Tattoos, Rap and Saggy Pants

The journey from child, to teen, to young adult to parent seems to have similar stops along the way for most everyone. When I was in college, during the “age of stupidity,” as a man I greatly respect refers to the 60’s and early 70’s, as a “love child” and soon-to-be yuppie, I was thoroughly convinced that I would be a different parent to any children I might have than my parents were to me.

Naturally, I had ALL the answers. My parents’ tastes in music, fashion, politics, my Mom’s “helmet” style hair-do which required weekly visits to the hair salon, were all stupid, old-fashioned, and ugly! It was inconceivable to me that they didn’t “dig” or see how groovy The Doors, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, or The Stones were. The fact that most of them died of drug overdoses escaped me at the time (e.g. Brian Jones of The Stones in case you think I’ve missed something). The fact that Mick Jagger and his remaining “crew” still perform when our generation famously said not to trust anyone over thirty is also a lost irony on most of my AARP-aged contemporaries now. read more