Tex Mexican

This weekend I was at a cookout down along the South Shore. The South Shore is very different from the North: We have contrasting malls, culture and floral. However, somethings remain the same.

Just as when I got infuriated when my Dad would screw up Bette Midler's name by calling her Betty Middle-er, today's children suffer the same mispronunciations.

Often times it's little things like calling Katy Perry's # 1 song "I Kissed a Girl", Kissing a Girl. An honest mistake we all do.

I can remember the summer of 1983 lying by the pool with the radio on and my mother all upset by Irene Cara's "What a Feeling" thinking that instead of saying "take your passion" she was singing "take your pants down and make it happen."

But this new one threw me...

At said cookout, a grandmother was explaining how her granddaughter was a bit tired because she was up all night "tex mexican".

I gave a polite but surprised look that said, 'I'm not following.'

Realizing her error she restated, "I mean test messaging."

"Oh, you mean on the cell phone: text messaging."

I had to laugh. I imagined the neurons in her head snapping semantics on similarly pronounced words.

The changes a generation has seen: Prior to the mid-eighties, Mexican food was relatively unheard of in these parts.

A buddy of mine, on his cell phone at the same cookout, was downloading a remix of Rihanna's Umbrella. He started complaining that it was taking too long: 10 seconds. I thought to myself, back in the 70s when I wanted to hear Helen Reddy's I Am Woman (who said I wasn't a gay child) I'd have to wait hours by the radio hoping that it would play. Or, worse yet, I would have to coordinate a trip to the mall: Entire cycle time at least a week.

We're so spoiled. Nowadays I can just download it on my cell phone instead of having my Mom ask the record store clerk, "Do you have that new Helen Redfield song I'm a Roaring Woman? My son just loves it."
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Rick Bettencourt blogs at http://bandittalks.blogspot.com/.