Teaching Moments

Tommy and I have been wanting to see the movie 42 about Jackie Robinson ever since we saw the previews last fall.  Tommy is really into baseball these days, so when the movie came out this past weekend, Adrian and I made plans to take him. 

I had some concerns, especially since we would be exposing him to one of the ugliest periods in American history. I read some reviews in preparation, one of which referred to language so blisteringly foul you may question whether to take your kids to see the movie, but recommended taking them anyway.

We sat down with Tommy before we went to the movie and explained racism to him.  We talked about how terrible it was (and and still is, in some areas) to treat people poorly because of the color of their skin.  We told him that back then African Americans had to use different bathrooms, and use different entrances to the ball park, just because they looked different.  We also told him there would be some awful language in the movie and that he was going to hear words he had never heard before.  We told him they started with the letter "N" and that it was completely unacceptable to ever repeat those words.  We pretty much left it at that and headed off to the movie.

What a fabulous movie.  I loved every second of the story of triumph, seeing his teammates finally accept him and stick up for him.  I found myself with a smile on my face throughout the majority of the movie and I even clapped a few times, cheering Jackie on.

Most importantly, Tommy loved the movie too--even though it wasn't animated or in 3D.  He also learned something, which was worth the price of admission, in my opinion.

Yet another example of age creeping up on me

I went to the Bob Seger concert last night with my friend Karen.  Joe Walsh was the opening act, and for a guy who is 65 years old, he rocked it.  His band was full of sound and I was really surprised at how good he was.  When I come back in my next life, I want to be his middle back up singer because she gets to stand next to a hot hunk of man named Bubba.  *swoon*

During the intermission I was looking around, because I love to people watch, and made a few observations:

• Aviator frames just aren't for sunglasses.  Or, this gal has had them since the 80's and can't let go of them.
• The most popular hair color was gray.  At least half of the men were bald, going bald, or had comb overs.  I even saw a comb forward, trust me on this one, it was not pretty.
• Women still perm the hell out of their hair.  Many of these relics from 1987 have long, permed hair, but their bangs were straight as a board.  Did we really wear our hair like that back then?
• Handicapped parking was likely at a premium.  Lots of geezers on power scooters.

It's OK for me to make fun, this is pretty much my generation, but I did wonder if I might run into some of my Mom and Dad's friends there ;)

We made some additional observations before Bob came out on stage:

• We didn't see any trashy women with their boobs hanging out of their shirts, or their asses hanging out of their shorts. 
• No visible tattoos...Karen said they probably had them, but they were the kind you get in the Navy, anchor on bicep kind of thing with that old blue ink.
• I didn't see one facial piercing or those weird stretch-your-earlobes-out thingies either.

It's like I fell into a time warp and ended back in 1985!

Bob Seger was just as good as Joe Walsh, and he's going to be 68 next month!  I kept thinking, what if he falls and breaks a hip?  What if he has a heart attack on stage?  All was well though and they put on a great show.  We were laughing at the one back up singer, she was a cross between Maude, Sharon Osborne and Caroline Manzo from RHoNJ.  They were like the Golden Girls, those back up singers!!!

His other band members were oldies too, and the drummer, I was laughing so hard at his hair.  Take a look below:

That is like an afro mullet.  I Googled him  and that curly hair is all natural, no perm:

 

What a great night, we were thoroughly entertained.  It makes me sad that groups like this won't exist in another few years, and we will be stuck with current acts like Rhianna and Maroon 5.  No thanks.  I'll take the geezers instead!