What You Remember Depends On ...

While browsing through some Peter, Paul and Mary songs on YouTube the other day, a user comment caught my eye.
 

The song was "Leaving on a Jet Plane," the classic folk-style song written by John Denver in 1966 during my college years. At the time, Denver's titled it "Babe, I Hate to Go," the closing line of the lyrics. He put it on vinyl with 15 other songs and gave the 250 pressings to friends and family.

Peter, Paul and Mary changed the title and included it the following year (1967) in their album, Album 1700. The song became a big hit two years later (1969) when they released it as a single.

Whenever I hear the song, I have images of myself boarding a Boeing 707 jet with my young wife and child to visit family in Hawaii. I also remember two Peter, Paul and Mary live concerts that I went to in college – Honolulu (1963) while at the University of Hawaii, and Long Beach (1966) while at Woodbury College.

"Leaving on a Jet Plane" also evokes wonderful memories of our folk-singing group, The Januaries, and our college performances in the Los Angeles area.

What the commenter (obviously much younger than I) thinks of when he hears the song is Ben Affleck (the character A.J. Frost) singing it as he says goodbye to Liv Tyler (the character Grace Stamper) in the 1998 disaster film, Armageddon.

What you remember sometimes depends on when you were born. The much-older me rustles up images of meaningful true-to-life experiences, and the much-younger he remembers artificial popular culture.

It's hard not to feel sorry for these young people. But wait! I think that's what my dad said about my generation.