It’s interesting how the generation gap makes itself evident
every once in a while.
Sometimes it’s even kind of awkward.
One evening after work last week, I was unwinding with a
drink, my iPad, and a Bluetooth speaker on the back deck by the pool. I have
tons of old music loaded on a media server that sits in the living room, but no
matter how much music I add, I never seem to find the music I am in the mood
for at a given moment. I never really know what I'm in the mood to hear until I hear it.
Such was the case this evening.
So I switched the setting of my app to simply play random
selections in “shuffle mode”.
One song comes up from a live Bruce Springsteen concert album. You
can hear the cheers and crowd noise in the background and then the base guitar
kicks in hard with a familiar repeating riff interrupted by the smash of drum
and cymbals between each. And then the Boss starts in …
I’m driving in my car …
I turn on the radio …
I start pulling you
closer …
At that point my youngest daughter Ashley-Rae comes out,
bored from a summer day with nothing to do, and sits down beside me.
“Ash, this is a great great tune … listen …” I said to my
fifteen year old who thinks music before 2012 is too old to be bothered with.
I hit the double arrow icon on the tablet to start the song
over. The crowd noise rises again as it did before, and Ashley-Rae sits
patiently to humor me.
I’m driving in my car …
I turn on the radio …
I start pulling you
closer …
But you just say No ….
You say you don’t like
it …
But I know you’re a
liar …
Because when we kiss …
ohhhh …
Fire …
“Dad, is this song about rape?” asks Ashley-Rae.
“Huh? What? No …. No no no”, I stammer … shocked at this
twist, not sure if she’s teasing me or seriously asking. “No this about when a
man … you know … and he thinks the girl is playing hard to .. you know …”
And I stopped.
“Dad, no means no”.
“Uh yeah – yes it absolutely does … “ remembering my
audience is my very pretty fifteen year old daughter that I am very proud to
hear say this back to me.
“So is this song about rape?”
At that moment the neighbor lady across the corner came to
the back gate announcing her arrival with “Hellloooo?”
Perfect timing. I jumped up and hurried my way to the arbor
gate and let her in. She was asking to borrow a garden tool. I found it
surprisingly quickly in the shed and as I was handing it to her I asked “Hey do
you remember an old Springsteen song … “I’m driving in my car …”
“I turn on the radio …” she continued and she sang the next
two lines as she did a little dance.
“Ashley-Rae just asked me if that song is about rape …”
The nice neighbor lady looked up at me surprised. “huh?” and
she started to sing the next lines … “ohhh … gee … I don’t know … it’s such a
great song … how do you handle that?”
At that moment that I realized that whether or not we
thought it was a great song or not didn’t matter.
“ASH” I yelled, hoping she was still outside.
“Oh hi miss Melinda”, she said as she appeared around the
corner.
“I asked miss Melinda, and she agreed that the song is about
rape”, I said and the nice neighbor lady played along by nodding, accepting her
new stance, understanding why.
“Okay” said Ash as she spun back around to go back in the house. “Too bad though, it’s a pretty good song”.
