| Have you ever fantasized about living in one of those over-55 communities just so you could be the youngest demographic?
Oh, come on, you have, too! Admit it! Wouldn’t it be great to be considered the kid?
I’ve often thought that that was one of the many advantages of living in this part of the world. There is always someone around who is older than you that can make you feel young and with it.
We boomers spent so much of our lives being the trendsetters that it is hard at times to admit we’re sometimes oblivious to what is hip, new and in. Even worse for me is realizing that I’m just not interested in say, logging on to MySpace or owning an Ipod.
This from a woman who religiously watched “American Bandstand” and “Soul Train” into her 30s so she would know what the newest dances and West Coast fashions were.
This has been on my mind lately because of two unrelated articles I read in the newspaper on the same day. One of my boomer role models and heroes is former humor columnist Dave Barry. (He is in some form of retirement from the Miami Herald to help raise his daughter Sophie, I think.) Anyway, he and Stephen King and some other writers have had a rock band called the Rock Bottom Remainders for quite a few years, and they appear at various book-related gatherings. Their claim to fame is that they never rehearse and that they have a constant flow of writers cycling through — some talented musicians, some not.
Their June 1, 2007, New York Book Expo America outing has been named “The Younger Than Keith Tour.” According to Barry, they chose the name because “there are very few people on earth we are all younger than, but Keith Richards qualifies.” On the very same day, USA Today carried a blurb from a Rolling Stone interview with Richards, and this is the quote they chose: “If you’re cool, you don’t know nothing about it. It just is, or it ain’t.” Keith may be old, but dag nab it, he knows cool!
This of course brings up an entirely new stream of thought regarding the word “cool.” Both the meaning and the use of “cool.” To me, the most interesting part of all this is how the word “cool” has endured. Groovy, gnarly, bad, neat, sweet — lots of them claimed their moment, but “cool” has been with us for as long as any boomer can remember. It most likely came from the beatnik era (cool daddy) or Ed “Kookie” Burns of 77 Sunset Strip fame. (Please don’t make me research it, I’ve got a great bottle of Red Zin open.)
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So why do you suppose that “cool” is still cool? I hear people of all ages comfortably using it. For example, the elderly bag guy at Publix used it to compliment me on my little vintage BMW.
Just as I was ready to wrap up this column with another striking example, yet another article popped up in USA Today. Author Tom Wolfe in giving the commencement address at Trinity College, told the graduates this: “The most powerful drive that the human animal has — more powerful than lust, greed or pride — is the urge to be cool. It is something that seizes everyone. ... Cool is going to dog you the rest of your life. It simply gets weirder. ... To me the way out of being cool, of always looking for the inner ring, is to remember the power that the liberal arts have given you.”
For God’s sake, Tom, what are the science majors to do? What about those of us who didn’t finish college? How can he leave us hanging like this? Tom Wolfe has defined our culture for so long now that it seems he was always around giving his commentary in his white suit. We boomers aren’t about to let go of the quest to be cool. What do we do?
Now, as Keith has told us, there’s no defining cool, we just sort of know it when we see it. Part of our cultural truth as I see it is that we have handed the power of what’s in to the teens, twenty-somethings, celebrities and those messy-haired correspondents on the entertainment shows.
My thinking is that we boomers are so strong in numbers that we can establish our own standard of cool. In fact, in a way we already have. We can singularly claim the phenomenal success of the comfortable clothes of Chico’s, which is based right here in our backyard. How about relaxed jeans? Self-parallel parking cars? Laser eye surgery?
See what I mean?
By The Way: I’m pleased to report that I’ve noticed some very cool stuff around Cape Coral lately: Sims Art Gallery and its neighbor, the fabulous deli Pignoli; a great much-needed wine purveyor called Winestyles; and Brewbabies, a spectacular coffee shop with long hours and lots of pizzazz!
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