I Teared Up Today...Not Once, Not Twice, But Six Times!

I am about to reveal how "old" I really am....today while I was tutoring middle schoolers for Reading, we watched the making of the We Are The World record....yes I said record,not CD. Although I'm sure I had seen it when it was made, in 1985, it was amazing to watch it again...some 23 years later. Each time (6 to be exact), I showed the video....yes I said video, not DVD....I teared up at the thought of what that record was all about....45 famous musicians (and Dan Akroyd, still not sure what that was all about) recording a record to raise money for starving people in Africa. WOW!!!!
Before we watched the video, we read about the making of the record in a textbook. As we looked at the pictures and read about the musicians who participated, the students recognized NOT A ONE of the musicians, except Michael Jackson. Surely, I thought to myself, they will recognize some of them when the video begins and they actually see and hear them sing; BUT.....NOT A ONE...They did NOT recognize Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Huey Lewis, Bruce Springsteen, Cyndi Lauper, or any of the others. I couldn't believe they didn't recognize any of these musicians (even though these kids weren't born until 8-10 years after this video was made), my family listens to a lot of "old" music; so I guess I just assumed there would be at least one of these students that did as well....BUT not so much. The thing that really cracked me up was that there was one particular group of 6th graders, who were mainly Spanish speaking students, some of them are just learning English; and these students kept asking me "Where is Elvis?" I said, "Well Elvis had already died when they made this." Finally one boy in particular, Ronaldo, kept saying over and over "Elvis, Elvis." Then as I was trying to explain that Elvis had already died, he pointed to the TV and said loudly "Elvis." When I looked at the TV, I almost laughed out loud; because I realized that the students thought that John Oates (from Hall and Oates) was Elvis....afro, moustache and all (I mean I could understand them mistaking him for Geraldo Rivera, BUT ELVIS....Help Me Henry....ABSOLUTELY NO RESEMBLANCE!)! Tutoring today brought me much enjoyment, laughter and some silent tears. As for the students, it just brought them enjoyment and some giggles at the hairstyles and wardrobes via 1985.