It was the unusual image that made me do it. A few days ago while browsing through the internet, I came across a picture of teenaged boys looking at an old rotary telephone on a table. They were completely baffled and didn’t know what the device was. In fact, they scrutinized it as if it were a bizarre contraption of unknown origin.

That scene prompted me to think of a way in which I could talk to some adolescents, show them some vintage objects, and mention famous names from my generation to see if they were familiar with them.

I decided to conduct an informal verbal survey with three teenagers as volunteers, the grandkids of one of my best friends. Before beginning, however, I obtained everyone’s permission for my little “experiment.” The only request from the youths’ parents was that I not use their real names.

The participants were “Tommy,” 17, “Laurie,” 16, and “Jason,” their spirited 15 year old brother.

I stressed to my friends that this was being done mostly out of curiosity. I also told them that in spite of the obvious generation gap between the teens, Generation Z, and the older folks — most of us baby boomers born after the Second World War — I wanted to learn more about their youthful culture just as I was hoping that they’d take an interest in the era of my own upbringing.

My friend offered his computer so I could pull up some images for the teenagers from my prepared list. We all gathered excitedly before the monitor.

I started by showing them portraits of well-known film icons from the 1950s and 60s: Spencer Tracy, Humphrey Bogart, and Charlton Heston. At first none of the teens recognized any star, then Jason shouted while looking at Heston, “That dude … he’s Moses!” The boy was right in identifying the actor for his role in “The Ten Commandments.”

I continued with images of a jukebox, a transistor radio and a mimeograph machine. The two oldest teens recognized the first item, but all three expressed unfamiliarity with the final devices. After explaining that the mimeograph was the granddaddy of Xerox copiers, Tommy admitted, “It looks cool … and simple to use.”

Then, Laurie smiled and unexpectedly said, “Mr. Jimmy … it’s your turn now.” I didn’t know what was coming.

She asked me if I had heard of Meek Mill, “Machine Gun” Kelly, or Chanel West Coast. I didn’t know if those were gangsters or geographical locations. I sheepishly replied, “No.”

“Those are rappers,” Laurie remarked, “…and Chanel’s the girl that appears on MTV Channel’s ‘Ridiculousness’.” She found a clip of the show on the net and showed me. I liked it and remembered that I had seen an episode about a year ago.

Generation Z had taught this baby boomer a valuable lesson.

Thanks to my friends, I discovered that the generation gap is not insurmountable. Perhaps one solution is to keep building bridges of communication between us, whether it’s a face-to-face conversation, a text, or a youthful comedy series called “Ridiculousness.”

O.J. GONZALEZ is a native and resident of Jeanerette. He graduated from USL in printmaking and photography and his photographs have appeared in publications in Louisiana, Alaska, Canada, New Zealand and England.