The Cycle Continues

Growing up with younger parents had its perks.  For example, how many parents took their kids to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Oingo Boingo in concert?  Mine did.  Granted, Dad thought Flea jumping off of the feedback speakers in his stuffed animal head pants was a little off kilter, he still hung in there and can now actually claim to like some of their songs.  Mom and Dad were 23 when they had me and 25 when they had my brother.   They never listened to soft rock when it was their turn to carpool us to school and honestly I was quite proud of how hip they were.  

As we got older, they kept up with the trends.  One of my favorite memories was driving down to my National Honors Society dinner with my Dad and watching him turn up the volume to jam out to MC Hammer's You Can't Touch This.  He also had a date night with Mom to go see 8 Mile and loved that rap theme song.  Neil Diamond, Dan Fogerty, and others of similar genre were not allowed in our house.  My parents had their own music "classic" influences, but The Beatles and Led Zeppelin were more likely to be found in our vinyl collection next to Peter Gabriel and Prince.  I truly had hip parents.

Don't get me wrong, we had some bumps along the way.  When I was in junior high my Mom went to the music store wanting to get the new "Michael George" album for me and "Moon Javi" for my brother.  Thank God she has a marvelous sense of humor and retold the story of the confused clerk trying to decipher her "Momisms."  Little did I know this phenomenon isn't just relegated to my Mom.  Last night SNL ran a funny skit that had me literally laughing so hard I was crying.  I couldn't wait to get up this morning and call my brother and my parents so I could email them the links.  

I realize that the cycle is inevitable, especially since I will be a much older, further removed generation from my future kids.  We don't even have kids now, but last weekend J asked about that new song by "Gabagooga."  When I looked caught off guard he then began to sing, "Joker Face."  Ah!!! You mean Lady GaGa and Poker Face.  We don't even have kids and already the signs are there:  we are getting old.