Hmm...maybe your annoyance antennae were on the fritz from, like, 1985 to, like, well, like now!
I'll admit the "like" habit is hard to kick. There are four of us at work who are around the same age (50 - 56) and we say "like" all the time. One of our 40-ish colleagues asked one day "what's up with 'like?'" We all laughed.