The long and winding road
When I was a kid, in order to entertain myself on long car trips, I had to get creative. No mindless entertainment for me. Nosireee, pardnah."You want fun? Make your own!"
My brothers and I each had a red toolbox with our names painted on the end and were allowed to bring whatever we could fit in the smallish wooden box with us. This usually meant a cramming in a few G.I. Joe figures, a Head-To-Head Football game, and probably some crappy Christian rock tapes — and being the only kid of music I was allowed to own, I didn't care how bad it was. Back then, just about all Christian rock was crap...though most of it still is, I guess.
My point with all this is that this weekend we got one of Connor's Christmas presents about a month early. Judging by the picture I've included, can you possibly guess what it is?
Stacey and I had a few discussions about whether we wanted to head down the road of watching DVDs in the car or try to sidestep it entirely. Even if we hadn't decided that it was okay, I think the exhuberance of certain grandparents might have won out anyway. Glad we were able to agree and avoid a messy situation.
Last night, on our way back home from Atlanta, Connor watched a bit of Baby Einstein and a whole lotta Barney. Now that I've seen the possiblities, though, (Stacey and I watched Napoleon Dynamite in bed last night before falling asleep) I'm glad we caved. Connor hasn't gotten used to the headphones, but I'll be damned if I'm gonna hook the DVD player up to the car's stereo...unless Stacey's driving and me and my boy are watching Batman Begins.
posted by Carter at 6:55 PM
5 Comments:
That part about the Christian music is...well...it's um...not true. Does that matter? Or did you confuse your parents with Billy and Donna? Besides, your parents would have bought you all the Beethoven you could carry.
P'raps I should have worded that part a tad differently, as I could probably have had all the Mozart I wanted without conflict.
I wasn't allowed to have a radio until I was 13, and I clearly remember having more than one Guns 'N' Roses tape taken away — and my Metallica and Sex Pistols tapes saw a swift and terrible end as well. I had to do about two month's-worth of convincing to get a copy of The Cult's Sonic Temple in 8th grade, though a Sonic Temple concert shirt that I had a friend buy for me got thrown away as soon as it was discovered. If it weren't for headphones and clever tape mis-labeling, I might not have made it through puberty.
Okay, maybe I was technically allowed to have non-Christian music, but it sure was hard to come by.
Yup. Atlanta.
Sorry, Tony. We need to hook up and hit some skate spots.
Dude, perhaps your problem was that you were an 8th grader wanting to listen to, uh, Guns And Roses, the Sex Pistols and Metallica (on your way to Coffin Break and the Day Glo Abortions). I had relatively little problem getting my Howard Jones, Duran Duran and A-ha through the parental filter... and zero problem with Wynton Marsalis and Keith Jarrett.
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