We pulled our Subaru into a space reserved for fuel-efficient vehicles at our LEED certified downtown market. We were listening to a world music CD for children that I had just checked out from the public library.
This was the moment. The one that scrubbed any remnants of blue off our collars. No more pretending. It was time to take my subtly trendy $5 Goodwill jeans into that market, and proudly order the Michigan-made Bloody Mary mix with my brunch.
I can’t say I’ve accepted myself as a member of a demographic. But I do acknowledge it. I wonder a lot about what my grandparents would think of my life. They’d be proud, surely. They were tickled pink by my older cousins’ successes in love and life. But could we ever tell Grandma how much our cell phone bills are? Man, she even thought answering machines were an unnecessary cost.
It is unreal to be descended from people who grew up without indoor plumbing. Grandmothers who used washboards and darned socks. Grandfathers who forged iron and fixed all the things. My parents generation launched our family into college. My generation–what? Stayed up all night in Prague? What am I supposed to tell those other backpackers in that European hostel? That somehow I’m more “real” because of the Victory Gardens in my blood?
Sigh.
Anyone know where I can get a pair of Danskos on sale?
Ha! we are in the same place. I the words of Jack Donaghy: The first generation works their fingers to the bone making things, the next generation goes to college and innovates new ideas, the third generation… snowboards and takes improv classes.
Exactly. +1 for 30 Rock reference, thereby further solidifying our common 2-car ground. Let’s meet for brunch to discuss!
YOU COULD BE A FAMOUS COLUMNIST IN A MAJOR NEWSPAPER…WE WOULD HAPPILY WELCOME YOU TO ORANGE COUNTY’S REGISTER! And…You’re sooo mod!..Love you. J & M
Ha. I could only be a columnist if I could write one thing per month, and just got to babble about pink owl hats or building forts with a three-year-old. 🙂 But thanks.
We are so blue, that it would probably take an apocalyptic event (or the lottery) to ever change that, but I think the most important thing is that you embrace it all and make it a rainbow! Your blue is still there, maybe not in your careers or possessions but in your thought processes and history.
(First of all, I don’t know why I’m having to approve each of your comments. Secondly:) I looooove that! MAKE IT A RAINBOW! How poetic, and perfect.