ABBA hit it big during my early teen years. they were HUGE! everybody loved ABBA; even if you didn't really want to you somehow got sucked into loving ABBA. i remember me and chizzy de palma dancing and lip-syncing to Fernando and Dancing Queen at our 7th grade talent show. the crowd loved us, (what can i say, it was 1976, kids were easier to impress). ABBA was cool, er-go, we were cool.
the whole ABBA revolution thing has been in the works for a number of years now. made all the more acceptable because of a little production called "Mama Mia" - the play inspired by, and written around, various ABBA hits. it's been ABBA Gold all over again.
a few years ago one of those record-company-produced teen bands even tried to muscle in on to the act - i remember the surprise on my girls' faces as i began to sing along to one of the ABBA remixes...they were astonished that i knew all the words. "how do you know the words to that song?" they asked, and i did the whole autobiographical when i was your age... thing. i could tell by their nods that they were really impressed with my ability to retain so much of my memory from the olden days. i could tell they were equally impressed that i knew more of the words than they did; i watched, delighted, as my coolness factor rose on that parental barometer kids tend to wear on their sweet, but ever questioning, pre-adolescent faces. i felt a surge of victory...i was well on my way to being a cool mum.
fast forward to july 2008, gilbert arizona, the 4:30 showing of "Mama Mia: the movie", the hollywood version of the popular broadway production. we made it a girls afternoon - annette and i went with our girls and a couple of their friends. we, annette and i, were so excited. you might even say giddy; we'd heard how good the show was, we were looking forward to the nostalgic trip down memory lane, and, in our defense, we even warned the girls that we could not be held responsible if we felt compelled to sing along. their look said it all, "you better not!!!"
well WE DID! we sang! we couldn't help ourselves - it was fun; we laughed, we cried, we clapped, and then laughed some more...and heaven forbid, we sang! not loudly. and we certainly weren't alone in our efforts. but i guess we sang loud enough for maddie and roxy to hear. loud enough for them to give each respective mother "the look". the one that says, "oh. my. gosh. are you serious?", with it's accompanying elbow press to the ribs, and a hushed but still threatening "SSSHHHHH". but the best part was...we didn't care!! we were in our own little 70's world...and we didn't have kids telling us what to do. it was great! i actually found myself wishing i was meryl streep - up there full of life, letting it all out, not really caring what anybody thought.
when we got out of the movie annette and i realized that the parental barometer on our girls' faces was leaning towards the negative. at first i was a little disappointed to find out that our daughters thought of us the same way we used to think about our mothers...not cool!
but i've been pondering this cruel irony in the days since. this snag in the delicate fabric of motherhood. and i have found solace in a little thing called karma: the philosophy that what goes around comes around. and so i say...look out girls...because in about 30 years some hollywood mogul will have this bright idea to resurrect the spice girls and....well, i think you know how the story goes...
