Cool Does Not Last Forever

When I was in fourth grade, I remember the night of the school play. While I got ready, my parents got ready as well. I don’t recall what my mother wore, probably because it was very similar to what other moms would have on.

At this point in history, the 70’s, everyone seemed to be finding fashion. Parents began showing up to events looking like Mike and Carol Brady cones. Not my dad, oh no.

My dad came out of the bedroom dressed in his Sunday finest. Literally, he had a gray suit on, one of the ones he would wear to church. He always wore a suit to church. Always. Of course with his suit, he wore a crisp shirt and a tie that matched, but probably wasn’t in style at the time. He had his horn-rimmed glasses on too. I thought, “Geez, Dad, no one else will be that dressed up.”

Mind you, putting that suit on meant that he had come home from his job at Bethlehem Steel, washed up, shaved, slicked his hair back in a not-Mike-Brady style. My dad was a bit older than my mom, and that knowledge always gave me the impression that he wouldn’t ever match the cool factor of other dads. That didn’t stop me from wishing he would, just once.

That being said, when it was my turn to go on stage, my eyes searched the small audience for my parents. There they both were, about three rows back, right in the middle. My dad was the only guy in a suit, but he had the biggest smile I his face, maybe the biggest I recall seeing. That was very cool!

In the years that followed, my dad got a bit more fashionable. He finally got rid of his of horn rimmed glasses (I think they stopped making that frame). At one point, he did sport a leisure suit, which honestly, was so much more awful than his old suits! The one thing that never wavered was that he was NOT “cool.” We were never allowed as children to break or bend rules. He never gave us the freedom others had. There was the right way, and the way the rest of the world did it.

I guess it should come as no surprise that my own children don’t really find me “cool.” I think they have gotten used to it. Maybe someday they will even find it charming. The thing is, that cool is for a moment; right is forever.

Among the many things that used to be cool: smoking, drinking & getting behind the wheel, not wearing a seat belt, 60’s free love, and I could go on and on. Now we know better. Currently, video games, I-pads, I-phones, brand name clothing and merchandise, rap music that is violent/degrading to women, late night comedy, all cool. Perhaps some of that will remain. Hopefully, we’ll wise up on some of those.

So, when asked: do I think it is cool for the President of the United States, any one of them (past, present or future), to turn up on late night comedy? Might be cool, but I definitely don’t think it’s necessary.