Maybe the generation gap isn't all that big

More years ago than I care to admit, my wife and I attended a concert by the ageless Gary Puckett in Homewood Flossmoor.

There were about 500 of us Baby Boomers assembled that evening, our lawn chairs and blankets strategically positioned under the stars, to hear the remarkably youthful looking singer belt out his old Union Gap standards, as well as a variety of new material.

My wife and I got there early to watch the crowd (one of my favorite pastimes). And, I confess, I was a bit surprised at what I saw.

We were getting old.

I guess when you spread us out across a neighborhood, office, or mall, you don't notice all that much. But this was like a class reunion of sorts. Gary Puckett fans are pretty much all Baby Boomers, so 99.9 percent of the crowd was us.

And "us," I'm afraid, were showing some wear and tear. I'm not going to list all the evidence of aging I observed, but we certainly looked like a generation that had moved beyond going to rock concerts and into going to bed while our kids - and grandkids - went to rock concerts.

At least that's what I thought until the concert started. Then it became clear that our aging exteriors did not, in fact, necessarily reflect similarly aging interiors.

No sooner had Puckett taken the stage than half a dozen or so middle aged Union Gap groupies who had infiltrated the front ranks sprang to their feet and began to sway, clap, jump and dance to the music, totally blocking the view of the lawn chair crowd behind them.

No amount of subtle (dirty looks) or not so subtle (cat calls) peer pressure seemed to deter them from satisfying their need to be the center of our - and the performers' - attention.

Then, adding to the pandemonium, a number of concert goers decided that the roped off power and sound cable corridor, which extended like a center aisle from the stage to the control tent, was not off limits for them.

Some people tried moving their chairs and blankets into this open space, others just used it as a convenient short cut from one side of the crowd to the other.

To complete the picture, I need to mention that concert crowd control consisted of a small number of determined, but outmatched, mid-70s senior citizens.

Two women in particular, smartly dressed in their official blue slacks, white blouses, and name tags, made a valiant effort to block the crowd's access to the area around the various cables. At one point they even called in their "backup," a man who had to be pushing 80, and who made it his personal mission to tackle a guy half his age and twice his size who was intruding into the area in question.

You could almost hear the clash of generations: "maybe we couldn't make you behave 30 years ago, but you're going to behave now!" vs. "let it all hang out."

I'm not sure which I was enjoying more, the show on the stage or the show on the lawn. Both were entertaining.

Now, there is a point to all this. As I was sitting there enjoying the spectacle, my wife leaned over to me and observed, "You know, if all those parents saw their teenagers doing what they're doing now, they'd sure be ticked off."

She was right. Life had come full circle right in front of our eyes. Middle age parents acting like teenagers, 80- year-olds acting like their frustrated parents, and teenagers, if there were any there, probably speechless (or laughing their heads off).

Maybe sometimes there's not as much of a generation gap as we think.

• Dr. Ken Potts is on the staff of Samaritan Counseling Center in Naperville and Downers Grove. He is the author of "Mix Don't Blend, A Guide to Dating, Engagement and Remarriage With Children."