I think it all started when I opened the Autumn LLBean catologue. There it was...in all it's woolly glory. The Birdseye sweater.
Oh how I wanted this sweater! The year was 1985 and I may or may not have cut these out of the LLBean catologue and glued them on photos of myself so I could imagine I owned one. They resurfaced this past Autumn and you know I did not waste any time placing my order. As Joan Rivers once said..."money is not the key to happiness, but I always figured if you have enough money, you can have a key made". This sweater makes me very happy. It represents so much. The life I wanted when I was younger. This sweater was so out of reach when I wanted it the most, owning it now is a symbol of how far I have come. It is the uniform of the club I always wanted to be invited to join. I think I was recently appointed vice-president.
Then came the Tretorns. My heart races a little when I see them! I spent so much time at the public tennis courts (there were no country clubs in my youth) I really did wear a hole in the toe of mine! I saved up money from my after school job and bought my first pair in a shoe store in the Niagara Falls factory outlet mall.
This is not my foot...image courtesy of google.
I recently bought a pair of Tretorns and they make me even happier than my first pair! Ignore the fine lines, reading glasses and mild heartburn and I really could be 14 again when I am wearing them. Okay squint a little!
Then came this post by Snooty Primadonna reminding me of my love for Mikhail Baryshnikov and a movie I was obsessed with! White Nights. I saw it every weekend while it was in the theatres. I got the soundtrack on cassette for Christmas in 1985 and I actually wore it out. We watched it again a few weeks ago and the Suburban Prince, who had never seen it, said it is a really good movie. He actually knows a guy who defected - he was on the national ski team and while the team went one way down the mountain, he went the other!
Since I have been reliving my teenage years recently it was no surprise that I would go off looking for the White Nights soundtrack. It wasnt easy but I did manage to find, for download, a few of the songs. The sound of Phil Collins voice actually stopped me in my tracks! The middle of the 80's was enhanced by those drums and poignant love songs - would a school dance have been the same without Against All Odds?
After listening to Separate Lives a few times I downloaded Phil Collins album Face Value. This is the one with In the Air Tonight so along with Bohemian Rhapsody it is the perfect 'singing and drumming in the car' song. The Little Prince has been working on his drum solos.
(I swear I am getting to my point! Dont blame me, blame my gender...women think in a word association sort of way so one concept makes me think of another and so on...)
Face Value was released in 1981 so who knows why I was still listening to it in high school. Maybe it was just a part of my Phil Collins collection. Last month I downloaded it, put it on my ipod and got on with my life. A few days later I was sitting at a red light and You Know What I Mean came up in the shuffle. It was like my car was a time machine taking me back to a very specific time...the Birdseye sweater, Tretorns, grade 9...I think I could actually smell Wind Drift....the friends I had, the boys I liked, passing notes in class, tennis lessons...The Official Preppy Handbook found it's way into my hands in 1985...those moments spent teetering between being a child (because 14 was a child back then) and being more than a child...
I wore this when I was a teenager...I have no idea why but I just loved the way it smelled!
The car behind me honked and bought me back to 2010 and I carried on with my errands but I was left with a strange feeling. It amazed me how easily one forgotten song could conjure so many feelings and memories.
I used to listen to this over and over...even at 14 I knew I was destined for an epic life! Of course along with an epic life comes epic breakups and I spent hours and hours imagine how fabulous 30 would be and how meaningful my relationship ending moments would be. Go ahead...laugh...I am!
So here it is...the song that brought me to this post....
Over the next few days I will be writing to my 14 year old self. I thought I might have a few tidbits of advice but once I got started I realised how much I have learned in the last 25 years so instead of one huge post, there will be several smaller posts. It is amazing how much I had to learn and how much I had to go through to learn it. Life, love, people, places...none of them come with a manual even though at 14 I thought I knew it all. In the words of Bob Dylan, I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now.
Have a fabulous day!
16 comments:
I have the Tretorns but with the pink on them.
I have to say that I went to a podiatrist recently and he started laughing because his sisters loved their Tretorns too. (I was wearing them to the appointment). He stated that unless I had orthotics in them (which I apparently needed badly they were not the best of shoes to wear). I have since inserted orthotics.
What a fun post! I,too, had the blue tretorns and LOVED them! I wore Elizabeth Arden and Beautiful. I can't wait to hear more!
What a great post! I'm sure you will have many of us thinking back to when we were 14 and so naive, full of dreams and ideas about how life would be...certainly unaware that the universe had its own plans for us. It is so true what they say - youth is sometimes wasted on the young - I so look forward to your upcoming posts!!!Have a wonderful day my friend.
Can't wait to hear your advice. I had that LL Bean sweater and LOVED it! Wonder what ever happened to it. xoxo
SC
Isn't it funny how at 14 you thought you knew EVERYTHING?? But now, looking back, there is so much you didn't know!! I miss those days!
Oops. That above post was me. I misspelled and I couldn't leave it that way.
As I was saying, my Bean's sweater sits in my cedar chest - the only chest it will now fit. Nike's was the shoe back then on the west coast. Huge swoosh logo but otherwise very simple. Don't you love to take the trip down memory lane? ;) xoxo
Tretorns...WHAT!!!! I loved mine. I had tons of them red, white, navy, plaid, mint green...ah...the list goes on & on & on!
Man I miss those shoes!
I wore a hole in the toe of a pair of mine too. And I keep forgetting that I need to get a new pair to remind myself of my youth. I love that Joan Rivers quote.
I bought my LLBean Norwegian sweater in the mid 1980s, and I still wear it when it snows (seldom here in SC). I went through several pairs of Tretorns in high school as well as Bean's Docksiders/Sperry Topsiders, which were "the" shoe at my high school. I find this mildly hilarious now, given that we were hundreds of miles from the shore!
Adorable post Miss priss! My sister in law just emailed me last week that she used a gc that I gave her to buy her Tretorns from LL Bean!
Wow, it never occurred to me to write a letter to myself as a child/woman. Hmmm... Very interesting. I might have to do that someday.
Thanks for the *shout out*. I loved all that same music... it was just at a later stage in life. My son was born in '83 & daughter in '85. I played all that music for my kids from the time they were *en womb* along with lots of classical, jazz, show tunes, etc. You definitely have excellent taste in music ;-)
Brilliant post, my dear! I enjoyed it thoroughly.
I still wear my old Tretorns... LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE Phil Collins! You totally made me smile!
I can't wait to read through your post. Phil Collins was and remains one of my all times faves. This song really brings me back too - Don't Let Him Steal Your Heart Away does the same thing to me.
Had to come back to tell you I just bought You Know What I Mean off itunes. That really took me back - thanks :)
Love the Phil Collins song :)
If any of you have misplaced your copies of The Official Preppy Handbook, you can visit the following for a refresher of this ageless book: http://www.pleasurablerevelation.com/2010/03/official-preppy-handbook-or-of-virtues.html
Too funny. I wasn't a preppie at 14 and I've never actually heard of Tretorns - or that particular song by Phil Collins either. However, there is a Trisha Yearwood song that I love. It reminds me of a perfect day in a rag top Cadillac sailing up a mountain road with a handsome guy singing along to the Beatles Lovely Rita Meter Maid; I was 21. It makes me think that it's good we can't see the pain ahead, for it would spoil the present happiness, and of course as long as there is life there is always hope for more happiness. I'm definitely going to be happy when I next get to watch that fabulous movie!
Post a Comment