WHAT’S SO FUNNY: Back to the generation gap of ‘60s

Are you old enough to remember the ’60s cliché “generation gap”? Do you remember when you were on the cool side of it?

Tiresome as that phrase became, the gap did exist back then, at least in my family, and I remember it was at its widest on the occasions when I came home from college.

Now the college kids are back in town, including our Katie, who returned from Dickinson in Pennsylvania having survived her first real winter and two semesters of Arabic.

We greeted her at home with jubilation appropriate to her new status of special guest star. She now has an Obama T-shirt, which is cool. And I have a “Dickinson Dad” T-shirt, which I will wear whether it’s cool or not.

I did wonder, however, if we would feel the gap.

The day after her return I drove her to the DMV for a replacement driver’s license — her wallet had been stolen over Easter break.

The DMV featured two impressive sights:

First, a two-person line. Apparently the right time to go is at 1:30 p.m. Friday.

Second, a young man with a striking hairstyle, similar to mine when I wake up in the morning.

Katie said it’s called a faux-hawk. I was delighted with the term.

“I thought you’d like that,” she said.

On the way into the building she spoke of Bill Clinton’s recent visit to Dickinson, and we discussed whether Hillary should quit. This was one of those bewildering parenthood moments, when you find yourself hustling mentally to keep up with someone whose conversation was once confined to Magic Meadow Ponies.

At school, Katie is now conversant with subjects of which I know nothing and comfortable with technology of which I know less.

Which makes it a happy surprise that she hasn’t started talking down to me yet. When I came home from college, I lost no time in telling my folks where they’d gone wrong in their parenting and their lives in general.

Katie is either considerably more tactful than I was, or she’s saving it.

The next night we watched a DVD and laughed in a couple of odd places, which is the Kiraly way of bonding.

It may be that the generation gap narrows if the parent never grows up.

Of course, if that’s true, we’ll soon run into the role-reversal gap, where I again must chafe under the rule of a more mature authority figure, namely my daughter.

In the meantime, it’s good to have her back.

SHERWOOD KIRALY is a Laguna Beach resident. He has written four novels, three of which were critically acclaimed.