Hey, Ho, Let's Go

I checked out Rock and Roll High School at the video store the other day. The lure of perhaps the dumbest fun movie - or the dumbest fun movie - of all time (not to mention P.J. Soles) won out, and I sat with the kids and watched it for the first time since I was in (non-rock-and-roll) high school.

Now, growing up with me around, my kids know something about The Ramones. But as we watched R'nRHS, I think maybe a little bit of the glorious, dumb fun of old school punk - before killjoys like Henry Rollins went and made it all serious and dull - got through to them.

Oddly, Jim Walsh had the same experience. His piece in the Blotter ends...:

Near the end of the movie, my son saw the kids in the crowd holding signs. He asked me what "Gabba-gabba-hey" meant. I did my best.

Like I said, you don't know if anything gets through, or if you're too permissive, too tough, too lame, too Failure Father. The weekend and all its activities passed. We didn't talk about the movie again. But just now, as I'm getting ready to go off on a field trip with him and his class to the riverbank, I noticed a serious letter from school taped up on the fridge. In black ink at the top, there's a scribble of, "Gabba-gabba-hey!"

It made me laugh out loud.

The whole thing is worth a read - at least, if you've ever tried to get that little bit of your adolescence across to one of your kids...

Posted by Mitch at May 16, 2006 12:11 PM | TrackBack