During one of our band’s gig night, I was pleasantly surprised to meet in the audience an old high school pal who had brought along his son as, you guessed it, drinking companion. After introducing me to the young lad as his old school partner-in-crime, we took turns one-upping the other on the number of pranks and tomfoolery each of us staged during our four-year high school prison term. As this was going on, I noticed the boy seemed uninterested, as if thinking, rock paper scissors, new age beats old school anytime. Old people’s antics can be corny sometimes.
Amused but slightly irritated, my mind raced and when it finally slowed down to a halt, it settled on a verdict, ahh the arrogance of youth. Below deck, I could only smile. It’s amazing, even though that trait was common in us when we were his age, it still hasn’t lost its touch in rubbing people the wrong way. Our parents had even castigated us back then and during a few times, shoved the truth directly in our faces. We were once pompous adolescent thugs indeed. Needless to say, that didn’t mean they loved us less. Perhaps, they were just overwhelmed in what I also felt at the moment, amused and slightly irritated.
‘Every generation blames the one before’, as the song goes, and it never ends. It’s just one endless cycle. The young as life’s emerging force will always seek to replace the old, whether they wish to or not. I guess that’s what life goes on really means. One reward old people can silently appreciate however, is their being able to witness the steady unfurling of the years. At best, it’s the memories gathered from these, not material things they’ve amassed, which will truly qualify as real treasures in the end.
How can I ever forget how my parents’ eyes glow with excitement each time they talk about their early years. Sometimes, I compare some of their life episodes with some of Forrest Gump’s misadventures; like them meeting some famous people or them caught in the middle of historic moments. At this, I can only wish that we, as well as other parents and grandparents, will do the same. Not merely to impart what we have learned through the years, but more important, to share whatever we’ve experienced, pleasant or not.
I remember in college, we used to hang out at one of our classmates’ home and his dad would always entertain us with anecdotes and jokes. Admittedly at the time, I had wished my father was like that. To my embarrassment, when I looked back really hard, I realized all fathers were really the same. How could I forget in his time, we could only watch from afar how my late father would hold an enthralled audience and be the ‘life of the party ‘.
I am again looking at my old friend’s young lad and wondering, aside from our dated life episodes, what are some other memorable snips from his father has he got tucked in that young and bored mind of his?
