Sometimes it amuses me how fads come and go. What is cool today will be ridiculed tomorrow and what is cool tomorrow won't fare any better the next day. About the time my father was born a cigarette was called a fag. Now that word means something entirely different of course. When I was young gay meant happy and queer meant gay. We had our language in the seventies. Everything was far out or outta sight. Cool is one of the only words that has stayed in vogue for many years. Cool was cool when I was a kid and its still cool today. Groovy meant about the same thing as cool. Sometimes we were freaking out, but later people were chillin. Later those words went out of style and everyone was saying rad to the max or smokin. I am not sure what words are popular now. I can't keep up anymore. About the time I get enough figured out to carry on a lucid conversation with young people the styles change and the young ones give me pitying looks when I try to speak their lingo, then give each other wise knowing nods while pointing at their heads, all to acknowledge how the old man is senile and crazy. Its just not worth it!
Its the same with clothes. I am proud to say that I still have several pairs of old bell bottom jeans left over from my young days. I think I can still wear some of them, but if I did I would be the talk of the town for certain! Bell bottoms went out and straight leg jeans came in. Remember the sweat pants era? No matter where you went everyone was wearing sweats, both pants and shirt if weather permitted. Some people actually looked good in them, but some made the sweats look like over-strained spandex. I hated the red ones. Name brand clothes don't mean a thing to me but to a lot of people they do. Anyone can stick their name on clothes but from my experience that doesn't give the clothes even one extra day of wear, make them more comfortable, or in most cases any more stylish. All it does is make them more expensive. I have never understood the logic in that.
Hair. Good gosh, hair! We have had some of the most gosh-awful hairstyles to come and go. Everything from the hippie hip length unisex hair, to the skinheads. Punk'd hair, mohawks, hair dyed all colors of the rainbow, shaved on the sides and long on top. Some of the styles were frankly a little scary. Some were hilarious, and some were just fashion statements that backfired.
Now we have people making a “statement” by piercing their bodies and wearing weird objects implanted in various parts of their anatomy. I am not sure exactly what statement they are making but I could make an educated guess. “I am nuts and love to hurt myself” would probably be my number one choice. If that one failed I would likely go with “This is the only way I can think of to get refused on all job interviews and keep my food stamps and welfare”. Who knows, maybe I am wrong and all that self inflicted pain and suffering really do have a deep (and hidden) meaning. I see one possible benefit from the bodily inserted metallic objects. If husbands and wives had strong magnets inserted under their skin perhaps the divorce rate might go down. That is unless they used the repelling poles. That would be just my luck!
Its fun to stop sometimes and remember how much things change, but a lot of the old fads come back eventually, such as the short neat haircuts of the 50's. I wonder if bell bottoms for men will ever be in high style again. Hmmmmm, if so I will be prepared......
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