The scene: the after-school carpool, yesterday.
The characters: A second grade girl and a third grade boy who are totally inseparable, except when they’re screaming at each other. Today they’re not screaming, so they’re inseparable. Oh yes, and me. All of us masked, because COVID.
Girl: “Ooh, Mrs. Basi, you CAN play Story of My Life in the van! The screen says “connect phone.”
Me: “Well, no I can’t, because I don’t have a smart phone.”
Girl: “WHAT?????!!!!!!????!!!” (Yes, every one of those punctuation marks were there. They practically hit me in the back of the head.) “You’re like, forty! How can you not have a smart phone????????!!!!!”
Boy: “She hates smart phones.”
Me: “Yup. I hate smart phones.”
Girl: “But—but—but—smart phones have TIKTOK! And SNAPCHAT! And TEXTING!!!!”
Me (laughing under my mask): “I absolutely loathe texting.”
Boy: “Yup. She HATES texting.”
Fast forward a day, to a different vehicle–the one that DOES have a CD player–and imagine the windows down on a 70 degree day in December, driving down the highway, all three of us belting “Story of My Life” and “Wrecking Ball.” Because we can.
This screenshot brought to you by #soundtracksofourlives. Just because.
Kathleen M. Basi 