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Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Ain't Wastin' Time No More

I spoke to a woman earlier this week who told me she enjoys the music of the Almond Brothers Band. Puzzled, I asked, "Almond or Allman?"

"Almond Brothers," she responded. "I went with my dad last year. They play the Beacon like every March."

I didn't know if it was polite to correct her at that point so I just let it go. It started me thinking, however, about the cultural divide between people of different age groups. This chick is only 7 years younger than me, but she might as well have been seven years old. She went to go see the "Almond Brothers" with her dad, probably sat in the front row, didn't know a single song, and had daddy buy her a $60 T-shirt that she'd wear if she needed to paint her apartment, or something. I went to go see the "Allman Brothers" in high school with a dime bag of brown, shitty weed that my friends and I bought at Washington Square Park an hour before the concert because we were too stupid to know any better. We sat in the upper balcony, and the only T-shirts we bought were the cheap $10 knock offs from the guys in the street that after 4 or 5 washes turned into shmatehs that our mothers would use to clean the kitchen floor.

The more we spoke, the more I realized she was too young for me. Any reference I made to pop culture went over her head. I knew there was no point in going out with her when I asked, 'Watchoo talkin' bout, Willis?" in response to something she said, and she confusedly remarked, "Who's Willis?"

Am I that old?, I wondered after the conversation was over. It's not like I insist on putting only "hi-test" gas in my '79 Buick Skylark, nor do I refer to a suitcase as a "valise," but I think to this chick, I must have sounded like a guy who complains about walking ten miles to school in the snow barefoot, and reminisces about paying a nickel to ride the subway.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Almond brothers? ..This chick needs to be tied to the whipping post for such sacrilege.

Anonymous said...

She sounds plain stupid. I don't think it's that much of an age thing.

Anonymous said...

7 years isn't that much of an age difference in terms of dating, but it's enough to have different pop culture points of reference. But if she was actually at the concert, she should probably know the band's correct name.

Anonymous said...

Hi-test gas. Ha! I just heard my grandfather call it that the other day. He has no idea it's called "super" now.

Anonymous said...

I used to always buy the street T-shirts too. Sometimes you could get two for $15.

Anonymous said...

what happened to the glove girl??

Anonymous said...

What happened to the glove girl? Your Miami fan base wants to know....

Jessica said...

I'm only 22 and I've never watched Gary Coleman's show (which for some reason I can't remember the title of right now), but if someone said "what you talkin bout willis", i would know exactly what they were talking about. this girl sounds like a moron.

Anonymous said...

My wife and I are ten years apart, so we naturally have different kinds of pop culture (and other) recollections. Then again, I'm probably the more oblivious one, so I consider it "small stuff" that I don't really sweat. Maybe this girl also likes the CCR song that goes "There's a bathroom on the right."

And yes, what happened to either the "one glove" or the French girl?

Anonymous said...

The last two men I dated have an age difference of 25 years. Generation gaps aside, I discovered that older doesn't necessarily equate with wiser, and younger usually means an inability to commit.
Plus or minus five years is my new rule. I mean, you've gotta be able to *relate* in a relationship!

Marc said...

Glove girl has been out of town. I'm supposed to see her next week. French girl has been out of the picture since our first and only meeting.