19 inchers) bolted to the wall and facing opposite ways. A retractable wall ran down the stage between them. Usually that wall separated the stage into two TV viewing areas, but occasionally it wasn't. When the original "Batman" came out on video, the entire TV rec area was packed to overflowing.

Some people had TVs in their dorm room, but this was rare. Some people had little refrigerators in their dorm room, but this was also rare.

In my current dorm room (a sizable two-bedroom apartment), I have all these amenities and more. I'm slow cooking up a batch of carne adovada. Will it be done for dinner tonight? We shall see. But you can definitely smell it in the air.

My TV is twice the size of those basement dorm TVs, but probably weighs about the same.

I was in a band twenty years ago called Mach 5. We never played a gig. I'm in a band now called Full Speed Veronica. We've played twenty gigs. After Monday, it'll be twenty-one.

Germany united once again after the Berlin Wall and Iron Curtain fell. I've mentioned this in conversation and been asked what the Iron Curtain was.

This is when you feel the twenty years.

As I get older I reach back and push forward. I have a sizable vinyl collection of music. I also have a sizable digital collection of music. They overlap a bit, but not as much as you might think.

There was a great deal of hope after the wall fell, but no one really knew what would happen. It took a few years for many of the vestments of the Cold War to peel away. And Russia still hasn't quite figured out its identity in this world we call free. Oil reserves keep them relevant.

The House passed its version of the Health Care bill last week. The Senate still has work to do. And then the intermingling before Obama can think about signing it.

No matter what, it'll take a few years to figure out what all this means.

Will we remember 2009 in 2029 as a turning point for good or bad? Or will it be remembered for much at all?

My nephews and niece will be twenty-somethings. They might wonder what health insurance is when their Uncle Matt brings it up during one of his rambles.

Maybe, as sixty fast approaches, someone will ask how long I've been playing drums. And maybe I'll be waiting for my band's slot to come up and say, "Since I was ten."

Matt Worley is looking forward to the carne adovada.