I saw Paul McCartney play Live and Let Die live.

When I first thought about what my parents and I share I thought about music. But then I thought about it more and realized that it was mostly me playing the Beatles way too much and irritating my dad because I've only heard "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" 1,000 times and he's heard it 10,000 times. Just so you all know... My dad was "too cool to listen to The Beatles" in high school. But thankfully he likes their music today. My mom and I agree more, right down to our favorite Beatle, George. While I love music from my parent's (and grandparent's) generation we don't always agree on what the best is.

I didn't really want to write about music but I suppose it really is the thing that stands out most at least with my dad and me. The summer after my freshman year in high school my dad and I went to a Paul McCartney concert. At the time I was just really freaking excited to see Paul. Now I can look back on that though as not only a great concert but also a great experience with my dad. I have shared music with him too. I love the band the Barenaked Ladies. My dad has gone to two of their concerts with me. One of them I had asked a male friend to go to with me… and then my whole family came, but that’s another story. He now likes their music, and loves that they put on a great live show too.

I think that music is one of the easiest things that can transcend generations. The best reason I can think of for this is that a great band is just a great band. Even if a band’s look or music is a tad bit dated if the music is great people will continue listening to it for many years to come.

The thing that my mom has shared with me from her generation is…. clothes. My mom saved many of her clothes from college and from when she first started teaching. I love the look of many of them. In fact, I have stolen a few from her. Mostly blouses with ruffled collars and sleeves. My grandpa used to do leather tooling and made my mom belts, wallets, and key chains. I also have two belts that my mom once wore. On one the buckle broke and I haven’t been able to find one that will work with it. Needless to say, this is a tragedy. My mom thinks it’s hysterical that I love the clothes she has that she saw fade in and out of style.

It’s a lot harder to think of something that I have shared with my mom from my generation. I think the biggest thing is the freedoms that I experience that she didn’t. When my mom was in high school most of her female classmates aspired to be homemakers, teachers, or nurses. Although she technically could have done anything she wanted to, it was expected that she would do one of those things. Through having me as a daughter and watching me grow up I have been able to share with her the things that I can do that she could not. She always tells me how “things were so different when I was in college.”

Most of the things that connect me to my parents are the things from their pasts, literally. Over the years I have found remnants of my parents' youths; on shelves, in the basement, in trunks. These objects are many different kinds of things; pictures, boxes of records, clothing, yearbooks, photo albums, May Angels, newspaper clippings. I think I am fortunate that both of my parents are fairly sentimental and have kept so many of the objects from their pasts.