History

After Julie requested it, I made her a mix of cheesy 80s songs. I think there might be a redundancy in that sentence.

She didn't want any rock songs like "Sweet Child O' Mine" or "Livin' on a Prayer." Her idea of rocking out is "Footloose" and "Jessie's Girl." But aside from being a bit girly, the mix is a good representation of 80s hits. Which will one day embarrass the hell out of our daughter.

Maybe not. In terms of time passage, the 1980s for Lyla will be roughly like the 1950s were for Julie and me: an impossibly long time ago when our parents were kids. Elvis ruled the 50s, which was always fine with us. But certainly there's not an Elvis-equivalent from the 80s, someone Lyla can latch onto to convince herself that her parents' musical taste wasn't totally lame.

I guess Michael Jackson is probably the closest thing to Elvis that the 80s had. But I wonder if Lyla's generation will know him more for his music or for all that other stuff.

And I wonder what hideous music Lyla will listen to, compelling us to shout--like our parents shouted at us--to turn off that infernal racket, that noise, that--"For Pete's sake, Lyla! Is that what passes for music these days? Do they even know how to play instruments?"

But see, unlike our parents, we'll be right.