Can O' Black Beans

I get the fact there exist young adults half my age that are, in fact, cooler than me. When I was their age I might not have been ‘that’ hip, but I was equally as far away from sansabelt slacks. So there! That just might be THE measuring stick for coolness. Debatable! Maybe.....

But no, I’ve come to a place where these young adults have no clue as to the era that WAS my music. Oh, RockBand and GuitarHero are ushering in a pathetic introduction. Secretly, I’m happy my son knows a few old tunes that we can share. But, there exists a whole generation missing a link of music history. The immediacy of downloading music seems to have unraveled the process and magic of opening the plastic from an album or even a compact disc to read the poetry. I yearn to teach that to a class (like the ‘Music of the 60’s’ class when I was in college in the 80’s)….

Wow! Did you feel that? Flashback. That happened quick, yes?! The kids of today look at 80’s music like we did the music of the 60’s. Ouch!

Anyway, I was disheartened the other day to hear The Replacements through the grocery store PA system as I compared prices of the generic black beans with a name brand of which I had a coupon in hand. Those two pieces of life should rarely cross. The Replacements and coupon shopping don’t mix in my heart. It is a personal violation of sorts. But, these days things mix without permission. They do so with a dagger's hurt at times. “Left of the Dial” and grocery carts have little in common in my reality. But, thus is life.

It was all soothed when the girl baggin’ my groceries bobbed her head and sang the lyrics to that well known Bon Jovi lyric, “You Give Love a Brand Name”.

I smiled all the way to car with the grocery cart wheel kicking sideways to the beat in my head. I was all of a sudden glad I saved the 35 cents and got the generic can o' black beans.

I was thankful she hadn't screwed up the wrong lyrics to "Romeo in Black Jeans".