It is a new year, and welcome to the..er..Tens decade. Or is it the Teens...or the 1s?
Wait, enough about this decade. We don't even have a name for last decade yet! I have been asking the question since 1999 about the first 10 years of the new millenium, but we never settled on anything close to a consensus.
Why is this important? For the rest of our lives we will need to refer to this period as something. We all get a strong image when some one mentions the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s. Music and fashions are sorted by decade, and even tv shows (e.g. That 70s Show). Some decades are even later named by the momumental events or characterization of the period (e.g. the "Me" decade 70s or the dot-com 90s). How will last decade be remembered? The 9-11 decade? I hope not. How about the procrastination decade, since we never got around to naming it?
There have been a few articles written about naming the century's first decade, but even the 
best suggestions are only mediocre. The "turn of the century" and the 2000s both seem to refer to something other than a decade. The Ohs, Oh-Ohs, and Zeros all have some merit. The "ones" decade is accurate if the current decade is the "tens", but its too confusing. The Single Digits (or sing dig) decade won't stick. The pre-teens? The naughts was suggested by some, and apparently the early 1900s were often called the aughts (i.e. 19 aught 8). I just don't see a clear winner emerging from this group.
best suggestions are only mediocre. The "turn of the century" and the 2000s both seem to refer to something other than a decade. The Ohs, Oh-Ohs, and Zeros all have some merit. The "ones" decade is accurate if the current decade is the "tens", but its too confusing. The Single Digits (or sing dig) decade won't stick. The pre-teens? The naughts was suggested by some, and apparently the early 1900s were often called the aughts (i.e. 19 aught 8). I just don't see a clear winner emerging from this group. A brief look at the textbooks shows that few notable historical events occurred in first ten years of any century, or perhaps the historians overlooked them because of the failure to identify the decade by name. Columbus landed in 1492. But what happened in the early 1500s that we remember? Or the early 1600s and 1700s? We certainly remember the American Revolution in the late 1700s, but then most of our memories skip to 1812. The Industrial Revolution and the Gay 90s led us into the 1900s, but seemingly straight to WWI and on to the Roaring 20s. Maybe after entering the decade with the anti-climax of Y2K, it will just be a decade to be forgotten.
I certainly don't have the answer, but I will be curious to see how my grandchildren dress up for an Ohs decade party or dance. And will we ever see an Ohs themed radio station to play the oldies by John Mayer, Black-eyed Peas, and Pink? My guess is we will never actually name the last decade, but will just move forward.
But what are we going to call this decade???
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