Calfgrit12 Birthday

Last Friday, (Jan 4), was my oldest son’s 12th birthday. For his birthday party he wanted me to take his friends out to see The Hobbit in the theater. So Wifegrit and I planned it out:

The best show time for this was 4:00. The boys would come over to our house right after school, I would leave work at 3:00, and we’d get out the door a little after 3:30.

When I got home a little before 3:30, all eight 6th graders were in my house eating snacks — cheesy bread, nachos, pretzels, carrots. We wanted them full before the movie so I didn’t have to spend $100 on popcorn. The boys were loud and excited, but only two were really sort of over the top. When time came, Wifegrit and I herded the boys out to our vehicles. She’d take 5, (including Calfgrit12), in her van, I’d take 3 in my truck. She’d drop them off and I’d take them in for the movie, then she’d come back to help bring them home.

With the boys all loaded in the vehicles, we headed off to the theater. The three boys in my truck were getting a bit rowdy, so to distract them with a “game,” I plugged in my iPhone to the stereo system. At the first red light, I opened my music player and pulled up a song.

“Let’s see if you can identify this music,” I said.

Within the first few notes, one of the boys shouted, “The James Bond theme!” And he was right. That was probably a bit easy, especially considering there’s a James Bond movie in theaters right now.

At each red light, I chose a different song. After a few moments, another boy shouted, “‘Moby Dick’ by Led Zeppelin!” Holy crap, right again!

I pulled up another song. After a few moments, the boys were banging their feet and clapping their hands to “We Will Rock You” by Queen. They knew that song too. “Do you have ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’?” they asked.

“Of course I do,” I said. But looking through my library of songs, I discovered, much to my surprise, that I don’t have that. Wow, what a glaring hole.

I switched to another song, but they didn’t know “Sledgehammer” by Peter Gabriel. One of the boys requested, “Can you play more Led Zeppelin? That’s mine and my dad’s favorite group.”

I put on another Zeppelin song. We talked about how surprised I was that they knew so many classic songs. They mentioned several classic artists they knew, and as we were about to pull into the theater parking lot, I put on “Don’t Stop Believin'” by Journey. Not only did the boys recognize the song immediately, they joined me in singing along.

Just a small town girl

living in a lonely world

She took the midnight train goin’ anywhere.

These are 6th graders, 11 and 12 years old. And they know these songs from their parent’s youth.

Finally we pulled into a parking spot and all got out to join the boys unloading from Wifegrit’s van. I already had tickets, purchased the day before, and we headed in for the movie.

Bullgrit