Explaining Everything “Gate”
Woman in the Middle | February 22, 2017When our children were young, Hubby and I realized there was a certain type of knowledge, what you might call “cultural knowledge,” that was an important part of what a person should know to navigate life.
When I say “cultural knowledge” I mean those shared experiences that bind us all together and create a short hand way of sharing information. For example, if you see some gag on TV or in a movie of someone running very slowly with a certain song in the background, it is referring back to the famous scene in the movie “Chariots of Fire.” Or, if someone were talking about a young couple that was getting too serious too fast, you might say, “I don’t want to say anything and turn it into a Romeo and Juliet situation.”
Hubby and I thought it would be good for our children to understand these cultural references for two reasons. One,it just makes life more interesting to understand what people around you are saying and referring to. Second, we figured the girls were likely to run into these kinds of references in the work place (from old people like us) and it would serve them well to understand those references as well and not look like a dumb green kid. So, when we had the chance, we would expose our kids to things or explain certain references when they came up. Yes, we made them watch “Chariots of Fire.” They thought it was boring but they sure do recognize the slow run and song now!
I was asked to answer questions about local history from a group of middle school students yesterday. The students asked the standard questions about what did we like to do when we were kids, did we ever get in trouble, what kind of technology did we have, etc….Then I made a reference to Watergate, and one young man asked me what that was. Oh boy! Then I realized it was a moment to explain all those “-gate” references they are bound to hear, just like I have to my kids. The most recent incident concerned Tom Brady and a football that wasn’t fully inflated called “inflate-gate.”
How do you explain Watergate in a few sentences? I tried, and with the help of other adults in the room I think we got the point across. Maybe a few kids in that room will remember what a “gate” reference means if they hear it in the future. If one of them actually looks up Nixon and Watergate I would be thrilled.
BTW, you know you are getting old when things you remember clearly are “history.”
Hell yes I am too young to remember Watergate but I do get what it means when people says something “gate” also at the nice young age of 54 I can recall many things that are now “history” part of aging I guess