Comparing Generations

Decided to compare my generation with my grandmothers.

I have always felt close to my grandmother, but not always on a personally level. Of course I love her to death and yet sometimes I feel like we don’t see eye to eye because we are from two completely different generations. She grew up in the 1950’s when the music was slow and everything could be bought with change. My grandmother would always tell me this story about how she would buy her after school snack with a dime, consisting of a bottle of cola, and a snickers bar or chocolate bar. The genre of her generation is quite different than mine, it’s slower and has a strong blues influence. However, my generation couldn’t buy anything with a dime except maybe a thin mint or some other insignificant candy. The music of my generation is more up beat and diverse because its been brought forth out of generations of music before it. Although my grandmother and I are from completely different generations a connection was made that brought us to a closer understanding.

One day on our family’s summer vacation in Emerald Isle, North Carolina my grandmother bought a CD. Something I was not curious at all about at the time. She played it during the evening while my mom, dad and her prepared dinner. I was in and out of ear shot, so I wasn’t exactly listening or comprehending any of the music being played. Partially, because my grandmother was dancing around and that was a form of entertainment I was not willing to participate in. However, the next morning I was sitting in the entertainment area and noticed my grandmother had left her new CD in the DVD player. Out of curiosity I pressed play, paused and sat there for a moment listening. To my surprise the music before me was upbeat and funky. I began to enjoy the CD, which was called Disco Fever and approached my grandmother about it. Although, it wasn’t the easiest task to admit to my grandmother that I liked her music. For the first time in a long time I felt we had made a new connection besides just the grandma, grandson connection. We talked about the CD she bought and how she used to dance to it as a little girl. This new understanding opened a new door for me and a realized my grandmother was a fun person to be around.

Looking back on this event I feel old generations and new can find similarities if and only if they are willing to try and admit they like something of the past.