Sinatra or Spears? For this teen, it's much better by far to be old at heart

Mom said I sounded "old" a few weeks ago.

Not, "Oh you're growing old." Old old.

I really can't deny it. I don't think I was meant to be a teenager. I often rant about how much better stuff was 30 or 50 years ago. How unfair it is that Steve McQueen will never make another movie, but Freddie Prinze Jr. undoubtedly will. And -- this was the reason for Mom's "old" comment -- how nearly every good piece of fiction was somehow written between 1940 and 1970.

Some might venture to suggest that I just like to complain. I have wondered whether -- if I had been born in the time I so long for -- I might have wished for "the good old days" of Charlie Chaplin and Scott Joplin and hated the recent stuff. My brain might be wired to love stuff that's long gone or old, but I still love it because it's good. Can anyone who's heard both deny that Simon and Garfunkel had more talent than 'N Sync• I hope not.

Another reason I choose to tack pictures of Frank Sinatra and Audrey Hepburn to my walls might be the home schooling. I have never been to public school, so I never had peers sticking Britney Spears pictures in their lockers -- not to say they all would. I might be different than I am today if I had had 10 years of being pressured by classmates to like what's recent and cool.

It was usually family that helped me find my pop culture loves. Mom introduced me to the joys of McQueen movies and Paul Simon albums -- for which I'll be forever grateful. And it was only a matter of time before the love of Sinatra rubbed off from my jazz-crazy Grandpa.

Now, no one should get the idea I'm constantly locked in a house where you dare not mention Jennifer Lopez. I've got activity and friends, some more typical than others. A 15-year-old named Doug Cook not only listens to Sinatra, Jimi Hendrix and Simon, he listens to them on vinyl records . That gives me hope for the future of teenagers.

I definitely have a weird upbringing, which I'm very happy about. If being a typical teen is being someone who finds anything to do with parents and grandparents not cool, enough said, time for MTV's "Total Request Live." I think it's something I can afford to miss.

I never wonder about the random teenagers I see in public places. There doesn't seem to be much to wonder about. Old people are different. I'll look at a man with white hair and a cane and wonder what wars he's been in, and what his childhood was like. Someone like that came from times I wish I could visit. They're a piece of walking history from a time I wasn't born too far from, in respect to the age of the universe, but it's still hard to imagine being there.

The way I see it, I'll be a teenager for only four more years. Why should I learn to relate to or even understand the typical one?

I'm old at heart, and proud of it. And before anyone mentions it, yes, I do appreciate the irony that this column is called "Young Voices."