Hi there. It’s dad. I decided to write this post to both of you now just to explain a few things and dive into what makes you…. you.
You can’t imagine the pride I felt when I heard that your doctor asked you both who was your favorite musical artist and you both said it was Nat King Cole. I also almost bust with pride when Duran Duran comes on in the grocery store and you both start dancing and singing to it.
We all are basically younger versions of our parents. The whole reason of this post and these thoughts was brought about while I was watching an episode of a guy I follow on YouTube who has a channel called Oddity Archive. He reviews old media… not necessarily old movies or music but more of the technology for it. He also discusses neat nostalgic stuff like EBS, DXing, events, local TV & radio, and obscure media and technology. He’s been doing it for years and he seems fairly young (probably in the mid 30s at this point) but he seems to have a very old soul. He will sometimes talk about his childhood and how his parents bought him this or had him listen to that and it dawned on me that he was simply an extension of his parents… and aren’t we all. His parents collected things and enjoyed certain movies/music and it all totally rubbed off on him. I mean, who (in their 20’s) gets excited about finding old Golden Age of Hollywood Fanzines from the 70’s in the thrift store? Only someone who’s parents would have been into that (or even their parents as well). I would also say he is a bit of a hoarder when it comes to all this cultural ephemera. Not a true hoarder though, his stuff is well taken care of and in neat order but he seems to have kept everything he has ever owned since childhood. I’m am pretty jealous about it.
Most of us reflect what we grew up surrounded by. You girls (I didn’t forget this was addressed to you) have been surrounded by your dad’s strange obsession of early 20th century music, drive in movies, sci-fi, and entrepreneurism (that’s not a word but I needed to use it). Although I didn’t obtain much from my parents (at least outwardly in the way of my likes or obsessions) I do have a liking of 70’s and 80’s soft country pop. I have been around you guys a lot more than my parents were around me growing up. I’m not blaming them or anything, it was a different time. I was busy roaming the neighborhoods and playing with the kids out there. Your lives are very different.
At some point you may abandon the stuff you think you like at the moment (as young kids) once you discover the world for yourself and decided that Gore Metal is your thing and not 60’s love songs. I will be OK with that. I know that when you hit midlife you will probably rediscover the stuff I surrounded you with in your youth and you can feel all nostalgic about it and start obsessing like I do (or did at this point).
My suggestion is that you try to keep your junk. Don’t hoard it, just keep it nicely stored away, you may want it all again some day.
Daddy