I’ve been trying to get my kids to enjoy Pink Floyd. Of
course, it’s not going too well. Perhaps Ummagumma
and Meddle are a bit too much for
beginners. Ya think? Maybe I should save that for later on and start with the
gateway Pink Floyd, such as The Wall,
or Wish You Were Here. Something they
could dance to…Animals.
Or perhaps expose them to more Phish.
I told them, right in the middle of “Several Species of
Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict” that
this was the music I was listening to while my fellow teens were grooving to
the sweet sounds of New Kids on the Block,
Tiffany, or Milli Vanilli. I was
also experimenting with The Doors, The Sex Pistols, The Dead Milkmen, and The
Beatles, just to name a few. Yeah kids, your dad was cool.
They try to get me to tune into the local Remixed Hits and
Latest Crap station, and I balk, but eventually let them subject me to what
they like. And I do it. I do it and like it. Not the music…but the way it makes
them happy. But I still don’t get some of it. Bland, forced talented performers
pleasing the populace is what I hear. No “speaking right to the core of my very
soul” music or lyrics. Or at least none that I can hear or understand, no
matter how loud they want it played.
Listen to me. I sound like I assume my dad would sound like,
if he were here. (No, he’s still around, just not here.)
Ok, no lying here, but I liked some pretty crappy music
myself when I was like, 12 and stuff. Ok, so maybe into the teens as well. But
it was right before going to academy (that’s middle and high school for you
heatherns) when I discovered real music. Even when I had headphones on, my
grandma had a way of telling if I was listening to Mother Approved Country or
if it was Taboo Rock and/or Roll. Speaking of headphones…I remember having a
set of bright yellow radio headphones. You know…DJ style with the black
insulating-yet-not-so-soundproof padding, complete with AM/FM and a telescoping
antenna. She could tell the difference between my head bopping to Eddie
Rabbitt’s “Drivin’ My Life Away” and Kiss’
“Lick It Up.” Frankie Goes to Hollywood,
Culture Club, Yes, Blue Oyster Cult, The Cars and many, many more bands were
added to my list of music that I had been missing for so long. I’d been missing
them and never even realized it.
And music wasn’t the only media that was due for a change. It
was around the same time that I stared expanding my reading beyond textbooks,
Mad Magazine and the Time-Life Real Crime and Criminals Encyclopedia and
started reading fiction, such as Stephen King. My grandma would ask me why in
the world I wanted to read that kind of stuff. I think she was more appalled by
the language than the horror that lay within. You know, I was already reading
everything that I could get my hands on. I noticed that I couldn’t even ride by
a sign without knowing what it said and reading it (aloud, sometimes). I also
noticed that I couldn’t “not” read any words I saw. That’s why I was reading
that kind of stuff. I kind of had no choice. I think that I had always liked
reading. I was told that I went into 1st grade already reading some.
I do remember reading a Scooby Doo reader and blabbering gibberish when I
didn’t know what a word was. But there were lots of words that I did know. That is what I think shocked
some folks.
And now for a real shocker: I like PBS’ Downton Abbey. I know it is just a British nighttime drama, close
to being a full-blown soap opera. I can’t help it. It draws me in. Sometime
this past year, I was on the phone with my grandma and I told her about the
show and how much I followed the last season and that I thought it was really great.
She said she knew what it was and had seen a few episodes of it herself. Then
she said she was surprised to hear me say that I liked it. “I thought you liked
horror and action or science fiction movies and books. That’s what you always
liked growing up.”
Well, Mom, I still do.
My horizons were, shall we say, “expanded” during the early
90’s. And during the mid 90’s too. All the way up to the late 90’s if the truth
be known. The expansion really started before that, but it was during that
entire decade where I was able to open the doors and explore beyond the
boundaries of anywhere I had ever been. I discovered who I was, what I liked
beyond a doubt, and discovered artistic abilities I never knew I had.
Then I sobered up.
Just kidding. No, not really.
It is absolutely normal for people to change. It is also
absolutely normal for people to stay the same. To me, and way up on the
surface, I sure do feel like I hadn’t changed at all in such a long time. There
are so many things that enjoyed as a teenager that I never really lost interest
in. I love reading for the sake of reading, and it really doesn’t matter what
it is. I love all sorts of music. And last time I checked, I still found women
attractive. But of course there have been changes, different phases of my life.
What I have become, what I am, what I will become…all culminate from the “me”
of the past and pieced together with great big chunks from each phase of life.
And I’m talking about all phases; the
good along with the bad.
I wouldn’t trade any part of my past for anything.
