Whenever people ask me what Fandads is about I always answer: “It’s Gil and myself writing about sharing our love for all things geeky with our kids.” There is no limit on what the geeky things can be. We share with our children our love for comic books, handheld games and even music. We never force anything onto them: if they like it, they like it, if not, no big deal.
For those of you that know me, you know that I am a huge music fan. I listen to all types of music and one of my favorite bands is the Beatles. When my daughter was born I would listen to the Beatles as I carried her around the house. At night when I would put her to bed I would poorly sing to her “Good Night” and usually by the second time around she would knock out.
As she got older the music in our house started to expand. She would like certain songs she heard on the radio and want to listen to those over and over and over. They were a few songs that she constantly had to listen to so I made her a Spotify playlist for those songs alone. I would just let it play when she wanted to listen to them and it would keep her entertained for hours. Justin Bieber’s “Baby” was one of those songs and I listened to it so much that I think I still know all the words to it. Don’t judge!
Every now and then I would play The Beatles when doing chores around the house and she would either roll her eyes or sing along. I guess it would depend on her mood that day, but most of the time she enjoyed listening to them and learning all about them. It was pretty cool having her take real interest in the songs that I grew up listening to. I would tell her what my favorite songs were and she would want to hear them. I could see in her eyes, when she listened to these songs, that she was trying to figure out why I liked said songs and then just tell me afterward that the song was good. Hey, good is better than saying it was just alright.
One day my daughter came home from school excited because they were learning about the Beatles in her music class. It seems that these classes have reignited her interest in the group and she constantly only wanted to listen to the Beatles in our house and in the car. I had no problem with that. My daughter took to Paul McCartney as her favorite Beatle. I mean that was always the struggle right? Which one was your favorite: Paul or John?
As her love for Paul grew I introduced her to his solo projects and her affinity for Wings grew out of that. There were plenty of times I remember singing out loud in the car to “Band on the Run”. I remember clearly one time, in the middle of a rain storm, I was driving her to dance class and both of us were singing “Jet” at the top of our lungs. I mean, I don’t know any other first graders that love singing along to their dad’s favorite group at the top of their lungs in the car, but they probably are out there.
One of my daughter’s biggest questions to me was if she could see Paul McCartney live one day. I remember the last time he came to Chicago and he played at Wrigley Field, those tickets sold out in minutes. I made a note to keep checking his website to see if he was ever going to tour and come to Chicago again and then one day I saw the announcement. Thanks to a friend of mine I was able to get an advance ticket promotional code, but tickets were all gone by the time I logged on. Then there was an announcement that a second show was added.
On the day those tickets went on sale I had my lap top, my phone and work computer set up and ready to go. I found seats in the pavilion, but as much as I love my daughter and Paul, I was not going to pay “X” amount of dollars for three tickets. I ended up getting lawn seats and thought it would be more fun out there. Sitting on a blanket with some lawn chairs and dancing around to the music under the stars felt like the better experience. I bought the tickets and decided with my wife to make it a surprise for her.
The days leading up to the concert were exciting to me because I could not wait to surprise her with them. Every time when my daughter would see commercials about the upcoming concert on the television she would ask me if we could go. I would always reply, “I’ll try to get tickets, but it might be hard to get them.” She would always reply, “At least we could try, right?”
So the day finally came and I told my daughter that the three of us: my wife, my daughter and I were going to check out the opening of a new restaurant. She asked why her brother was staying with her grandparents and I told her that he might not like the place and it would be a fun adventure for just us three. The drive to the theater was pretty long and I had to keep coming up with answers to her questions about the “restaurant” we were going to. Luckily, she fell asleep about twenty minutes before we got to our destination.
When my daughter finally woke up we were already in the parking lot of the venue and I handed her an envelope that had the tickets in it. She looked at them and it didn’t connect right away. I mentioned to her to look at the stage in front of us and then it hit her. I could see the excitement in her eyes as we approached the venue. This was going to be an awesome night and I was so excited that this was the first time I was ever going to see Paul McCartney and I was going to experience this with my daughter.
The show was amazing! The concert was a barrage of old and new songs with little anecdotes about the songs. It was a lot of fun seeing my daughter dance along to the songs that she knew or look back at my wife and I when certain songs were played. It was like she was looking at us to say, “I know this song!” One of the many highlights of the night was when he sang “Live and Let Die”. It was pretty cool when he got to the chorus huge balls of flames would burst on the stage and then a slew of fireworks were shot off on the top of the the stage. It was pretty awesome to see this and it came at a great moment, because my daughter was starting to get tired and sleepy.
When Paul came out for the encore he started the set with “Yesterday”. Although there were many incredible moments at this concert, this was one of my favorites because I was carrying my daughter and we were rocking to the song and singing it together. It was magical in a way. I mean here we were singing along with someone whose music I grew up listening to and singing a song that meant a lot to me. I do not know if I will ever get to experience this again, but this was a fantastic moment for me and one that I will cherish forever. Thank you for that, Sir Paul.
What has been your favorite experience with your children? Share them with us in the comments below.
