Momgamer: When Everything Old is New Again
I’ve always had this list in my head of things that I wasn’t going to mention to the kids. A partial list would include Dr. Who, The Watchmen, Pink Floyd, and several specific Heinlein novels. Some of my favorite things are stuff I got to discover for myself when I left home. I didn’t want to take that from them by leaving them nothing left to find.
In some cases it was hard to wait, but not all of them. I’m not explaining Rorschach and his more, uh, creative methods of finding information or Heinlein’s novel “Friday” to an uninitiated adult much less a kid. But most of them could have surfaced around their 14th birthday or so without even causing a ripple.
While I was content to wait, the world apparently wasn’t. Several of those things on my original list sort of popped onto the world stage. Hollywood started turning them into movies. After they mangled the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and we all enjoyed V’s voiciferous virtuosity I thought I was safe. But it looks like Watchmen hits the silver screen next year. “Dr. Who” is on TV again with a whole new series.
Music acts I thought long dead started showing up on the airwaves again. And then the ultimate flashback machines showed up. Guitar Hero. Then Guitar Hero II. Then Guitar Hero III. Then Rock Band. All of them chock full of memories for me. But for kids today they’re just good music, and that little taste is all they need to get them started. We were driving somewhere in my son’s car, and he popped in a mix CD one of his buddies made for him. After three or four songs I just had to start laughing. It was all sounding awfully familiar, and then Axel Rose started wailing about Paradise City and I just couldn’t help it.
It’s getting a bit ridiculous. They used to call my CD rack The Crypt. Now I can’t keep anything in it. I can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a Steve Perry gypsy shag or getting nailed between the eyes by memories. At this rate they’ll start wearing legwarmers and Unit belts any day now.
It’s happening in the game store as well. The downloadable content on the Wii and XboxLive is bringing even more of the classics home. Now that we’ve got Baroque the latest requests have been for IceClimbers and Super Marble Madness.
I guess everything old is going to be new again just a bit sooner than I’d thought. I feel like I’ve moved back in with my college roommates. Now all we need is a King’s Quest or Monkey Island remake to complete the illusion.
April 17th, 2008 at 7:23 am
I am there with you on this one Colleen! From Adam West’s Batman to Kirk & Pickard to Dr. Who the kids are coming upon gems of my youth. Like yours, they have found new life in old material – and often through video games or new versions of shows like BSG.
But they look at things very differently, which can be weird. There are many songs that I will hear – such as ‘Live & Let Die’ that bring me back (ugh) 35 years to watching Bond movies as a kid. The material is the same, but the context is entirely different.
April 17th, 2008 at 7:54 am
What a wonderful article. I’m positive that every geek parent feels the same way at some point. I mean, don’t tell anyone, but my kids are really now finally getting into games. They’ve played occasionally over the years – they have Leapsters and DS and wicked bowling arms – but I’ve never pushed it or made it seem important.
It has occured to me that a defining moment in my life was when the Atari 2600 was finally obtained – my kids will never taste that feeling. But then again, deferred gratification might be good for kids – it doesn’t taste that good. Nostalgia adds flavor.
Some of it, for me, might be due to age. I’ve been looking forward to sharing the original Star Wars movies for decades and now that my kids are almost old enough I’m thinking… meh. I’ll share it, but the excitement isn’t the same.
April 17th, 2008 at 9:18 am
Trying to transfer context is pretty much setting up a double edged sword of disappointment. They know how excited you are and want to please, and you are looking for them to enjoy it with the same open-eyed joy you experienced. Neither is likely.
It seems so obvious that since we are all individuals and the circumstances of our youth are different from our kids, that expecting the same reaction to the same stimulus across a thirty year gap is purely absurd … yet we all do it … 🙂
April 17th, 2008 at 10:58 am
Love this article, and it’s so true. What’s especially funny in our house is that same has had this peculiar false nostalgia for the early 90s for several years now, so I get to hear all about things I tried blocking out the first time.
April 18th, 2008 at 11:04 am
It’s getting worse. My daughters were listening to RATT last night. They borrowed a CD of Out of the Cellar from a friend.
This may be worse than what is only whispered about as the “Enrique Iglasias Incident”. :eyeroll:
April 18th, 2008 at 11:15 am
Take pictures.
You will be able to use them as leverage later on.
And if they try to turn it around on your tastes, you can always remind them that they think you are old and mentally weird like all adults anyway 😀