The Oldies

I’m sitting here listening to music on Winamp and my “collection” is pretty eclectic; I do believe I’ve mentioned that. I’ve got all kinds of stuff that I like: Cher, Fleetwood Mac, Elton John, Pink, Alan Jackson, Toby Keith, They Might Be Giants – you get the picture. It’s just a mish-mosh of a bunch of different things; most of it upbeat and danceable. I don’t know what made me think of this but I remember listening to many of these same songs while I was sitting at my desk, with a friend, back in the summer of 2007. Skid Row came on singing “I Remember You” and my friend, Robi (pronounced Robbie) started bopping and singing along. She was 27 at the time so I was shocked that she knew who Skid Row was. I believe I said to her something like, “You know who Skid Row is?” and she replied, through her dancing, and with a huge grin, with words I’ll never forget: “Oh, I love the oldies!!”

THE OLDIES!!?? Are you kidding me? The oldies? She did say “the oldies” right? Yep, she did. I smiled at her and asked, “Are you saying I’m old?” We both just laughed about it, but she was right. My music, the music I like from the 70s and 80s, is now considered “the oldies” to anyone under thirty. How sad is that? I find it ironic actually because I remember, as a small child, listening to music in the car with my mother and she listened to WCBS in NY. That was music from when she was young – Chuck Berry, Chubby Checker, The Dominos. To me that was “the oldies” and I still listen to those songs today. I’m wondering, though, is that music now considered “the ancients” or something of that nature?

I just think it’s funny how things have changed over time and how we have to sometimes explain something to someone because, even though he is an adult, the subject matter is before his time. I remember sitting in a PACT meeting one night on an oversized loveseat. If I sat all the way to the back of it, my feet didn’t touch the floor and I felt like Edith Ann – one of Lily Tomlin’s characters from “Laugh In.” I was reciting one of her little skits to the room and only one other person there understood what I was saying and actually remembered the show. The rest of the group just shook their heads saying they had no clue.

A couple of weeks ago I was talking to Ellen’s son Josh when he took a Heineken out of the fridge and someone else in the room commented with the old “Grab a Heiney” slogan. I, forgetting who I was talking to, asked Josh if he remembered the old “Grab a Heiney” t-shirts. He just smiled and shook his head. So I asked again as if it would jog his memory. Right about then I remembered the shirts were from the 70s and he wasn’t even born until 1984. Ellen laughed and asked me “How old do you think he is?” Big DUH to me. Someone born in the year I graduated from High School won’t remember those shirts. ACK!! He was born the year I graduated from High School. That makes me old, right? Gosh, I hope not. I’d rather think of it as knowledgeable, experienced, and/or wise.

My kids really made me feel old one day. I was showing them a record that I’d found in a box in our basement. I used to dance to the record in ballet class when I was three, about 36 years prior when I was discussing it with the kids (it would be 40 years ago now, as I write this). The boys just looked at the record, in all its vinyl splendor, with wide, disbelieving eyes, and Ty said, “WOW!! That’s a big CD!” I almost fell over with laughter. I explained that it wasn’t a CD, that it was a record. “A what?” Then I took them over to the turntable – yes, I’ve got one and it works – and played the record on it. The sound was scratchy but still listenable. They thought it was great that they got to see this “thing” from when Mom was a kid. What I forgot was that they had only grown up with CDs; no records, no eight tracks (I had one of those too), no dial phones, no dial TVs.

It made me think of those emails I get that say, “If you can remember these, you’ve lived.” They go on to list all the things we – the 40s generation – had or didn’t have as kids that are different today. I’m thinking I need to find a museum that shows what life was like “back then” so my kids will understand the differences between then and now. I’d like to think it would change their attitudes about how they think things should be rather than how they are. I don’t really think it would, though. I’ve tried explaining it to them in the past and it only makes an impression for a few short hours. Seeing it in person, however, might have more of an impact on them. I’ll have to research and see where I can find such a place; if I can’t, I’ll make one. Yep, just another thing to put on my to-do list that will be rolled over from day to day.

Don’t ask where this post came from tonight because I have no clue. I was just listening to music when Robi popped into my head and things just rolled from there. It’s a good thing, too, because I had no clue what I was going to write about tonight. Sometimes, the words just need to be said whether they have great meaning or not. Tonight’s fall into the latter category. Perhaps tomorrow I’ll have something more interesting to say. You’ll have to tune in to find out, though.

Until next time…peace to all.