An offensive fad or just dumb?

I was reviewing the comments on my last article. I try not to be too attached to them as the Buddhist say attachments are not healthy. Still, I do try to respond when I get a chance to the comments. This last week I loved a comment sent to me stating that that they did not have to blare loud offensive music to have car independence. Now we are talking the Stones and The Who and Heart, not that I noticed that any of their music could be offensive let alone even when blared, crack a windshield, but I can appreciate the comment and it got me thinking…

 Back in the 1950’s when rock and roll music was probably very offensive to many people. Bill Haley & The Comets I am sure without a doubt offended many people. How dare he rock around the clock, why that is absurd don’t you know. And what is with Elvis? What was he really dong with his pelvis and the music… my goodness I think Hound dog was evil. What was it doing to our innocent generation of young kids?

Besides I am sure people who listened to that music would soon be sporting a duck tail wearing a leather coat and who knows even skipping Sunday school!  

 Danny & The Juniors sang At The Hop and it probably lured young innocent teens into malt shops creating conflict and havoc at home.  Little Richard sang Good Golly Miss Molly and it was loud and offensive besides, look at Little Richard; he was a black man that wore women’s make-up. Parents would make their children do 50 Hail Mary’s for even thinking about listening to that.

 Jerry Lee Lewis with his hits Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin On and Great Balls Of Fire was what some would call trash rock.  What does great balls of fire mean anyhow? And listen, when those old 50’s cars with their AM radios cruised down the streets with the music playing, it was just outrageous, why those darn teens! Next thing you know those girls will start wearing poodle skirts or something and start dancing.

 Then comes’ the 70’s. How dare we play the Beatles, The Stones, and The Who. How dare we grow our hair long, tune in and tune out, and play our 8 tracks or cassette players so loud, why if we rolled down our windows the car next to us might be able to hear The Who say ”Why don’t you all just f-f-f-f-f-f-ade away”. I am sure that was very offensive indeed because fade away must have meant something insulting to somebody somewhere.

 Speaking of offensive, platform shoes and please excuse the word, disco and disco fads was just horribly offensive. For so many of us raised in the 60’s, disco was a joke to music and musicianship, however nothing was more offensive than the clothing of the disco fad. Those clothes and that dancing, why, what was happening to our kids?

 Well I suppose nothing is as offensive then what is happening today. If someone thinks listening to The Who is offensive you have to wonder what they think about gangster rap, loud music you can her two blocks away and guys who wear their pants down to their hips so low, that they can’t even get in their car unless they pull their pants up.

Well I suspect in 20 years this gangster rap generation will be saying, “that’s offensive” to the next wave of fads and music. Personally I can’t imagine anything worse than it is now, and am almost afraid to imagine what could be more offensive then my windshield being cracked over thumping music telling me to go kill someone, nor a fad worse than showing off my underwear and walking so funny that people like me have to take their blackberry and film it so we can laugh at it on youtube… but I am sure the next craze will be offensive so someone, somewhere,  somehow.

My nephew is almost 17, and he is experiencing his first real love. I am trying not to tease him too much, even though he doesn’t have a license, so in order to take his girlfriend out on dates he has to rely on a bus, a bicycle, or parents for transportation. In my opinion, that all just seems to make the romance fizzle a tad. I suspect that poor child will be 40 before he will finally go for his driver’s license. Still, I enjoy talking with him; it’s interesting listening to a 17-year-old pubescent boy. And it got me thinking….

In 1976, I was a senior at Santa Rita High School. 17 year olds, in my day, needed not only a driver’s license but a car. At 17, I had saved some money to buy some sort of used car. A friend of mine had a green 1969 Chevy Camaro with an awesome stereo system. He was going to sell it to me for $350.00. SOLD! I said; however, my parents considered it a sports car, and they believed that bad things could happen—like sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Oh yeah, they also thought that only sporty cars got into accidents. Not to mention that many parents thought that Satan’s spawn lived in the glove compartment of all sporty cars. (I wonder if Satan’s spawn lived in mini-vans?)

 I finally settled for a four-door Mercury Comet. It was a nice little “family car” that was blue and white and looked very, hmmmm, well, looked like a family car. But for me, it was my freedom! I put an awesome stereo in it and blared The Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac, The Who, Thin Lizzy, Aerosmith, and Heart, and I did not have to listen to the radio stations that played the Bee Gees and ABBA.

 Dating became very fun as a 17 year old with a car. I had heard the rumors that cars were a great place to make out, but never had made out in my own car before. It was always someone else’s car. There is something a little different when you owned your own car and made out in it. You kissed like an adult and not a 17 year old, whatever that meant and who knows, I was just 17.

 It was fun being a 17-year-old car owner when you got mad. I would be angry at my folks, get in my car, crank The Who up, and drive off into the night. Old Spanish Trail and River road were fun to drive when you were angry or thinking. Just drive the curves and crank the tunes and it was every 17-year-olds’ escape mechanism. Well until you got home and got the lecture that cars are dangerous and at 17 you still needed permission to make a dramatic angry exit out the door.

 But my parents didn’t worry to much because I owned a family car and not a sporty car, so they knew I would not get in an accident, or do awful things in that car like make out. Sadly, a few months later, my four-door family car and I got in a wreck. I flipped my car three-in-a-half times in front of my high school a few days before graduation. I was okay except for a few busted ribs and some cuts and bruises. More important I managed to save the car stereo and opted to get another car, this time one a little sportier. Who cares if Satan’s spawn lived in the glove compartment, those family cars were too dangerous for a 17 year old anyhow.

 So what do you remember about your first car?

I was talking to a friend this morning and somehow we got on the subject of playing board games. The conversation went something like, no matter where were are in time, the one thing that seems to stick around is board games and this got me thinking…

 As a kid, I used to play lots of board games. I had several favorite board games. As a very young child I loved ladders and Chutes. As I got older, Clue and Life were my favorites. Ahhh but Monopoly was fun as well. Though with Monopoly, it could go on for days and my sister and I would always put the board under the bed with the pieces still in tact so we could play the next day.

 Hands Down was another game my sister and I played. It was sort of a card game and you slapped these hands down, thus the name, “Hands Down” I remembered we slapped it so hard that the game broke pretty quickly. The same thing happened with the game Mousetrap. Some of these games were made of cheap plastic and fell apart, still they were the games us kids felt we could not live without.

 My sister wanted the Mystery Date game and received that one year for Christmas. Even as a young child, I laughed at the door on the board game and watched my sister and her friends play it. I thought it was the dumbest game of all, but I remember my sister thought it was all that and more.

 For me as a kid I would always ask for several board games each year for Christmas and birthdays and I recall some of the silliest games such as  a game called Swack which was a huge mouse trap and you had to take little plastic chunks of cheese before you hand got SWACKED!  Cootie was a must have game even if you didn’t like, you had to own it if you wanted to be considered a real “gamer” .

I was a young hippie and a rock and roller so of course for me,what would be a game if we did not have a game with the Beatles?  I had The Beatles Flip Your Wig which sold in 1964 for about 3 bucks and now goes for almost 1,000. Sure wished I held onto mine.

 Battleship, Scrabble, Operation, Checkers, Password, Parcheesi, Yahtzee, Twister, Concentration, were all games that lined our closets as kids. I sadly did not hang on to any of those games. I will say that even today, when going to friend’s homes, there is nothing like playing a good old fashioned game and spending the evening laughing and giggling . Does this mean I am old, or just like having fun?

What was your favorite games growing up?