@Motion-of-the-Ocean mentioned shared cultural history.
It gets interesting when the cultural touchstones slip.
A few are seriously time linked. Where were you when Kennedy was shot? Where were you during the Summer of Love?
My first clear memory of a news event was Nixon’s resignation/ the Watergate hearings.
His? He says probably Kennedy, as in he doesn’t have to think when it was. He
knows.
I grew up knowing of older brothers and fathers of friends who served, died or were captured during the Vietnam War. Some we assume are dead, but will never know.
He had friends die. Schoolmates, people from his church. Classmates from college. He was profoundly lucky when the lottery came up for him. Missed it by two. (He started school in segregated Texas, I got the benefit of one towns alternative to high volume bussing, magnet schools. Take the bright and awkward and plop them into historically black high schools, while keeping the weirdos in an isolated pod, until PE.)
He is the peace and love generation. I was born into it.
For both of us, it’s a moral touchstone.
On simpler things, when I was trying to eat my weight in MDMA, he was still getting through the day on Peruvian marching powder, but those days were ending. My psychedelic journey was beginning. Ah, the days of not yet illegal!
We have a large reservoir of music we both know, and enjoy. Maybe being the artist liaison at two shows he played is part of that. When I was discovering Chick Corea, he was on crew. When I was discovering John Denver, he was producing shows at his college. We have worked with the same folks at different times. It’s odd, and fun.
Where we have a big slip is where I chose to not consume the popular culture. He is culturally literate in radio shows (think drive time DJs), television and movies in a way I will never be.
Luckily, he delights in sharing these not as history, but cool stuff.
(I have tried to catch up on things he’s said as comparisons, but there’s no way I’d ever match. Plus I like documentary/ art house more than what’s at the 12 screen. Streaming catches you up superficially, as will Movies in 30 Seconds by Bunnies. (Not a joke, look them up)
I tend to hold the view that we as humans both shape and are shaped by culture. It’s good he and I share enough to have deep conversations on several topics. We do go into the whys & wherefores, which transcends history we experienced.
Yet for all that, seeing silver hair holding red hair (and I have some silver, it’s just a stripe and sort of hidden) gets looks, judgements, and the occasional “rock on, man.”
Did I mention it is dome of the most fulfilling sex I’ve ever had?
Oh, I mentioned that I was more stable financially. This is true on paper, but his life has placed him where he invested in a house. He uses it for income, to a degree.