Getting a bit old, or...

...just learning that we are allowed to appreciate things without being labelled 'naff'?


I read a bit of an old Sunday Times Style magazine the other day. After having felt a bit ill due to reading a frankly quite pervy short article about Danny Cipriani (he's only 20!), I looked at the foreword:

The gist was that Generation X (and those maybe a few years older) is now reaching an age where they're actually starting to fall into line with typical "old person" behaviour - going to garden centres, having walks in the countryside, seeking out quiet places to live, etc. These are the post-baby-boom generation, sons and daughters of hippies, some of which saw huge success in the eighties, some of which struggled through recession in the early 90s. Aged hippies may well wear tie-dyed trousers and prefer sandals to slippers - but basically they're all now doing much the same things that their parents did in old age.

A few days before that I'd watched a BBC Four programme on the iPlayer about the history of dance - this particular episode started with the 70s and Northern Soul, into Disco, Breakdancing, Rave, and then onto... well, what do we have now? We've gone full circle and have got back into partner-dancing - Salsa, Jive, Latin & Ballroom. (Strictly) Come Dancing is back on the television. A lot of us still go clubbing but we... well, just jig about a bit! Even Ibiza is starting to welcome rock bands in; dance music - while still strong - isn't the powerhouse it used to be. And when we're watching bands, what to we do? Jig about a bit. We just all face in the same direction.

What else. Oh yeah - knitting is back in! Especially among the girly-geeks, it seems. We also had a big fashion wave of T shirts and trousers that were designed to look hand-made or modified... But I think we're starting to realise that the whole point of those is rather defeated when they're mass-produced - and actually if we're going to make something ourselves, it's going to look nice - not trashed.

One of the most popular stores now is Urban Outfitters - part clothes-shop (of which clothes are actually quite retro-styled), part home-wares, part knick-knacks. Doesn't that just hark back to the big old department stores? Are you being served?


Case-in-point:

• I got my sewing machine out on the weekend. Myself and my boyfriend hand-made our Hallowe'en outfits. I actually really really enjoyed it - both of us came out with quite impressive-looking pieces.
• I go to dance classes and dances to dance the lindy hop, balboa, occasionally the shag - all swing styles, partner-dances to 30s-40s swing music.
• I now have a plant for my cube at work. I'd wanted one there for ages - nearly visited a garden centre before a workmate found a good one on a shopping trip and bought it for me! Oh, I also re-potted a yucca and parlour palm into a larger pot for my bedroom, a month or two ago.
• I feel saddened and let-down by rude people. Why can't folk just be excellent to each other?
• I leave a big blanket (actually just an opened-out rectangular sleeping bag) in the lounge, to er, put over my knees when watching TV.
• I'm really starting to appreciate a good pair of slippers.

Now, I'm 24 years old. Neither a baby-boomer or Generation-X-er. I'm almost certain that 10-20 years ago, doing/thinking most of the above would have been incredibly sad/naff/odd for someone my age. Now, in 2008, I don't think I'm all that different.

So are we boring? Naff? Or just willing to just get on with the things we like without caring about 'cool'ness?

Are we the unradical, unpoliticised, apathetic and lazy generation who just meander through life? Or have we grown up in a relatively stable (well, until now) economy, where we have no real beef with the government (or, in the UK, can't really work out who's the best of a mediocre bunch) - and therefore more time and money to spend on just finding nice things to do?

Sorry, this has dragged on a bit, probably veered off-topic - and I may well find I am the odd-one-out after all!


I just keep seeing statistics about what our generation is like - compared to many that have come before we're harder-working; quieter; less likely to strike, protest, riot; well - we're basically a bit boring.

Is that true, or are we (as you may have guessed is my opinion) just free-er from economic/conflict-based/cultural hardships and imposed limits?

Possibly we feel less like we have something to prove - so we don't make a big song-and-dance about things.


Ramble over.