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Retro, schmetro
I’ve been thinking about the retro craze. I can’t help but laugh—just a teensy-weensy bit—when younger friends enthusiastically tell me all about the brand new turntable Santa dropped off and what wonderful sound they get when they spin their vinyl. For those of you who are about my age (more or less), and many of you are, you probably gave away your turntable years ago. Maybe you donated your CCR, Stones, Elvis, Burt Bacharach and Beatles 33s and 45s to a secondhand shop (and you’re probably sorry you did). You probably replaced the whole works with state-of-the-art cassettes and a cassette deck, then a Walkman and finally and disk player. Yeah, you know you did.
Yep, many of us made the transition from dropping the arm on your Seabreeze Record Player to clicking “download” on the computer, then transferring to a portable device. Heck, the definition of portable changed, too. And, unless you happen to be sentimentally attached to every hard-earned piece of technology you’ve ever owned, you’re pretty happy with the way things are. I know I’m okay with my iPod and streaming music. But it seems everything old is new, again. Music that went around and came around. Turntables and vinyl are just a part of that. Heck, the Columbia Record Club is booming, once again. Remember them?
As if the return to record players and vinyl weren’t retro enough, we’re now seeing the resurgence of colouring books. I know, colouring books aren’t exactly retro items but the idea of adults sitting at the kitchen table, scribbling away with box of crayons and a colouring book, sorta harkens back to someone’s “old days”. Seriously? Colouring books for adults?
Whoddathunkit? If the truth be told, I did purchase one, as a joke, for YCOM (youngest child of mine) when she was recovering from the MVA in July. Little did I know she and her wife would become such fans of colouring. Apparently, the girls spent an entire afternoon colouring, quietly.
Geez! I couldn’t keep that kid quiet with a colouring book when she was little. Maybe colouring books are, truly, an adult thing. YCOM bought a colouring book for her wife for her deployment to a field hospital, in October. You guessed it. She spent a lot of her downtime colouring. Our daughter-in-law said it was a stress reliever. The funny thing is, it’s easier to find adult colouring books in stores than it is find one for little kids— and the adult books are of better quality. Who knew? I wish I’d thought of it, I guess. Creating adult-style colourings books, that is.
So, now we’re living in 2016 surrounded by youngish adults who covet their “new” record players because, apparently, they feel the sound quality is better. The truth of the matter is, most males over the age of 17 can’t really hear the difference. The same young people are working as diligently on their collection of vinyl recordings as we did back in the day. They likely keep a stack of colouring books on the coffee table with a rainbow flotilla of crayons and coloured pencils in a coffee can.
What next? Corduroy pants and lumpy plaid shirts? Done. Saddle shoes? Haven’t seen any, yet. Short, short Adidas shorts? How about seamed nylon stockings? The garter belts would drive me nuts. Poodle skirts, crinolines and twin sweater sets? Single speed bikes with coaster brakes? Of course, that’s been around for a while. Toques for all occasions? Something to cover the man-bun. DAs for the guys, more politely known as duck tails? Then there’s my favourite hairstyle, the bouffant. Oh, I can see the painful return of hair rollers, Dippity-do and gobs of hairspray. Not on this person. Nope.
I’ve become pretty happy with my messy hair, my 24-speed bike, my iPod, my CDs, my blue jeans and T-shirts, my Sauconys and my laptop. If I feel the need to get back to my roots, I’ll stop dyeing my hair and crank-up the eight-track!
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