Should Be Any Sweeter

My older one is "turning sixteen today.”  I wrote to a friend whom I knew when we were that age.  “You remember being sixteen?”  “Yes. I do.”  I spoke to my daughter on the day before and she said something about how odd it was to finally be reaching the date, but that upon arriving, it was no big deal. 

A parallel track in my mind was that the popularization of that date and the idea of “sweet sixteen” any way was probably all crafted by producers and performers who were as obsessed nubile girls and their spending money as much as anything else.  My mind was off with Chuck Berry and his song “Sweet Little Sixteen” which certainly has more to do with his fascination for girls that age than anything else. 

It isn’t clear why sixteen should be any ‘sweeter’ than fifteen or seventeen.  In the U.S. you get to drive, but most markers of adulthood are still two years or more out.  And you still can’t drive here, anyway. My younger daughter will turn thirteen next fall, which is important in English because someone becomes a “teenager” though it isn’t especially relevant in French or Chinese.  I looked and the medieval Europeans and Aztecs all thought that the year had great significance as a passage to adulthood. I seem to remember I enjoyed the year and first began to consider questions beyond my immediate needs. 

This morning I brought her in my room and chatted about what food she wanted for the party she was planning.  We agreed to order the larger framed bike she’d liked rather than taking the smaller one, even thought this would mean waiting a few more days to secure it.  And I played her a clip of the Buzzcocks performing “Sixteen Again” on the “Old Grey Whistle Test.”  “You see, people all want to write songs about how cool it would be to be your age again.”  “But I have it all right in front of me.”  “Indeed.  Enjoy.”

Saturday, 02/04/17