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Saturday, February 09, 2008

Not cool at all*

I like to think we are somewhat hip parents. No, neither we nor our kids own a pair of Pumas. And we resisted the urge to call either one of them Gillian or Apple or Townes. And none of us wear skinny jeans. But still, we try to let our kids live lives to the full and to experience some of the good things; for instance, Annabelle likes to rock the hipster t-shirts her Uncle P procures for her, and Barritt knows all the rhyming words to the mountain ballad Shady Grove:

Shady Grove, my little love, Shady Grove, my darlin'
Shady Grove, my little love, I'm goin' back to Harlan.

Peaches in the Summertime, Apples in the fall,
If I can't have my Shady Grove, then I won't have none at all.

The point of all this is, well, I'm not sure. But I am profoundly disturbed by a turn of events that happened today at about 1:27 p.m. There we were, sitting in the station wagon, just Dad, B, and A, waiting while Mom quickly ran into the store.

While waiting, we were rocking out to Magic, the very good, and most recent album from Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.



And out of nowhere, and in the middle of the song Radio Nowhere, Barritt asks:

"Dad, is this The Wiggles?"


I was apoplectic. Initially, I felt I had let down the Boss. Then I was more horrified to realize that I had let Barritt down - a 2.84 year old should know these things, and thus I have not been an effective pedagogue. Sure, Pink Cadillac and Big Red Car have some thematic similarities. But so do Thomas the Tank Engine and Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, and Barritt has no trouble distinguishing these.

Readers, we have plenty of work to do.



* Note, fine readers, you are enjoying the 200th post of the B&A blog.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Funny stuff...

I enjoy your blog!

Madeleine Hays said...

That would be awesome if Bruce did a kiddie album, something like Nebraska meets Little Einsteins: hardworking but foundering toddlers who live in small towns, drink a little too hard, and get in trouble with the law. He could call it Born (Recently) in the USA.

Barritt and Annabelle said...

That's funny - I was thinking about crafting the entry so that Dad makes Barritt go into his room and listen to Nebraska over and over again until he forgets who the Wiggles are. But that would probably have other, less positive effects in the long run.

Madeleine Hays said...

What? Are you suggesting that your blog is ever anything other than journalistically accurate?

Barritt and Annabelle said...

No - to be clear, I was commenting more on what my parental response could be. But as for past events I've included in the annals, they are all historically accurate. Or at least the whole project is reliable historiography.

Madeleine - your dad and grandad are two of the seven people on earth who know what that distinction is.

Madeleine Hays said...

You should try out that distinction in a court of law: "Mr. Chambers, the court has reason to believe that you have suborned perjury in this case."

"But your honor, the defendant's testimony appeared to be reliable historiography."