Geezers, Tweezers don't always get along

I don't hear the phrase generation gap much today. It seems now that every group has its own distinctive designation and I don't now who decides.

There are Gen-Xers, Millenials, Sublimenals, Moochers and Wannabes. There is and has always been tension between the generations on language, dress, attitudes, power and values.

Fads are used by the young, hereafter known as Tweezers, as missiles to strike deep into the heart of the sensitivities of old folks, hereafter known as Geezers. They are also used to express independence and defiance from the thorny crowns of structure and rules pressed down upon their sweet, sensible heads by those old coots who think they know everything but in essence they are as ignorant as a blacksmith's anvil.

Fads shock Geezers. They are meant to do that. Geezers don't understand why Tweezers act as they do. As long as this world lasts these two groups will strive to coexist but they will always battle each for supremacy of the known universe. The two see the world differently and it seems that the Tweezers are always striving to find new and more efficient ways to upset Geezers. They constantly invent new ways to convince Geezers that they should shuffle off the stage of life and let the Tweezers, the ones who know everything, take over the world. Tweezers lament, "You know nothing and you have fouled up everything about life. It's our turn."

Tweezers and Tweezer wannabes today have fads such as tattoos, piercings, holes in their jeans at strategic places, spiked hair, boys with baggy pants, girls with thong undies and under garments showing, low riding pants for girls and other fads that I am not cognizant of their existence.

I was eating some peanuts and drinking a diet, caffeine free Coke recently and that took me on a trip back to the middle of the last century. At a time when most men and boys had a burr cut, many Tweezer males let their hair grow and swept it back into a duck tail doused with as much Vitallis hair oil as it took to keep a steam locomotive operating for at least a week. Flat top wearers used so much Butch Hair Wax that their hair stood straight up and could pierce a number 10 galvanized wash tub. Geezers were bumfuzzled about such craziness.

There were crinoline petticoats, see through nylon shirts and blouses and white buck shoes that were never cleaned or polished if you were "with it." Guys wore black leather jackets over a white T-shirt to emulate James Dean. They also wore loud heel caps, their collars up with wide cuffs on their jeans. As strange as it seems to people today, girls just began to wear short shorts which shocked Geezers. They were so short that others could almost see Paris or France. And listen to this; girls also began to wear long pants and jeans. Darn you or thanks to Rosie the Riveter depending upon your mindset.

Oh well, fad today gone tomorrow.

Larry grew up north of Calvertville on a farm and graduated from Worthington High School and Indiana State University. He can be reached at Goosecrick@aol.com or (317) 839-7656. Write him at 6860 Sunrise Drive, Plainfield, IN 46168. He has written five books.