Just Who Are These Joneses?

I've always thought of myself as fairly impervious to peer pressure. HA! Make that I've always liked to think of myself as impervious. In fact, I'm as pervious as the next person.

And there's nothing like an afternoon spent in a trendy city to bring this point home. A week or two ago, my in-laws were visiting and we all set out for a day of sightseeing in Seattle. It may be rainy but Seattle is becoming a little Mecca of cool - first it launched grunge on the world, then it became home to Microsoft. Now it has the world paying $3 for a cup o' Joe. Clearly, this is a city on a roll.

So we were rolling along, right in the height of the Christmas shopping season, from the fish-throwers at Pike Place Market on to the Space Needle (located right next to the Uber-cool Experience Music Project) and eventually to Westlake Center. We were having a grand time, but there was this nagging Greek chorus in the back of my head. It went something like this: "You are not hip. You are SO not hip. You may once have aspired to hip, but no longer." It took me a second to place the origin of the refrain - and then I heard it coming from that girl's shoes!!! They were hip shoes, indeed, shoes that said, "No really, she is this tall, and these boots weren't meant for walkin'!"

My footwear, I am ashamed to admit, is never fashionable. I am no stoic, and I go to great lengths to make sure my feet are comfy. No matter what Herr Birkenstock might try to tell you, comfy feet=ugly shoes.

So I ignored the shoes, but then I heard the chorus again. This time it was coming from a storefront display of beautiful fuzzy sweaters. "We are comfortable," they cooed, "and so incredibly cool." I already have more sweaters than a woman needs, but none of them that trendy. I coveted those sweaters.

And then I realized that I was perhaps the only person in Seattle that day wearing jeans! Everyone else was wearing khakis or cargos or vinyl… I thought jeans were timeless, a classic of casual wear. What happened? Where did they go? What do you mean 'Who is Eddie Vedder?' Oh no, I am a fashion anachronism.

Fortunately my husband is no fool (he is also careful with his money) and he could see what was happening. I knew, too, that he has his own chorus. His sounds more like, "Wouldn't this music sound better in surround sound? Movies are hardly worth seeing without a DVD player and a flat-screen TV. And don't look now - but that guy over there is driving a bigger truck than yours!"

Go To Page: 1 2

Articles in this Topic    Discussions in this Topic