While we were traveling in Oklahoma, my daughters took it upon themselves to cram 15 CDs and a penny into the CD player of my car. We recovered the CDs (and the money!) but the player is forever broken. This was a bummer because I’d just gotten them hooked on “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots” and I never get sick of hearing my 4 year old sing backup for Wayne Coyne.
Until my employment situation levels out and we can drop some cash on a replacement, we are stuck with plain old Clear Channel FM Radio, something we’ve more or less assiduously avoided for years for the same reasons we avoid watching TV shows on actual TV channels: we don’t like commercials (we actually hate them with the intensity of burning magnesium); we despise sexist, racist, stupid DJ patter; and most of the stuff that’s on is repeats.
But we were wrong. Listening to FM radio – especially our local “classic rock” station – has been awesome. (Apparently classic rock stations now include actual classic rock, as well as hair metal and pop-friendly heavy metal, plus grunge hits and a smattering of 80s, but absolutely no disco unfortch because otherwise? THIS WOULD BE THE PERFECT RADIO STATION.)
Driving around listening to the radio with my girls has given me opportunities to learn about my children’s taste and share awesome stuff with them; more than a million overhyped-by-Mom-and-therefore-underappreciated-by-eyerolling-four-year-olds youtube videos ever have. And because my daughters and I are discovering that we like some of the same things, it’s brough us closer and given me some hope that THINGS ARE GONNA BE OK even if we just had yet another argument about who gets to wear which sunglasses or whether or not they can wear the same. motherfucking. “polish pink” dress, again, for the millionth day in a row.
Few things have made my heart swell as it did when Robin begged me to replay “Kickstart My Heart” by Motley Crue after that final fadeout. Even better: she immediately starts dancing to any Def Leppard song that comes on, even though she has no idea they are all done by the same band. It reminds me so powerfully of the first time I heard Def Leppard and was mindblown, which was also in the backseat of my parents’ car, at the age of 7.
A few days ago, I told Robin about Pete Townsend’s playing style and she did air guitar windmills while Holly sang “WHOOOO Holly? Who who? Who who?”
Now that’s family time. YEEEEAAAAHHHHH!!
