The Songs to Aging Children Project

 

In November 2008, I wrote a piece, Was it the Weirdest of Times?  It is one of my favorite posts.  The basic idea of the piece was that coming of age in the late 60s and early 70s was a strange and weird time to be a teen and young adult. 

Since then, I think that this is an equally bizarre time.  Being a college professor, my students are most definitely millennials.  Our seniors were born in 1999 and our freshman in 2003.  How have their lives been growing up?  In 2008, they experienced the Great Recession that rocked their many of their parent’s livelihoods.  In 2020, when they should be having the time of their lives in high school and college, this Pandemic has been a disruptive force.  Now, in early 2021, they witnessed, as we all have, the breach of the US Capitol, the ramifications of which have yet to be fully realized.  But, this is more of a sidebar and not the point of the post.

As soon as I wrote, Was it the Weirdest of Times, I had a notion to try to capture the reflections, reminiscences, and stories of “my generation.”  What was it like for us to grow up back then?  How much of the counterculture did we buy into?  Which of our views and values from that era have stayed with us and which have changed and why?  Are we happy?  Do we have regrets?  What might we have done differently?  I thought it would be interesting to see how my contemporaries would answer these questions. 

So, in January of 2011, I launched a second blog dedicated to this project:  Songs to Aging Children (yes, like the Joni Mitchell song).  My goal was to have dozens or hundreds of posts from folks about my age.  In my mind, it was to have been great.  It would start as a blog but turn into a book and then maybe even a movie like The Julie/Julia Project.  I like to think big.

Sometimes my big plans work and other times they turn out, well, lame.  Songs to Aging Children did not come close to what I envisioned.  There are only 8 post, 7 in 2011 and 1 in 2012.  Of the 8 total posts, I wrote six of them.  My first post, Aging Children, I am One, outlines what I had intended to do.  Two friends took me up on it:  Rita Hovakimian and Mark Axlerod.  I could have probably gotten more but I was reluctant to push people to participate.  In the first post on that blog on January 19, 2011, ten years ago, I opened with:

It is New Year’s Day.  Among watching the college bowl games, I thought a bit about it being 2011.  It occurred to me that this year marks the 40th Anniversary of my high school graduation.

This year on January 2, I posted:  1971 - 2021: 50 Years.  I was again surprised to learn that this year marked the 50^th Anniversary of the same.  Not surprisingly, I thought about the Songs to Aging Children project.  Even less surprisingly, I thought to resurrect it.  So, here I am pitching it again.

I invite everyone, certainly, from the class of 1971 but also from a few years before or after to participate.  The questions I asked are but thought starters.  Really, I want you story, reflections, and memories having graduated from high school fifty years ago.  You can write your story, or we can arrange a phone call where you can dictate it me.  I even willing to  interview you if you prefer. 

Younger people, you can help.  You most likely have a parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, or family friend who might appreciate participating in this project.  They are probably on the verge of telling you the same stories and sharing the same reflections or philosophy for the umpteenth time.  Let me capture their stories and thoughts for you and for them.

Contact me via FB messenger.  Let’s have some fun with this.  Help me make this happen so I am not burdening my grandchildren incessantly with a story that begins, “I have to tell you about this great idea I had for a blog…”

Lastly, who would portray me in the movie?  As I am often mistaken for Bradely Cooper, he really is the only choice.