One evening over the summer I was on a train home from the capital. It was quite busy, so two strangers were sat together in the seats in front of me. For about 20 minutes there was silence between them. Then the woman’s voice: “You don’t happen to have an iPod charger do you?” Innocuous enough, really. But with the man next to her clearly on the further side of 60, his reply was the stereotypical “I’m too old for all that, really.” And with that she should have been done, silent once more, allowing me to drift off to sleep until I got home.
But she would not be stopped. “No,” the young woman I saw between the seats declared, “plenty of people your age are into things like that.” Talk of iPods quickly spilled over into musical taste. The old man would name a classic rock band; the woman would feign some knowledge about them. She had started this, so she was never rude, but it was obvious the retro cool she attributed to all of them was a far cry from actual appreciation. That is until they reached the Beatles. United by a shared passion, the conversation took a turn. The gap between old and young began to close as her favourite track turned out to be “All my Loving” despite her being more of an Elvis girl.
Whilst to begin with the pair had shared vastly different tastes and experiences in relation to music, after this one agreement their opinions became markedly similar. They were able to agree that the breakdown of modern society could be attributed to a lack of both manners and a proper work ethic. I was now listening to a “kids today aren’t like they were in my day” style conversation, with one willing participant only four or five years out of range of attack herself! Once the issue of binge drinking was raised by the old man, this spiralled into pessimism and a view of the futility of continuing society. The young woman could see no end to the problem of excessive drinking amongst her peers unless something radical was done, and the old man agreed.
Pretty dispiriting stuff. But it did hit home that there is no such thing as a “generational” opinion. These two people had seemed to me to have nothing in common and 40 years between them, yet they were agreeing on social problems that they shared a view on. Yes, you may say that there are only so many opinions, and that you often share yours with the older generation. But I had witnessed a technophobe and a hipster spend just ten minutes discussing Lennon and McCartney before agreeing a roadmap for ensuring social harmony.
Never mind whether I agreed with them or not, what’s important is that my expectations were challenged. Or that the Fab Four are some sort of all-powerful unifying force. Either way, I was reminded that allthe time we spend living doesn’t force us into a stereotypical set of opinions: that I won’t become a grumpy old man because I’m old, but because I’m grumpy and a man. Oh, and that everyone loves the Beatles.