DOWN HOME:
Clothes museum or kids' closets?
___If you ever doubt the cyclical nature of history, just look in Lindsay and Molly Knox's closets.
___(Put your hard hat on first. Now, go right ahead. But be careful.)
___As you peer into those sanctums of sartorial splendor, you might think you're gazing at a clothes museum right out of the 1970s.
___The closets aren't completely, authentically '70s. Neither Lindsay nor Molly owns any of those ultra-slick polyester shirts with landscapes printed on them--the kind I wore when I courted their Mama. But that's about the only omission. A generation ago, my friends and I wore lots and lots of T-shirts. We "styled" in flared and bell-bottomed pants, mostly of the jeans variety. And we wore foot attire more akin to stilts than shoes.
___These daughters absolutely hate for me to point this out.
___Just the other day, I held aloft one of Lindsay's newest acquisitions.
___"Hey, kiddo, I used to have a pair of boots just like these!" I said with satisfaction, identifying myself with today's hip culture.
___"Puh-leeez, Daddy," Lindsay replied with indignation and not a little disgust. "You couldn't possibly have owned any clothes like any of mine."
___OK, my boots--which I bought in Abilene during my freshman year in college--were brown, not black, and obviously several sizes larger than Lindsay's. But other than that, you tell me how they're different: Both rise a few inches above the ankle. Both have zippers up the inside. And, crowning glory, both have inch-thick soles and 4- or 5-inch heels.
___This information embarrasses all of us. Lindsay and Molly gasp at the notion their parents possibly could have worn anything resembling the clothes they wear today. And I'm mortified to recall tent-like bell-bottoms covering scaffold-like boots, not to mention shirts that look like blouses.
___But fashion is frivolous as well as fickle. What goes around, as they say, comes back around. And around, and around.
___This idea prompted Molly to look to the past as she pondered the future. "If fashion comes in cycles, I hope we can skip the '80s," she said. "I think the '80s were the ugliest decade for clothes."
___Let's see now ... The pastels should be consigned to the ragbin of history. But the '80s also featured preppy clothes--navy blazers, khaki slacks, polo shirts. I could wear that stuff for the rest of my life. And that's probably why Molly thinks it's gross. At least it's not gaudy, like the '70s relived in the '00s.
___The Prophet Jeremiah warns about the sins of the parents being visited upon their offspring for generations. Maybe he was thinking about double-knit lime-green togas and stack-soled sandals.
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