We were ‘Cool’ before ‘Cool’

The picture was faded. The people staring out of the grainy picture were definitely true to type, sixties types: handlebar mustache, long and blow-dried hair or huge ’fros; flowery shirts with very high collars, and large, extra wide flapper trousers over platform boots.

Yes, the picture perfectly captured some buddies of mine and I. Looking back at that photograph, and others in that now musty old album, sent me on a wonderful trip down memory lane. We were ‘Cool’ before Cool; we were also ‘Cats’ long before we morphed into the present day ‘Dogs.’

“Hey, Cat?”
“You dig it. Groovy, cat.”

This beautiful and highly expressive language by cool cats has now been replaced by the ‘Dogs’ and their rather aggressive expressions.

The sixties generation was laid back; today’s generation wants instant results; the sixties were non-violent; today’s generation our antithesis; the sixties was about jazz, rock, and living in a world of euphoria; today’s generation is about hip-hop, rap, and an attitude of live hard and die young.

Perspectives change; fashions change. Yesterday’s fashions are something to laugh at. Did we really think that we looked good in that suit, in that dress? Oh yes, we did, as the present generation think that they looked good. The common denominator in this beat is that every generation has their cool cats or big dogs—the leaders in high school, you know what I mean. Coolness has always been ‘IN’—whatever coolness is? The young were always divided into the studious (Read as Nerds); the square (Read as those who believed in Duty, Country, Honor—principles that required discipline), and the cool cats.

As time passes, the roles reverse: the cool ones normally are the low ranking employees, if they have jobs—the nerds and squares are CEOs, senior bureaucrats, and high ranking military officers.

Tamper your cool and be a little more nerdy and square if you want to get ahead in life.