A cold snowy Sunday today. After bumming around one of the used-book stores, late morning/early afternoon, I ducked into the Espresso Royale coffeeshop for some hot coffee and cozy reading time. This coffeeshop is in the funky Dinkytown neighborhood of Minneapolis, adjoining the University of Minnesota, a few blocks from our house. Lots of people are there, probably all U of M students and nobody over the age of 25 except for this old guy in the corner reading his book (that's me). Elvis music is playing the whole time I am there (and I am probably the only person there who knows the songs).
Most of the guys, drinking their coffee and thumbing through textbooks or working their laptops, are still wearing their stocking caps, pulled down over their ears, each cap without exception ugly shades of gray and brown. For me (the old guy), one of the mysteries of current twenty-something guys is why the fascination with really ugly stocking caps? I mean, we were indoors, and these guys wear them all summer too, not just on cold snowy days, so it's not about practicality. It's meant to be a fashion statement, or an anti-fashion statement, isn't it?
... and, if you're gonna wear them, why not at least have some interesting colors to offset the drab winter landscape?...
"Back in my day", the anti-fashion statement was hair down to our butts. Now the hair gets covered up. Or, I don't know, maybe it's just a Minnesota thing.
The coffee was good.
3 comments:
Your observations are keen. I'm not sure what the fixation is with stocking caps...even in Texas they wear them. I saw a green bay packer stocking cap the other day when I was out doing the dreaded christmas shopping thing.
I thought, man, he is a long way from home...but now? Fashion gone a mix?
I am struggling to get through 100 years of Solituded-any hints? I hear it is a wonderful tale, but how do I untangle this one.
Green Bay Packer fans are, sad to say, everywhere... but even a Packer stocking cap might be more attractive than some caps I've seen lately.
and the word for christmas shopping is way beyond "dreaded"... :-( I still have more shopping to do, and now we have a blizzard going on.
I loved 100 Years of Solitude, but maybe the stars happened to be aligned just right for me at the time.. I liked the way he wrote, and I was so amused by how everybody through all those generations had exactly the same names over and over... What a confusing family tree! Hang in there.
Howard - next time I see you, remind me to tell you a couple of amusing (to Monte and I at least) Espresso Royale anecdotes. We hung out there a lot when we were dating and I was in law school (it was smoke free and The Purple Onion wasn't!)
Happy New Year - BEW
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