I’ve mentioned before that we don’t have a lot of extreme personal fashion going on around here. I’m not sure exactly why not considering I totally prepared myself for WHATEVER when it came to teen fashion statements. That might be why we don’t–no need to shock mom (or their father) since the parents just “don’t go there.” But–I sure do see other parents’ teenagers around town all decked out in their colorful and bejeweled finery.
Ever the practical person, I’m wondering 1. who is paying for all those tattoos and piercings–does it come out of allowances, part-time jobs, birthday gift money sent from unsuspecting grandparents? and 2. I hope someone is taking a lot of pictures for the day when these kids have their own teenagers to battle with! (“Yes, Susy, this is your mother during her extreme Goth-Emo-Black period. You hadn’t realized she’d ever had a chain through her nose?”)
I can chuckle because I’m old now. Or, older, and I’ve seen how things evolve and change. One of my own dearest friends who actually used to occasionally wear the plastic garbage bag to school with his combat boots during the punk/retro/new wave eighties has actually grown up to be a corduroy-wearing, bespectacled college professor (a PhD in Folklore–absolutely perfect for any student of pop culture). Not to mention, I think I’m from the tattoo generation really (even I, yes I, have a couple) so tattoos are so, well, done. Heck, my mother is from the sixties and she has tattoos–how edgy can anything be that is multi-generational?!
I hear other adults fuss and muse over whether these “youngsters” will ever be able to get real jobs and such. But, I’m not worried. I don’t mind having my French fries served to me by an ultra-pierced teenager with black eye-liner, he should enjoy bucking the establishment while he can. Besides, I’m going to be nice and pleasant to him because it won’t be long before he is the accountant doing my taxes or the surgeon performing my hip replacement surgery. I’m getting older, I need all the good Karma I can gather.