Although forced to live as a day person, I am really a night person. Hipsters like Jean Shepherd helped keep people like me sane in the 50's. Not Shepherd himself, who I did not hear about until I read Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories, but his whole stick it up your snoot attitude is what I admired among my contemporaries. This era was hard on me and my friends who felt as I did, because girls were not supposed to be in the know. We always had to be the straight persons in all the comedies. And in a way I wasn't very experienced, but on the other hand the pieties of the day gagged me. I did not want to be nice! I did not know how to be nice anyway. I wanted to be cool and smart but came off mostly as dorky. Parenthood softened me up a lot. Is this good or bad? I do not know.
All this excess bloggery is because Terry is out of town (He's coming back today.) and it is too unpleasant to do anything but stay in my office with my little heater and read, write and surf the 'net. I'm glad to have stumbled upon The Awl. I like high-level critiques of popular culture. There is too much fatuousness around the subject, too much being forced to express positive views about banal offerings, and since most of us Americans consume enormous amounts of this stuff, expending many hours on it, it needs to be examined in this way. What is pop cult doing to us?
Parenthood softened me, too. Now that they are all grown-ups, I am trying to find that edge again. I miss parts of it, especially when writing.
Posted by: Anne Dewees | February 23, 2013 at 02:54 PM
Annie: Which? The softness or the edge?
Posted by: Hattie | February 23, 2013 at 03:19 PM
absence makes the Hattie ruminate! Lucky us
ALOHA from Waikiki
Comfort Spiral
~ > <3
Posted by: cloudia | February 23, 2013 at 04:46 PM
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Posted by: cloudia | February 23, 2013 at 04:50 PM
Remember sitting in window of crummy apartment on upper west side (that was before it went upscale). It's one a.m. and Jean Shepherd is my audio companion. Insomnia not so bad when I could follow his thinking, his humor.
There I was, one of hundreds of girl college grads interviewing for the "best" jobs in publishing offices, at Esquire magazine, and ending up working for "Photo Trade News." Little did we know that early in the next century girls just like us with "only a B.A." would settle for Starbucks or retail with little hope of moving on without ANOTHER degree.
Posted by: naomi dagen bloom | February 23, 2013 at 10:06 PM
Cloudia: It's free on Amazon Prime. Thanks!
Naomi: I don't have a clue as to what the publishing industry looked like then, or now. That sort of thing was always out of my league.
All I know is that all the women and a lot of the men in local journalism, that is right here in Hawaii, lost their good jobs a long time ago and turned to other occupations. At best, such work is marginal, occasional and poorly paid.
Posted by: Hattie | February 23, 2013 at 11:26 PM
I'm not sure whether the difference is personal or whether it is an age difference; but, I don't recall ever being really aware of "pop culture" in my youth. I was a really old woman by the time I was age 26! You rebels were not as naive as I was, it seems. I'm glad that you are re-discovering the real you - if I am understanding you correctly. If not....
Posted by: Cop Car | February 24, 2013 at 08:00 AM
Cop Car: Will the real me stand up???? Gosh, if you ever find out who the real me is, let me know!
Posted by: Hattie | February 24, 2013 at 01:06 PM
Giving it a moment's thought, I have decided that you are a flibbertigibbet - a word that I've not heard used, lately. *smirking*
Posted by: Cop Car | February 25, 2013 at 09:07 AM
OMG! I just read the Wikipedia posting on "flibbertigibbet" and there is a modern use of which I was ignorant. I apply the label to you in the OLD meaning - in the nicest way possible!
Posted by: Cop Car | February 25, 2013 at 09:09 AM
Cop Car: Someone who knows me in person describes me as "organic." Few people take me seriously. I impersonate a serious person on occasion, however. In a mood of self congratulation I could call myself an organic intellectual, after Gramsci's definition. I'm not a specialist or a scholar, but I do take ideas seriously, and especially the nature of our communities, our families, and our economy. I would like to see more fairness in life. But I enjoy joking around, too.
Posted by: Hattie | February 25, 2013 at 09:35 AM