"Mrs. T - you're looking very hip today!" 

Usually my students pay me about as much attention as a laundry soap commercial, so I admit I was taken aback, and maybe even a little pleased.  Me - hip!

I took a moment to assess what I was wearing.  Brown corderoy bell-bottom pants.  A gauzy brown blouse with aqua stitching.  What in the day we might have called "platform shoes" - slides with big chunky 2" soles.  Beaded turquiose and stone necklace.

I sighed, the momentary elation of having achieved "hipness" deserting me. 

How to break it to my kids that rather than striving for hipness, my clothes only indicated that I have been tragically unhip for the past 30 years?