I was driving by the ocean in Carmel this morning listening to a “nostalgia” CD I had burnt. It was all 1980’s music to remind me off my high school days. Among songs from Queen, Duran Duran and Nirvana was also Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”. I like Cyndi Lauper, but have always felt sorry for her. After all, in her peak she had to be in the shadow of another female artist, Madonna, whose star has burnt far brighter and far longer.
Anyway, that song was supposed to take me back in time, but it did the opposite and took me forward in time to the future. Instead of taking me to my teenage years, it took me forward to my daughters’ teenage years. Instead of identifying with the adolescent in the song, I identified with her father. Here are the lyrics that hit me between my eyes:
“The phone rings in the middle of the night,
My father yells "What you gonna do with your life?"
Oh,daddy,dear,
You know you're still number one,
But girls,
They wanna have fu-un,
Oh,girls,just wanna have
That's all they really want.....
Some fun....”
Hmm, this is an inevitable future. One day, my daughters will say “I love you daddy, but…”
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