Benny and the Jets

I'm driving the girls to an away soccer game when about about 45 minutes into the trip I realize that not only has no one told me to stop singing Benny and the Jets- but not a single girl is talking. There are 4 girls in the car. Certainly two of the girls should be communicating. I'm sure they aren't sleeping. At the next light I turn around - and you know full well what they were doing. Each of them had some type of earphone in enjoying their own source of music and they were all involved with their own personal text messaging.

WHAT A WASTE OF TIME! Some of my best memories of growing up involve road trips to "away" meets and field trips. It doesn't matter how the meet went, the game was played or what activity was at the other end - the travel to and from was ALWAYS the best part.

One of my earliest recollections involved a trip to the Henry Ford Museum. Our troop leader and a few parents car pooled our Girl Scout troop from central Ohio to Michigan. I don't know how long it took us to get there - it seemed like 30 minutes to me. There were 6 of us in the back of a station wagon. At one point we put the seats down (this was still legal) and we all road in the wagon. I distinctly remember every time we passed a sign that read "NO U Turn" we all said "No, you turn" like it was the most clever line ever uttered. I can see and hear my friend Sarah singing "Rock the Boat." I think of her every time I hear that song. (Well I'd like to know where you got the notion....Yes, I'd like to know where you got the no oo tion.)

Sounds silly - but what a great time! We learned about 4th grade crushes. Mean 5th grade teachers. Who had a new pet. Serious 10 year old bonding time.

Trips continued - some better than others - but always fun. At one swim meet I got paired with two girls I didn't know very well. I think the coach realized I could make a conversation with a cantaloupe if I had to. By the end of the meet and subsequent ride home we kept yelling "Yum Yum Roast Beef." I don't know why - but I think if I saw either of them on the street today and yelled "yum yum" I'd surly hear a "Roast Beef" response.

High school trips were just as fun if not better. Rocking to Queen in the backseat of my friend Mary's parent's car. How cool is that? I'll tell you. Way cool. Sitting between two cute boys in the back of my Dad's LaBaron. Changing the words of the song "Feelings" to "Felix. Nothing more than Felix." Going to Canada in a van with a nun. Holding up signs to passing motorists. Holding up underwear to passing motorists. Just laughing and carrying on.

I feel sorry for the youth of today. I'm sure they bond in their own way - but 20 years from now will they remember the two hour trip or anything that happened on the way to or from the game? Probably not. So I guess that means I'm free to sing at the top of my lungs "Bbbbbbenny and the jets."