Krecklow Kiddie Kastle

Things are pretty quiet around here today and that’s a good thing!!  Bekah has gone to visit her other Grandma and Corbin and Anna are busy on the Wii.


Yesterday was another story.  Have any of you been to a roller skating rink lately?  We take the grandkids to our local Skate World every time they come to stay and they always seem to have a great time.  Here I caught three of them taking a break.

That’s Corbin, Bekah, and Brendan.

Anna would hardly get off the floor so I had to catch her in motion.





Now, while the kids are having a great time, it is not so great on the old folks!!  We knew it would be bad as we have been there many times, but yesterday was just too much!  This is what Russ looked like after two hours locked in the madhouse and it’s about how I felt!!





I don’t want to fall into the bear pit by criticizing modern music but, my goodness, there’s just so much “Noise” we can handle.  We both felt like we had been beat up on by the time we got out of there.  Of course they keep the music loud and pulsing so the skaters have something to skate to but it just wears on our nerves.  So next time, only the older ones will go skating and I think it will be a drop off/pick you up later type of deal.  By the behavior we observed, I think that’s what most parents do.  If I ever catch my grandkids behaving like some of the kids in the skating rink yesterday, it will be the last time they go.


I can remember going skating when I was a teenager.  Most of the music was organ music and it was mellow yet rhythmic.  We still got plenty of exercise and we enjoyed ourselves immensely.  Many danced to the music and it was beautiful, with twirls and moves that you don’t see in today’s roller skating rinks.   I think the mellow music also kept emotions under better control as there was not the yelling and screaming and running full tilt through the roller rink that we witnessed yesterday.  Music does set a mood and if the management of the rink wants high energy, out of control skaters, they pretty much got what they wanted.  I know, can’t go back, but sometimes I do wish …


Anyway, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!  So today is a good day to mellow out and relax a bit with a somewhat quiet day at home. 


We are still trying to figure out why the Fit won’t start.  Russ had the charger on the battery and it says it has a full charge but it is deader than a doornail.  Can’t use it as a toad if it won’t run!!  We are planning on delaying our April trip for a week to give us time to get that figured out and get Therapy ready to roll.  I somewhat optimistically thought I could load the motorhome this week while the kids were here but that just ain’t happening.  So, we’re flexible and will probably roll the second week in April.


So that’s the news from the nuthouse – over and out!

♫ ♪Music, Window to the Soul?? ♪ ♫

Sometimes I just can’t help myself – the bear pit is just SOOO inviting.  Some things I read and it’s like dangling salmon on a string in front of a hungry bear.  Looks like I’ve taken the bait again.

Now, “bear”  in mind, that everything I write is JUST MY OPINION and you are certainly entitled to your own.  I don’t say things to intentionally rile anyone up but sometimes I just like to jump in with my own thoughts.

There have been a couple of posts lately about old music.  Jerry had one last night and Al has mentioned more than once how much he appreciates the old tunes.  He even made a comment to that effect on Jerry’s blog last nigh along with a few other commenters.  Now Rick, (ya know I love ya!), had a somewhat different take on the subject and summarized his feelings with a succinct “Phewey”.

Rick goes on to say, “You, Jerry, and a few of your 'commenters' are once again stuck in 'things were better in the old days mythology'.”  Well, since I was one of those other commenters I guess I was included in that group so I just HAFTA get in a rebuttal.

First of all, I don’t think there is a mythology of “things were better in the old days” – some things actually WERE better and some things were not as good.  Music is the only one I will address tonight as that is my theme.  You don’t want to get me started on the rest!
 
As far back as Biblical times, music was used to soothe and calm a troubled soul.  In 1697, William Congreve, in The Mourning Bride, coined the phrase,

“Music has charm to soothe a savage beast, To soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak.”

An article by NPR, dated June 1, 2011, states that, “Science all but confirms that humans are hard-wired to respond to music.”  Read the short but interesting article here.  There is much more than that one article that has been written regarding the power of music if you care to do the research.

My point is that music has an entrée into the human psyche that is like nothing else.  It seeps into your very being and finds residence in the deepest chamber of your soul.  What you listen to affects how you think, feel, and remember.

That music has changed and will continue to change is inevitable.  That parents of each new generation decry the new “modern” music is indisputable.  However, I do not agree that the music our generation listened to was in any way, shape, or form, comparable to what the kids are listening to today.
 
I DO enjoy some of the modern songs; specifically some modern country or pop tunes, but it is the cesspool of some forms of rock that I am concerned about.  I am talking about hard rock, heavy metal, black rock, whatever it is called nowadays.  This is not a declaration that all young kids are evil or drug addicts or anything else.  It is simply that more kids that you may want to realize are exposed to this kind of negative input from modern musicians on a daily basis, and I believe it is damaging in a viscereal way that the music of our generation never was.

One has only to go to the FB page of a young person involved in this type of music to understand what I am talking about.  That is precisely what I did to research some of the lyrics to songs this young person was listening to and recommending.  Here’s a sample of what I found on my young relative's page (and NOT the worst ones I read – those I will not give screen time to):

Thorns In The Planet's Side

I am a destroyer, a channel of satanic wrath.
My brothers are me, and I am them.
I stick thorns in the planet's side.
Planet of pestilence, refuge for the weak.
Kneel before satanic might!
With dishonor - there is only one way out.

The Suffering Of Others

The suffering of others is not the goal but simply a means to an end.
Although, it certainly brings temporary pleasure into my soul as well.

And here’s a little gem that I would not print the words to but you can check it out for yourself.  Rollin Balls  Can anyone honestly call this “MUSIC?”

Contrast that with the words to one of the songs I loved as a teenager:

Theme From a Summer Place

There's a summer place
Where it may rain or storm
Yet I'm safe and warm
For within that summer place
Your arms reach out to me
And my heart is free from all care

Which words do you prefer?

Of course we had nonsense songs too…who can forget “Alley OOP?” or “Papa OOO Mow-Mow” or “Flying Purple People Eater”?  But the songs I remember did not glorify murder, rape, drugs, and all manner of filth.  I wonder what it will be like in another 30 years.  What is left to desecrate?

This change in words and melody did not happen overnight.  It is like playing “Limbo”…the bar gradually gets set lower and lower until soon listening to that crap is like mud wrestling with pigs – Pretty soon the pigs aren’t the only ones covered with filth!
 
So I say, AND IT’S JUST MY HUMBLE OPINION, listen to what you want but just the fact that I appreciate old music with good words and melodic tunes, does not mean I am stuck in the dark ages,  nor does it mean I abhor all things modern, nor does it make me an old fogey.  Nostalgia can be a good thing and the memories of young love and a simpler time can be comforting.  There is NOTHING wrong with that.

One final thought on ages past…who would you rather your daughter or grand daughter emulate….