Free Japan

At the beginning of every summer I start off with a list of things to do with my boys. 

One summer I taught my oldest son Spencer how to ride a two-wheeler, another summer I taught him how to skateboard. I'd forged lifelong friendships through my love of BMX and skating so I teach my sons how to do this not only for sport but to explain the camaraderie that comes with the turf. 

Sure I made friends through organized sports like football and, later on in college, rugby but one of my best friends of all time I met at the neighborhood dirt jumps. 

Being the parent at home for all those years, a lot of stuff I am passionate about - like reading, writing, tattoos and, of course music - has rubbed off on them.

So even though this was going to be the first summer I wouldn't spend with them since they could remember because I am working again, I still wanted to keep up the summer tradition of learning a craft.

Since my youngest son Cole got an acoustic guitar for his birthday in May, guitar lessons seemed like an obvious choice. We set aside Monday evenings as lesson time and gave it a limit of 30 minutes. Much like my instructions with BMX and skateboarding, I informed them that if they just learned the basics, they would be able to build off that foundation.

Cole's guitar came with a little book of tunes like "Mary Had A Little Lamb" and "London Bridge." I picked "Frere Jacques" because it only involved three strings on one of those was played open. We had about four weeks of lessons before Cole started to fade on the idea. I sat down one Monday only to hear him exclaim, "Oh no! Not 'Free Japan' again!"

"Free Japan?" I asked. "What are you talking about?"

"'Free Japan!" he said as he pointed to the chords for the song on the page of the book.

And after that he decided that he wasn't ready to learn to play the guitar just yet.

"I'm only 6 dad," he informed me.

So the family band will have to wait yet again.