Sunday, March 07, 2010

Bell bottom blues...

I've never been much of a swimmer. I tried to learn how and enjoy it several times when I was younger, but open water never seemed as appealing as dry land to me. I've been out on the ocean a time or two, but I can thankfully say I've never been in it.

I have heard people that do swim in the ocean warn about the undertow. Apparently it's an underwater force that can drag you out to sea before you realize what happened.

My wife Susan and I went to an 80th birthday open house for one of our friends last Saturday. While we were out, and in the interest of conserving time and gas, she was able to convince me that we should pick up a few things we needed for the house. And since we had come that far, it wouldn't take very much longer to stop and see if she could find new blouse that she wanted.

Apparently there is also something called a "shopping undertow", because before I knew it, I was wandering around a shopping mall. Luckily, I was able to grab onto a bench and secure myself there until Susan found what she was looking for.

Now, if you're getting close to being an old man, and you haven't sat in a mall for a while and watched people go by, let me tell you it can be quite a learning experience. For instance, I learned that a lot of people think they can wear smaller clothes than they really can. And that a lot of young men think that they can wear bigger pants than they really can. And that a lot of people at the mall apparently didn't realize they were going to be out in the public when they left home. Or they didn't care.

I know styles have changed over the years, and I'm sure they will continue to change. When I look at the way a lot of young people present themselves nowadays, I wonder what employer would hire them, and how they will ever find a decent paying job.

It's probably the same thing the old men sitting on the mall benches were thinking about me when I was the one walking around the mall in my tie dye shirt and bell-bottom pants, with hair down to my shoulders.

The worrisome thing is that the old men in my younger days were right.

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