Hush Puppies, Ponchos and Fake Fur...and maybe Bill Gates

Back in the 70's, (yes, some of us were alive back then) when I was a young adolescent, I LOVED my hush puppy shoes.  They were suede, I cannot remember what color.  I've blocked out the painful memory.  I bought a similar pair after I was married in the late 80's early 90's, but not without ALOT of  resistance.  You see, when I was young, I was ridiculed for my tastes.  Granted, they were due in no small part to my mother's taste, as she had to approve of my clothes, and to my hard to fit little body.  I was, from about 5th grade on, very tall for my age, and very thin, with very NARROW feet.  My father used to tease me by calling them snakes.  I was NOT amused.  Having narrow feet is somewhat easier nowadays, as there is a lot more variety in the choice of narrow shoes.  Back then, well, it was either "old lady" shoes or Hush Puppies.  Some may say those two are the same thing.  I cannot totally disagree.  But I LOVED my Hush Puppies...they were suede nubuck.  It may have not been the style, but I really loved those shoes.  See, I was a nerdy kid.  Some of us are destined by the gods to be popular, and some of us will NEVER fit in.  Now that I'm nearly 50 years old, I have some perspective on that.  I'm not going to dwell on the "exercise" we did in 7th grade where everyone put their name on top of a blank sheet of notebook paper and passed it around for each of the other students to write a one-word description of us (for constructive criticism of course), but let me just say that my sheet showed a lot of "sweet girl" and one distinctive "SQUARE" that I knew from the handwriting was from a friend of mine.  OUCH!!!  Now I realize we each ARE WHO WE ARE, thank God, and embracing it is SO much easier.  Nowdays I am considered "creative" and "one of a kind."  I just go with it.  It's freeing.  

But anyway, I was so fond of those nubuck shoes, but a little ashamed of them too...!!!  Just the way I felt about  my poncho.  That's right, a PONCHO.  I was just looking for knitting projects online and ponchos are COOL!!!!  I made mine myself, after my grandmother taught me to sew in junior high.  It was in a southwestern serape-style fabric.  Even today as an adult, I LOVE Santa Fe.  Must have been onto something then....  But, alas, ponchos weren't really cool... except for the macrame-ed and knitted ones, which I thought looked rather stupid. Hey, BTW, anyone remember pooka shell and macrame-ed necklaces???  I'm showing my age.  Anyway, It was uncool, but I loved that stupid poncho.  And then there was the fake fur.  I remember in about the 6th grade, being so proud of my new acrylic fake fur overcoat with the matching hat with fake fur pompoms dangling down on either side of my fat little head.  It made me so happy to wear that stupid thing.  But it was SOOO uncool.  I'm trying to remember what the cool kids wore.....wool pea coats I think???  Whatever.  But the point of all this reminiscing is to remark on how it still makes me angry today that trends and fads come and go, and what used to be ridiculous is now the pinnacle of fashion, and what was fashionable and you kept wearing long after it was because you actually LIKED the damn thing is OK now. This INEVITABLY will happen for everything.  What  grief I endured  in my tender formative years for things that are now "hot," "cool," "sweet," or whatever they who are the beautiful people are are calling it now!!   Maybe, just maybe...instead of saying "NO WAY IN HELL WILL I WEAR THAT AGAIN! I ENDURED SO MUCH TORTURE FOR THAT!!!,  I just need to let that anger go, and embrace those things which brought a little ray of sunshine into my extremely painful, not to say awkward childhood years.  Incidentally, and maybe we have Bill Gates to thank for this; I'm not quite sure, geeks are hip.  There was a lot of rage at first, that now, among the younger friends of ours, "geekdom" is soooo awesomely cool.  What the....???   I was a geek when it got you beat up on the playground and hit in the head with the DODGEBALL!!  Does anyone play dodgeball any more?  How sadistic was that game....Oh, she's a geek, throw the ball at her!!!???  Those of you poor souls who were fellow geeks will not need further elaboration to understand these musings....as for the rest of you, why don't you try figuring out for yourself what you like....it's a tougher road, but it will make you stronger.....