What's up, Dude?

If you ever wonder if you've lost the connection with the next generation, just spend an hour or two with a group of teenage boys at their finest. We quickly discovered we are so not hip ... er, cool ... or whatever the juvenile jargon is for being in tune with their language.

Last night we had a campfire and invited Jim's sister, her husband and son, and our older boys. Casey, our new licensed driver, brought an entourage -- 6 kids, 3 vehicles. So much for a quiet, relaxing evening by the fire.

We sat around the fire, Carter and the adults on one side and Casey, Clay and their friends on the other. It was entertaining to listen to them ... and scary to think we were once that immature. And was our vocabulary that limited?

Every sentence, and I am not kidding, had the word "dude" in it. "Dude, did you see that?" "Who's that dude who ..." "Cut it out, dude!" At one point I turned to the mature side of the fire and said I was going to start counting the "dudes."

I guess we all had our words and phrases we interjected into everything. In the '80s is was like totally the words "like" and "totally" and "psych!". Then there was "whatever" and "as if" and "not" in the '90s. Now, I don't know the skinny on what's dope to say. If I could score me a translator, maybe I could follow. You know what I mean, dude?