I recently found a new radio station and they play a lot of good “old” music, you know like Michael Jackson, circa 1984.
One morning the kids and I were driving somewhere when “Wanna be Startin’ Somethin'” came on the radio and I cranked it up and started car dancing and then talked about how this was my FIRST record album when I was a little girl and how I got the ACTUAL record called “Thriller” for my 9th birthday and how excited I was and how cool I thought I was and how I listened to it over and over and watched the Thriller video SOMANYTIMES on MTV!
And in the back seat?
*crickets*
And then.
“Mom, what are you talking about?”
“Mom, you’re acting so OLD!”
“What’s a record album?”
Right.
I attempted to explain, ALL THE THINGS and it was hard and I could FEEL the weird looks I was getting from my kids, even though I was not facing them. Although I did get a glance in the rear-view mirror…
And then I looked down to make sure I was not wearing my Mom Jeans.
(whew!)
So, instead of getting all uptight about the fact that MJ is not known to my children, I continued to rock out to “Nah, Nah” and embarrass the hell out of my kids in small town traffic. It was fun.
Then B asked why he (MJ) was so popular “back then” and I explained about him being an amazing pop star and how he had been performing since he was a little boy, etc. He also asked if he was alive or dead and I told him that he died a few years ago. And then I realized he passed away on the day I flew to Louisiana to sign the lease on the house here and how when I was driving back from the airport in Dallas they were reporting his death.
Then we went back to talking about record players and what they were and how I would have to “google” it for him to show him a picture.
And then I felt about 145.3 years old.
The conversation kept on when I brought up telephones with wires, and t.v.s in which you had to GET UP to change the channel and the fact that you could NOT pause a show when I was a kid.
And all these memories came flooding back and all the sudden, there I was, sitting in my parents’ living room on one of the ugly brown love seats (sorry, Mom), “flipping” channels on the huge cable box with the long wire while eating an oatmeal pie after school.
I was probably watching Three’s Company. Or a re-run of Happy Days.
And afterward I probably went and to listened to “Billie Jean” 4 of 5 times in a row on the state of the art record player in my room…
Then I asked him. “Where do you think technology will be when you are my age someday?” And he didn’t really have an answer.
So I told him he’d be having the same conversation with his kids someday about how you actually had to HOLD the cell phone yourself or something like that…
I mean can you even imagine?
I know I can’t…
My kids definitely know who Michael Jackson is because I was stupid enough to play the Thriller video for them and it SCARED THE HELL OUT OF THEM. Bad mom. So, whenever his music comes on in the car we all rock out to it. Thriller was my first album too. And MJ was my first big crush. I remember opening that album and just staring at him for hours. No wonder my first REALLY big/serious love looked a lot like Michael Jackson. 😉
On of my all-time favorite MJ songs? PYT. Every time it comes on I lose my mind. When Todd and I had first started dated that song came on at a bar and I was dancing like a crazy person. I think he thought it was pretty cute. Until he found out I act like that EVERY time that song comes on. 😉
MJ died just a few days before my dad died and I remember telling my kids how now that grandpa died he will be able to watch over us and be with us all the time. Joey looked at me and said, “Mom, does that mean Michael Jackson will be watching us too?” HAHAHA! Scary! I told him that no, MJ wouldn’t be watching us because he didn’t know us at all. 😉 Yikes!
ANYWAY. MJ. *sigh* Good stuff.
By the time my kids are old enough to hear me talk about my Sony Walkman (oh yes), they’d be using Google Glass or something.
I just realized MJ died 4 YEARS ago. It felt like, well, last year.
I have had a very similar conversation with my oldest as I tried to explain records, cassettes and VHS tapes. I can’t even imagine what new marvels technology will bring to our children’s generation.
And I love listening to “oldies” from the 80s and car singing and dancing, too. 🙂
I know my son gives me weird looks when a great song from the 80’s come on. I also turn it up loud and dance in my seat. One of our local stations has flash back days a lot and I just love it! I remember my first record was Wham!
I remember my dad’s super long, sits on the floor radio player. One side you could play 8 tracks and the other was the record player. Aww memories 🙂
I about died when I heard 80s music on the “oldies” station. Then I thought about how long ago it was, and realized that the timing was about right. I had a hard enough time explaining what a CD was to the 5 year old the other day! Thankfully their dad is tech-savvy enough to keep up with the stuff that they’ll most likely be using when they’re teenagers. **fingers crossed**
MJ died the day Eddie was born. I found out the next morning when I turned on the Today Show as the nurse brought Eddie in to me. So weird. And isn’t it CRAZY the boom that technology has had in our life time? It’s really an amazing time to be alive in that respect.
It’s funny because I *think* you’re so much younger than I am, yet Thriller was my first album too!
My daughter says we will have real mobile, flying houses that take us everywhere. We will be able to order food by speaking to the refrigerator and the food will just appear. I told her I wanted to patent her flying home and manic refrigerator. Fun blog today. I love it. I joined the ABC’s of Blogging Challenge today.
http://mary-anderingcreatively.blogspot.com/2013/06/heres-hoping-you-laugh-today.html
I love introducing my son to music from the 80s. I love to see how he reacts to it, and what he likes! He has a particular affinity for AC/DC music… 🙂
Yeah they know how to make you feel old. I was having an MJ moment on in the car last week and singing at the top of my lungs. My two year old covers her ears and starts singing “wheels on the bus” ver agressively. LOL! I was hurt
I think about this, too, and how technology changes SO fast these days that it’s about impossible to imagine what it will be like. One can daydream, though…
I just thought of this, but my kids had baby toys that were wired telephones and now “cell phones” or “baby iPads” with “apps” and everything. And they know how to use all of it!
You’re not old…you don’t look a day over 28. 🙂
Ha! Totally. Sometimes when Connor complains about something (me taking a few minutes to get his favourite PVR’d show) I’m tempted to launch into a rant about how easy he has it. But he’s too young to get it, so I’ll save that for another day.
We are raising the kids on Jackson 5 and I think Thriller was my first album. I even had an MJ doll and my own sparkly glove. The kids were just upset as we were when he died. It’s amazing to think what kind of conversation they’ll be having with their kids!
I was never a big MJ fan but my bff in high school loved him. I remember where I was when I found out he died, I was at a wine tasting and we toasted to MJ.
It was my favorite album of all time. I remember being four years old and staring at the cover all day and all night! This is kinda morbid but interesting – my father died in 1984 rather unexpectedly. To this day my mom always thinks about how wild it would be for him to be able to come back for an hour or a day or something and see what the world is like. He always loved video games. Imagine what he’d think of today’s video games and computers!
My three year old thinks a tape deck is HILARIOUS and laughs even harder at the story tape I played for her that requested we “turn the tape over.”
I still think Thriller is one of the best song collections I’ve ever heard.
*crickets*
Slinking back to my room next to yours in the retirement home…
Right there with you, sister. Emily refers to when I was born as “back in the olden days.”
bahaha. my first cd was madonna. loved her. substitute madonna for mj and this could have been me and my kids 🙂 YES! embarrassing them in small town traffic is your duty. Rock it out.
BEST ALBUM EVER- was my first ROCK album that caused a major issue with my mother and myself as she was a country music gal and nothing was better than that.
I still have the LP however, nothing to play it on.
I would have been all over that MJ song with you had I been in that car! I love it when a great song comes on from when I was a kid and my 3 children look at me like I have two heads. Music floods me with memories. Always.
YES! All of it!
Although we have our kiddo listen to the old stuff all the time so I think she thinks it’s current and has no concept of when we were younger when it comes to music stuffs. 😉
Michael Jackson will always be legendary. Someday our kids will have kids and they’ll be teaching them.
Confession: He is on my ipod…along with backstreet boys. Don’t judge. My kid listens to what to and doesn’t have a choice:)
I think that MJ will always be popular with the young crowd. Billie Jean? come on. That was epic
Oh I loved Wanna Be Starting Something and Thriller. I had a huge MJ poster on my wall.
We still have a player and every once and a while play something. Mostly something the husband has in his “vinyl” collection.
This post made me smile, thanks!
David does a great job of sharing “old” music with the kids. They will ask for Michael Jackson, Tom Petty, ZZ Top, the Beatles… It’s pretty awesome. But yeah… I don’t really want to think about where technology will be in 20 years.
My girls love Michael Jackson and my 5 yr. old loves to announce that he is dead! We just heard “Hangin’ Tough” in the car and they were not impressed. I wept!-Ashley
Okay. I remember how when the Thriller video came on MTV — it brought the Theta house at SMU to a standstill. There must have been 40 girls, dates, houseboys and maybe even the house mother, all gathered around an 20-inch TV in the gathering room. I was in college and you were nine. Who feels old now?