Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, April 7, 1990                   TAG: 9004090243
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MONTY S. LEITCH
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

WHAT ARE NINJA TURTLES?

The boys - they're now 4 1/2 and 3 - spent a lot of time playing this game that required them to put all the sofa cushions down in the family-room floor. Then they barreled back and forth across the cushions, launching themselves from one sofa and landing - headfirst, as often as possible - on the other, shouting at the top of their lungs, "Cowabunga, dudes!"

I said "What?" while the niece squealed and bounced on my hip, trying to get in on the game.

The boys bellowed again, "Cowabunga!"

They were playing, of course, at being Teen-age Mutant Ninja Turtles. You know: Those cartoon sewer-turtles-turned-ninja who're now making their creators very rich.

Now, I'd heard of these beings somewhere. "What a sly, funny name," I'd thought, then I'd gone on to think of something else. But what I didn't realize then, as I certainly understand now, is that Teen-age Mutant Ninja Turtles are a genuine Cultural Phenomenon, as esential to their nascent cultural awareness for these children as Davy Crockett and Howdy Doody were to mine.

So the boys shouted, "Let's play Teen-ageMutantNinjaTurtles" - all one word - and called each other "Donatello" and, in their very good moods, they let me be Shredder, the bad guy. Standing there with the baby squirming and squealing against me, I felt I understood the part.

I don't have children of my own. Unless I'm playing mommy, I seldom even talk with people under 30. I think I'm missing a lot.

The young woman who cuts my hair is under 30. One month while she cut, a song by Bette Midler came on the radio. She said she liked the song, and asked if I'd seen Midler's movie "Beaches." I said I had, but thought "The Rose" was a stronger work. I got a very blank look. "A movie," I tried to explain, "loosely based on Janis Joplin's life." Another blank look. Very blank. This young woman had never heard of Janis Joplin. Nothing I said could tell her adequately who Joplin was. Yesterday when this young woman cut my hair, I had to ask her who is this Gloria Estafan who's been all over the news.

That's the generation gap right there: Janis Joplin to Gloria Estafan, Davy Crockett to Donatello. At least parents know the right names to shout across the gulf. But what's a poor aunt to do?