When a Gen Z Loses Her Voice and Asks For a Sing-Along

A boomer’s notes on the kindness and new business-as-usual of Next-Gen

Alison Acheson
Bouncin’ and Behavin’ Blogs
8 min readAug 3, 2024

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Steph Strings, young Australian singer/songwriter/guitarist, performing at The Fox Cabaret in Vancouver, Canada. Heads of audience in foreground.
Steph Strings, 23, playing The Fox Cabaret in Vancouver, July 25, 2024 — photo by author

Pieces of life conspire to convince us at times, I swear.

Case in Point: My 25-year-old son is in the midst of trying to secure a home in cooperative housing.

Another case in Point: I attended a concert last week at which the entire audience was under 35 and at the outset of the evening, the artist asked them to bear with her as she was unable to sing that night.

Yes, she did — she asked that of them!

More on that in a bit…

Co-op housing

If you’re not familiar with co-op housing, it’s a wonderful thing and we need far more of it.

Some years ago the Canadian government set up funds, and across the country a number of such complexes grew. People fought to pull together community and housing in this way. Essentially, each resident or family pays an initial fee, anything from $700–$3500 as “shares,” and after that the rent is reasonable. Some of these places have been around long enough for the mortgage to be done with, and the “rents” are about upkeep.

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Alison Acheson
Bouncin’ and Behavin’ Blogs

Dance Me to the End: Ten Months and Ten Days With ALS--caregiving memoir. My pubs here: LIVES WELL LIVED, UNSCHOOL FOR WRITERS, and editor for WRITE & REVIEW.