In my second grade classes, we’re starting the lessons off by listening to Bruce Springsteen’s “My Hometown,” chosen by the teacher I work with. But that’s not what this post is about.

Everyone who knows my dad knows that he’s an avid comic reader, to put it lightly. Not Marvel and DC, but United Features Syndicate and the like. There are shelves back home filled with old Peanuts, B.C., Wizard of Id, (Sadly) Beetle Bailey, and others, especially The Far Side, FoxTrot, and Calvin and Hobbes. This has rubbed off on me in that I keep up with a fairly hefty list of web comics, as well as a few of the traditional ones. But that’s not what this post is about.

In FoxTrot, the eldest son, Peter, is (though his evident devotion has declined in more recent years) a huge Bruce Springsteen fan. I started reading the comic regularly just as I was getting into secular music (yes, that long ago), and before I was into classic rock (as opposed to oldies). I wasn’t entirely sure who Bruce Springsteen was, but I figured he must be cool for Peter to be so obsessed. Then I started hearing “Streets of Philadelphia” on the radio, not long after the movie came out. I thought the song was boring, but could see how it might have come from a guy who at one time was able to rock out a bit, and I left it at that.

Somewhere along the way, though, something changed. That something was that I heard Billy Joel. He went walkin’ in his sleep to a river so deep in my head, and for some reason every time I heard his music, or read about Bruce Springsteen, the two men became one. I’d pick up the comics and think, “Why is Peter so obsessed with this guy who sings ‘For the Longest Time’? That doesn’t really fit the image….”

I’ve since learned the distinction, but with FoxTrot, I still find myself initially confused. That’s what this post is about.

PS