1985 is alive and well

Last night at dinner Ben and Rebecca were trying to sing the song "1985" (by Bowling for Soup) because it is the ringtone on my phone (And I am seriously considering changing the ringtone on my phone. Ben of course googled the lyrics at some point and finds them fascinating and has attempted to memorize them, and now Rebecca is  starting to sing it, and it's all entirely inappropriate... but anyway...) So Ben wanted to know, how old was I in 1985? I told him and then forced him to do some math for me by subtracting 1985 from 2012 to tell me how many years ago it was. So he did this grudgingly, and then Rebecca who had obviously been listening but not really understanding, asked "Is 1985 dead?"

So I explained, over Ben's giggles, that 1985 is not alive or dead, it was a year, like how this year is 2012, only 1985 was a year that was 27 years ago (thanks to Ben's math).

"I KNOW," she said impatiently, "But is it dead?"