Our daughter just turned 15 and requested a trip to Atlanta to celebrate her birthday. Some cash had fallen out of greeting cards in recent days and she had shopping on her mind.
So we drove up to Lenox Square Mall for Labor Day — primarily so she could visit a store known as Urban Outfitters. Fulfilling an agreement with me that the first stop would be for a cup of hazelnut creme coffee at the Corner Bakery, we marched toward our primary destination.
Passing the display window at United Colors of Benetton, I pointed to a solid brown suit with a solid burgundy shirt and a solid, skinny brown tie. It looked liked something the older men would wear to a family reunion in the late ’60s or early ’70, I commented.
“It’s retro, Dad; vintage is in,” I was told. It was just the beginning.
The vintage look was the hallmark of Urban Outfitters. Most fascinating to me were the hats like my older cousins and uncles wore with their brown suits to the Nuckolls family reunions on Sunday afternoons in the late ’60s and early ’70s.
We all enjoyed our day at the mall together, but I came home empty handed. As the second of four sons raised on a low budget, “vintage” looks a lot like “hand-me-down” to me.
And I tried on one of those “retro” hats. The reflection in the mirror looked way too much like the old men at the family reunion.
I just never knew they were so cool.
