Overheard on a Train
I'm a very nosy person.
I like to listen in on conversations, overhear juicy gossip, and just generally know what's going on with everyone all the time. I also like to be helpful, in a kind of annoying way. I like to give advice and opinions on everything. I usually try to restrain myself, because I don't think people necessarily want my unsolicited opinion. Or even my very accurate information.
This makes just listening to other people's conversations really hard, though. Tonight I overheard a conversation between a twenty-year-old and a thirty-something. The twenty-year-old was explaining how much she likes 90s music (this is a genre now?) and how much she enjoys Sister Hazel. Anyway, she started singing All for You and told her friend that it came out "in 1992, I think."
I don't know much about Sister Hazel, but I'm pretty sure All for You is not from 1992. (If fact, I just looked. It's from 1998). Perhaps to a twenty-year-old there is little difference between 1992 and 1998, but to me . . . well, it's a gigantic difference. The difference between fourteen and twenty. A raging chasm. Possibly the biggest leap a girl can make.
It was all I could do not to lean over and tell her that All for You was definitely from the late 90s, not the early ones. But I kept my mouth shut.
The thirty-something, who didn't seem to know much about music, then somewhat sheepishly admitted that she had once gone to a Kool and the Gang concert.
"Oh," said the twenty-year-old, "I think they're from the early 90s, too."
And I just kept on biting my tongue.*
--------------------------------------------------------------------
The thirty-something was also telling her fifteen-year-old companion to make a list of five specific ways she imagines her life at twenty-eight. "And if even one of them is true, I'll be surprised," the thirty-something said.
I wanted to lean over and say, "she's right about that."
But I didn't. I just thought it. I'm not yet twenty-eight, but there're are very few ways my current life in any way resembles what my fifteen-year-old self would've imagined.
*just to be very accurate, Kool and the Gang has been putting out albums since 1969, and continues to be active. So one could argue, technically, that they are from the early 90s. But that's just crap. Plus, it ruins my story.
I like to listen in on conversations, overhear juicy gossip, and just generally know what's going on with everyone all the time. I also like to be helpful, in a kind of annoying way. I like to give advice and opinions on everything. I usually try to restrain myself, because I don't think people necessarily want my unsolicited opinion. Or even my very accurate information.
This makes just listening to other people's conversations really hard, though. Tonight I overheard a conversation between a twenty-year-old and a thirty-something. The twenty-year-old was explaining how much she likes 90s music (this is a genre now?) and how much she enjoys Sister Hazel. Anyway, she started singing All for You and told her friend that it came out "in 1992, I think."
I don't know much about Sister Hazel, but I'm pretty sure All for You is not from 1992. (If fact, I just looked. It's from 1998). Perhaps to a twenty-year-old there is little difference between 1992 and 1998, but to me . . . well, it's a gigantic difference. The difference between fourteen and twenty. A raging chasm. Possibly the biggest leap a girl can make.
It was all I could do not to lean over and tell her that All for You was definitely from the late 90s, not the early ones. But I kept my mouth shut.
The thirty-something, who didn't seem to know much about music, then somewhat sheepishly admitted that she had once gone to a Kool and the Gang concert.
"Oh," said the twenty-year-old, "I think they're from the early 90s, too."
And I just kept on biting my tongue.*
--------------------------------------------------------------------
The thirty-something was also telling her fifteen-year-old companion to make a list of five specific ways she imagines her life at twenty-eight. "And if even one of them is true, I'll be surprised," the thirty-something said.
I wanted to lean over and say, "she's right about that."
But I didn't. I just thought it. I'm not yet twenty-eight, but there're are very few ways my current life in any way resembles what my fifteen-year-old self would've imagined.
*just to be very accurate, Kool and the Gang has been putting out albums since 1969, and continues to be active. So one could argue, technically, that they are from the early 90s. But that's just crap. Plus, it ruins my story.
posted by Melanie at 11:06 PM
