I felt so old after taking aerobics at the Wooden Center the other night, but it's not because the class was physically challenging, although it was.

Have you heard of "The Awesome '80s," an aerobics class that was offered winter quarter on Thursday nights? Instructor Anne Irwin, a graduate student in World Arts and Cultures, turned the course into a hit parade from the Me Decade, which just happened to be My Decade.

In the early 1980s, I'd just graduated from college. Somehow, my $18,000-a-year salary provided me for the first time with enough disposable income to make the scene. Ah, the memories of youth! Suddenly, they assaulted me in Sensaround.

Every one of Anne's steps had some cute '80s name: Thriller Thighs, Karate Kid, Run DMC, Arsenio Hall, Billy Idol (a punching action that the peroxide punk made, Anne said, "in every appearance including 'The Wedding Singer' ").

Almost forgot "Love Shack," "Raspberry Beret" or "Whip It"? Well, this was the refresher course. In some cases, Anne actually remembered the moves from the original music videos. Had trouble imitating Prince at his peak? Wait 'til you try it at 42!

If my classmates dared to leave early, Anne called out after them: "Remember the '80s!" She threw a New Kids on the Block pop quiz. She insisted on a reverential silence when we played "We Are The World" - or, as she called it, "that all-important song." My favorite step was something Anne called "Charlie's Angels." (Farrah may have been the poster child of the '70s, but the show didn't get the boot 'til 1981, remember?) We'd jump to the right and then leap to the left, pointing our clasped hands as though we were holding pistols. Every time I drew my "weapon," I dissolved in giggles.

Yet, I often laughed alone, which is why '80s fans next quarter will have to catch their flashbacks elsewhere.

"They're in their early 20s - they don't get it," Anne groaned with dismay about my 12 or so classmates when I talked to her after the class. "In the 1980s, they hadn't even been born." I felt superior until I realized I was exalting in being twice as old as my classmates.

"I ask them to name the lead singer in Van Halen, and they give me a blank look," Anne complained, sounding a lot like a history teacher. I bit my lip. By the time Van Halen came around, I'd given up keeping track of lead singers.

In contrast to her callow charges, Anne was a respectably mature 27. "Trickle-down economics - I remember it all," she bragged.

Although enrollment seemed strong on the two nights I attended, overall, the class just wasn't popular enough. So at the end of winter quarter, it went the way of "Charlie's Angels." Personally, I feel the problem was acoustics. If students could have only heard Anne's jokes better, I truly believe they would have flocked to her class.

Still, it looks like the '80s may finally be over. Whoever said exercise is the fountain of youth must never have seen the decade of their flowering cancelled due to low attendance.

Meg Sullivan is a senior public information representative for the College of Letters & Science.