Noraebang Memories
Shelton Lee Bumgarner
Ahssa! Editor
I dated myself last night.
We were talking about TV shows and I asked, "Would I be dating myself
to say I remember the last episode of "M*A*S*H?"
To which someone said,
"Man, you're like 45 years older than us!"
Yeah. I guess so.
The Ahssa! staff went to the noraebong next door to Mr. Lee's and sung
our hearts out. Before we did, however, we played a tapping game where
if you tapped once, you went clockwise around the table and if you
tapped twice you went counter clockwise. We also played a modified
version of the Korean game where you take turns pouring soju into a
beer glass and whoever causes the shotglass to fall into the mug has to
drink all of it. (The glass was REALLY small and in this instance there
were no chopsticks involved. The last time I played the game the way
it's supposed to be played I yooked my guts out.)
Once we got to the noraebong, the girls wanted to sing Madonna songs.
Now, I grew up on Madonna songs, so I didn't think it would be a big
deal if I sang some of the classics I know by heart, "Papa Don't
Preach," and "Material Girl" being the top two.
>From the reaction of those around me, I realized they thought it was
rather odd that I would want to sing a song that's from a female
perspective.
Damn, I can be clueless sometimes.
After a bit of reflection, I realized what was going on -- to me the
songs are fairly well written examples of the Good Olde Days, while for
my younger peers, they're just good songs and my singing them was not
gender appropriate.