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Sparkle (1)
This week has been Spirit Week at my kids' school, and each day they've had something fun to look forward to participating in. Today is Retro Day, and I woke up this morning in a panic. My daughter had already decided she was going as a hippie. But my son, yeah, NO idea.
So, I jumped out of bed, hauled ass to his room, and began flinging clothes out of his drawers. Seriously, not much to work with at all. Until I saw it... a black dress shirt with a larger collar, and some semi-faded jeans. Retro day, right? Wait, the 80s aren't considered retro now, are they? Holy Garden Hose Batman, they are! Oh shit....
Meanwhile, my daughter raided my closet for her hippie clothing (I've told y'all before I'm a hippie skirt and shirt wearing gal), where she found a tye-dyed long sleeve hemp shirt with mirrors on it (yep, little tiny mirrors all along the bottom of it), then raided my jewelry box to find a huge turquoise and hemp necklace. She paired all of that with her jeans with the flowers down the leg, we braided her hair, and she was complete, and a very happy little hippie this morning.
My son groaned and groaned as I decked him out in 80s clothes. I rolled up the sleeves, popped the collar of his black dress shirt, put it over top of a simple ribbed tank top (wife beater, for those who aren't so politically correct), and gave him a terry cloth wristband, courtesy of Z. He was not a happy camper, so I proceeded to google things like 'Judd Nelson, The Breakfast Club', and 'John Cusack, Say Anything' and 'Ferris Bueller', to show him how they dressed in the 80s. Still, he was not happy. I pried for information, and finally found out it was the ribbed tank top that was bothering him. So, since the 80s were famous for layering, we quickly (as it was almost time for him to go to school), put a white polo over the tank top, popped that collar, put an orange short sleeved shirt over the polo, re-donned the black dress shirt with the popped collar, and he was happy. I grabbed the can of hair spray, messed his hair up, set it in place, and he was on his way to school, looking like a kid I would have had the hots for when I was 6 myself.
With an empty house and the excitement of Retro Day just starting for my kids as they arrived at school, it all hits me. The 80s are now retro. What. The. Hell?? I grew up with the side ponytail, the rolled up jeans with the legwarmers or scrunched socks, the jelly shoes, the MC Hammer pants, the stonewashed jeans and jean jackets... and I was cool as hell. Now, 20 years later, my kids are taking the information I have first hand knowledge of, and applying it to Retro Day? Urgh, this can't be happening. At least with my daughter, she raided my closet and used the knowledge I had acquired from seeing movies and reading books that took place in the 60s- not something I actually lived through. But my son? I used actual memories to help dress him today. Blasphemy!!
I knew this day would come eventually. Honestly, I figured it would come about 10 more years down the road when my daughter got home from school one day asking me, 'Mom, do you remember when President Clinton was impeached? We learned about that in history class today.' Yes, dear, I do remember. Thank goodness President Clinton couldn't keep his cigars to himself, because his impeachment got me through my college government class. My government teacher figured history in the making was more important than anything we could read in textbooks, so my hour and a half of government each day was spent watching CNN and writing papers on it. Passed that class with flying colors....
And yet, here I am, about to turn turn 30 (OMG, my birthday is one week from today... gasp!), reliving the days when I was my son's age, in order to dress him for Retro Day. Now I know how my mom felt when I wanted to dress in 70s clothes for Retro Day as a kid, and she pulled authentic clothes right from her closet. I used to laugh my ass off at that, to which she would reply, 'Just wait. It will happen to you one day, with your
