Just reading my journal that I kept in high school, I could tell already that while my priorities were certainly almost the same in some attributes (girls, girls, girls) the things I thought were “COOL” or in are certainly something that many of us can relate to, or at least laugh at me for thinking they were cool. So here it is, the list of what Seth thought was cool, circa 1989-1993.
Clothes
1. Surf T-shirts. Such as OP, Billabong, Quicksilver, Rusty, Local Motion, etc… Now if you know it or not, there wasn’t a damn wave above ankle height in Ft Myers. I owned several OP shirts, though they weren’t as cool as some of the others. I still have one I wear. The thing is I bought that one my freshmen year in college. Verdict now: Well I still think Local Motion is kinda cool and I still wear my OP shirt but everything else needs to be retired unless I move to Hawaii.
2. Other t-shirt companies: NO Fear, Bad Boys, Mossimo, any volleyball shirt (Side Out, Spot Sport) etc…While I will admit to still owning a Side Out shirt, it’s a trippy techno T. The rest should be used a car rags. Wait- I take that back, I still have a Mossimo shirt. But Brent Gordon, former SG Treasurer at UF has it too, and we both still think it’s a cool mass-produced shirt.
3. Z Caverichi jeans. I thought they sucked, however I did get a pair of generic ones which I still own and wear actually and people thing they are cool cause they don’t look like Hammer pants. I have a pair of Caverichi jeans, but this was after they dropped the “Z”. Verdict: Thank god Iwasnt the idiot wearing these. “Stop, Hammer time”
4. Nike Airs- I thought they kinda sucked and never owned a pair cept my track shoes, however they were the rage. I still think they suck. I wore Reeboks (and I had a pair of the all black high tops). Now I never wear sneakers except to work out.
5. Polo and Guess clothes. I owned neither and made it a vow never to do so. Well I never did in high school. But now. I do own one Ralph Lauren t-shirt that looks like its worn in the Israel army and I have a pair of Guess khaki jeans and sweatshirts. Oh wait, I take that back, I have a trendy Blue Polo sweatshirt too. In addition, I have the wanna-be Guess belt with a big “G”- definite conversation piece.
Styles
1. Ok jeans had to be rolled up and tight. No ifs ands or buts. Why? I never knew. However I was a conformer. Hey it made it look good with those dock siders that everyone had. Jeez I hated those when I look back on it now. Like, where was the flood. I took a hard lesson my first week in college about that one. For awhile I took some verbal assaults for rolling up my pants just once on the bottoms. Now everyone does it, so I persevered. RIP stonewashed jeans 1993. Thank god, what was I thinking?
2. You had to have either a lot of gold or surfer jewelry. My gold chain got stolen in high school, and I had plenty of poser surfer accessories to outfit a surf shop. I even had ankle bracelets (I have pictures of this to prove so) This was the pre-hemp necklace, earrings, and tattoo era.
3. Rolling up your shirts- if it was short sleeve, it was rolled up, Verdict now- “That’s so 1993” I have been phasing this out the past year, it was still cool at FAU but not so at UF. Besides, I realize that the only shirts I rolled up were the damn surf shirts.
4. Crew cuts became popular after the head banging hair went out. I was torn here, I never had any great haircuts in HS. Actually I didn’t have any good ones until my sophomore year at FAU. Since then though I should get a job as a Vidal Sasson model. Ok, you’re right, I should be a Playgirl Calendar boy. 8 by 10 glossies available.
Other things
Gangster rap was certainly in. Everyone had 2 Live Crew and Easy E, and NWA. I was a big Sir Mix-a-lot fan- he’s still the man. Bass was what was important. The gangster look began to take over at the lower grade levels. You had to have the “cars that go boom” Jeez everyone had these monster 18’ speakers. I had a sub-woofer tube in my trunk and since I was poor, I also had one of house speakers in there too.
Speaking of which, I though my car was cool. It was a black Escort GT. I had a spoiler which I waxed daily and ground effects. Smack on the back, I had a No Fear sticker (though I was scared of this Puerto Rican guy named Ray who had a reputation for knocking people out in one punch. He whacked my friend Alex in one shot. Once I bumped into Ray in my tough guy Big Johnson rolled up shirt and he said something to me in Spanish with the word “muerte” and “puto” in it. Lucky, I knew his cousin so while I got the look of “Im gonna beat your cracker ass all year” He never did anything.) My car was a piece of Kmart add-ons, like double wiper blades. My dad said if I ever put fuzzy dice in my car he’d kick my ass. That was one of the biggest fights I ever had with my dad. I threw a fit. Hey, those dice also were air freshners!
Most of my friends also werent cool. I thought they were but most of them are mowing lawns or bagging groceries for living, doing the same lame ass stuff we did in high school (hang out at the mall, drive around in circles at the beach, pick up underage women)…
Well this could go on for awhile, but Im getting sick just thinking what I liked in high school.
Seth has certainly created his own style now and is “fashionably sensitive but too cool to care”