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Thursday, August 11, 2011

Glory Days

My son's guitar teacher, Zach, is probably about 21 years old.

Peter thinks Zach is the coolest teacher ever because he calls Peter "little bro" and "little dude".  And Peter loves to tell me about how "awesome" Zach can play the guitar.

My husband thinks Zach is the coolest teacher ever because he is teaching Peter how to play the choruses to songs like "Rock You Like a Hurricane", "Wake Me When Septmeber Ends", "Smoke on the Water" and "Wild Thing".

I think Zach is the coolest teacher ever because he has gotten Peter excited about something other than Pokemon and Super Mario.

But I have one problem with Zach.  He calls me "Ma'am".

I'm sure most of you are thinking, "What a polite young man.  Why is that a problem?"

Well I'll tell you why it's a problem.  In my mind I am still a 21-year-old college kid.  And when another 21-year-old kid calls me "Ma'am" it makes me feel like I am old enough to be his mother.

When I told Dan this, he said, "You are old enough to be his mother."

insert sound of needle screeching across an LP record

What? How can that be?  But he's right. I am old enough to be his mother.

I hate it when he's right.

I was going to tell Zach he could just call me "Beth".   But I decided that I don't want him to feel disrespectful (or creeped out) by calling an old lady by her first name.  And I guess I don't want to be one of those old ladies who desperately tries to cling to their youth by trying to be hip and cool with the youngsters. Because the next step is  Botox and cheek implants and the only thing worse than trying to be hip and cool with the youngsters when you are neither hip, cool or young is looking like Joan Rivers while trying to do it.

So I guess I'll  just be thankful that Peter's guitar teacher is so polite and I guess I'll just let him continue to call me "Ma'am".   And I guess I'll try not to wince every time he does it.  

I can't stop humming  "Glory Days" by Bruce Springsteen.  Hopefully Zach doesn't teach Peter that one.

Glory days, yeah they'll pass you by
Glory days, in the wink of a young girl's eye
Glory days, glory days.

3 comments:

Pam said...

It shows his momma raised him right! I am guessing that it is probably so ingrained in him that even if he tried, he couldn't stop. :)

Wendy said...

I couldn't help but laugh. I love this! When we went to an event at Fort Bragg the other weekend some young kid called me Ma'am. Now I know that's protocol for the military but I agree with you, I still don't think I want to be called one. And yes, I was probably old enough to be his mom too!

Anonymous said...

Interesting post. I like the layout. I appreciate clean lines. And some of your simplicity (after my tour in Japan).

I don't even know how I got here but here I am. It is my real name. Abraham (my grandfather's middle name, "Wesley") Lincoln.

And, yes, I am related to President Lincoln, a third cousin – we shared one of our great grandfathers. Now, you can tell your kids or your friends and relatives that you got a comment from a real Abraham Lincoln.