Back In My Day
A Geezer’s Notebook, By Jim Foster
Oh, to be a kid again!
I saw something the other day that struck me as funny. Most, if not all, days when the schools are in session, a whole whack of high school students walk over to Zehrs or Tim’s across the road and buy their lunch or pop (soda if you are an American) maybe a latte or a muffin at Starbucks.
I was following two students leaving the self-checkout area. They were big guys, although everyone over 5’ including girls are big to me. They just finished buying a two-litre carton of caramel ice cream and two spoons. Then they sat down in the little eating area in front of the wine store and proceeded to dig in.
There is nothing wrong with that of course, and when you are young you can do that once in a while, although you wouldn’t want to make a habit of it.
What I wondered was what happened when they got home and their mothers said, ‘Did you have a nice lunch, dear? Remember you promised to eat a salad and some fresh fruit, something healthy. You don’t want to grow up to look like Mr. Foster down the street. Now there is a disaster waiting to happen.’
‘Of course, Mom. My friend, Walter, had an apple, a handful of green seedless grapes and a bottle of Evian water. I opted for a small orange juice and a tuna salad sandwich made with that healthy whole wheat bread you are always talking about. I was going to have the egg salad but I checked the calories and the tuna was a bit lower. We have to be so careful or the pounds will creep up on you.’
‘That’s a good boy, Waldo. By the way, your father said some of his beer is missing and his vodka seems a bit watery. Better keep an eye on your sister.’
I am sure this sort of thing happens at Zehrs all the time. It is probably just an average day around high schools everywhere.
Dozens of kids wander over every morning and except for the girls who sometimes show more skin than I saw when we drove by a nude beach in Germany, and the crotch of the boys’ pants are hanging a tad below their knees, this could be anywhere.
The problem for me is whenever I am at Zehrs in the morning for some reason I suddenly feel old and it is seeing all the young high school kids. They are different than we were when we went to OD. I’m not sure about this but I don’t remember going to school with the ass out of my jeans and I certainly don’t remember girls with bare shoulders and cleavages. In fact I don’t think there were cleavages until the 80s, maybe later. I don’t know how teenage boys stay sane today.
Now that I think about it, I don’t remember girls wearing shorts to school at all. It’s possible they were there and I never noticed them, but for some reason I doubt that. I suppose I might have missed seeing them, that was years before my cataract surgery.
Fashions change and not always for the best. I’m afraid one of these days it will be back to Mother Hubbard dresses, bonnets and shawls for the ladies, top hats, socks with garters and spats for the men. With any luck I will be dead by then.
Maybe it is just my failing memory causing me to forget everything from the 50s. I know it was 70-and-a-bit years ago, but I think we were fairly well dressed going to school. For one thing you had to get by your mother. The girls certainly looked wonderful, white bucks and saddle shoes as the song went. Their skirts were below the knees. Boys’ running shoes were black ankle-high boots and stayed that way until the basketball teams started to wear white with their uniforms, then they became the rage and everyone started buying them (you won’t believe this but the price went up to as much as $29 a pair if you can imagine). Wearing white runners before then almost guaranteed you showered alone and we never wore mauve on Thursday*. In fact we never wore mauve at all.
(*Don’t get upset; it was a different time and different rules. I am not saying it was right, it wasn’t, just a different world.)
(Image Supplied)
