A Bonding Moment

Tonight was a bit busy.

After work, the wife and I went two different directions. She had to run to a pharmacy across town due to a mix up with our often useless mail order prescription company. Long story short, she went one way and I another.

My job: Get Luke to Confirmation class by six o'clock, double back across town and pick up her mother, getting her back to the same location as Luke for choir practice by 7 o'clock. Then take her mother back to her apartment and Luke home with me when both events ended at 8 o'clock.

During the last leg of this town crossing trek, it happened. We had dropped off Annette's mom and were leaving the parking lot where she lives. Luke said, "Can I push THAT button?"

Luke is twelve. He can only be described as a recluse. He is a young man of few words, content to eat microwave burritos over all other foods and likes to watch videos of other people narrating while they play Minecraft. He vocalizes, on rare occasions, that he wants his own You Tube channel and would like to make his own videos. He is a very patterned person. If you describe men as being like waffles (only one waffle square open at a time when dealing with something) then his waffle squares all have double lids with locks and each with a different combination. He likes to spend a lot of time alone.

The button he was referring to was the power for the radio in my Honda Pilot.

Not thinking much about it, other than the fact he usually does not like noise in the car, I said, "Sure."

The song that immediately came on was the second verse of "All Summer Long" by Kid Rock. You might find this odd if you know me, but I like that song. Not so much because of the content, but it references memories from the past. It is retrospective. I also like it because I realized the first time I heard it that it had the tunes from two other songs that I like from the past. So I did not change the channel...

Then Luke started singing along...

I had no clue he had heard it before or knew the words. The song ended. He said, "There is music from two other songs in that song."

"Yes," I said. "Werewolves in London by Warren Zevon and Sweet Home Alabama by Lynard Skynard."

"I think I have heard both." I turned the radio off.

I tossed my Galaxy 4S to him and told him to look them up on You Tube (since I was driving). He did, playing both. He knew the words to those too. Wow... this is the third of my kids to like the same kind of music that I do rather than what is popular "now" so to speak.

We sat in the driveway and finished Sweet Home Alabama. Then, we listened to Lagrange by ZZ Top.

He had been more "Talkie" than usual tonight to begin with. He had talked about food, what was discussed in Confirmation class, the seat he likes to sit in at Confirmation class (again, he is patterned) and how he liked the cooler weather. But I never expected the music conversation or the few moments of sharing in our hectic lives.

When Luke and I talk it is usually about homework, scouting, religion or things he does not like. Tonight was different. The recluse came out of his shell and was not the crab I am used to finding there.

It was a secular moment. One that was a bit fun for me. Maybe one of the songs was a bit questionable on the content side, but it is a fun tune and somewhat laments the loss of youth compared to the end of summer.

During a short drive home, we found a sharing moment between father and son. I guess you had to be there to see it the way I do, but it will not be soon forgotten.

Two old songs, woven together to make one somewhat newer. Singing with your twelve year old with the windows rolled down on a cool fall night.

"Sipping whiskey from the bottle,
not thinkin' 'bout tomorrow,
singing Sweet Home Alabama
all summer long..."