November 6th 1957 may not have been a particularly special day in the history of the world apart, of course, from the release of the Elvis Presley film 'Jailhouse Rock', but it was a pretty big day in the history of the Letts household. It was the day on which I became a teenager.
I had been preparing for this for some time and had for instance, already mastered the art of the five morning week by surfacing after midday at weekends.
Now that teenagedom was officially proclaimed, I started work on the scruffy image associated with youths my age and this had the not unexpected result of attracting comments from my parents along the lines of
"You don't think you're leaving the house looking like that do you?"
This usually meant returning to my bedroom and making a few slight adjustments to satisfy Mum and Dad's requirements of my image.
Having recently observed a group of teenagers loitering locally with no intent whatever, it occurs to me that they never had it so good. I would have stood no chance of leaving home looking the way they do now.
Indeed it strikes me that a few parental comparisons are in order.
1957: "Pull your trousers up - I can almost see your pants".
2011: "Push your trousers down - I didn't buy you those Calvin Klein pants for your birthday so you'd hide them".
1957: "You'll have to change those trousers. There's a hole in them".
2011: "Would you like me to make a few more holes in those distressed jeans?"
1957: "Oh dear. I think you need a new pair of shoes. Those are badly worn".
2011: "You need to scuff those trainers up they look brand new".
1957: "Tuck your shirt in".
2011: "Pull your shirt out".
and don't even start me going on the hairstyles.
Jealous? Moi?
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