The other night I was out driving and wound up behind a ramshackle old Saturn bearing a bumper sticker for a local tattoo shop and another that stated “If it’s too loud, you’re too old.” Eventually I found myself beside this car at an intersection; the driver was a young guy, ragged like his car, and true to the sticker, the music coming from the car was indeed too loud. Not so bothersome as to rock my car on its springs, like some of those “bass cars” can, but loud enough for me to hear it clearly through closed windows and imagine with a slight shudder what it would be like to be his passenger.
“If it’s too loud, you’re too old.” I’ve seen this sentiment expressed before, a thumb of the nose by youth to their elders. I know it’s aimed at me. It doesn’t bother me all that much, because I have it coming; when I was this kid’s age, driving a car like that, I inflicted my stereo on those around me too, and for much the same reason. It’s like marking territory, I guess; sort of a broadcast audio swagger. It’s the kind of thing young guys do when they haven’t learned the difference yet between confidence and cockiness.
So I remember when I was that kid, and I don’t begrudge him his day. Enjoy them while you can, kid. Before you know it you’ll be in your 30s, and one day you’ll find you’ve made a habit of turning it down rather than up, and you’ll realize with a shock that you now know from experience what your parents meant when they said, “I can’t hear myself think.” And maybe you’ll think of that bumper sticker on that long-gone jalopy, and realize that you are now “too old,” by your very own definition, and maybe you’ll even think that you were kind of a jerk about it at the time. But don’t worry, we forgive you. So the best you’ll be able to do is go out and show a little forbearance to the younger guys who are doing the same thing. Because you deserve what you get, same as I deserve it today.
And time is not on your side.
I’ve never been like that. On the rare occasions that I want loud music I use earphones (which I will forever call headphones). I’ve never enjoyed loud music when its playing via speaker. I must have an old soul
Does that mean that I, who never inflicted this on anyone in my youth, now don’t have to show any forbearance? Pass the RPG.
Another too old soul here, I guess. But then, the music I’ve tended to listen to, even when I was teen, isn’t the right kind for annoying ones elders. And I’ve always been more protective of my hearing than many of my contemporaries. They may have thought I was a wimp, but my hearing is still very acute at 55, an invaluable asset for a musician.
Actually it just means you blew your chance.
Chance to do what? Annoy my elders or turn bass cars into fireballs?
Urban, remember the experiment we did with that “teenager-B-gone” noise? You, me, Dwasifar, Olav and Edie could all hear it. We concluded that it wasn’t about age but damage.