Thursday, February 9, 2012

Six degrees of Kenny Loggins

Mr W has his school's music program tonight. A few weeks ago they sent home a flyer telling the kids what they should wear. After not doing anything about it for all that time I asked him a couple of days ago what he was supposed to wear. Now, to be a stickler about it, I did ask this question when I got the flyer and was told "normal clothes". I asked again to be sure, and was told "something 80's", and the flyer said they would be covering the song Footloose.

Something 80's, huh? Now, I was there, I'm sure of it. Those were my high school and college years. In the middle to late parts of the decade, I was going through my retro thrift store phase, where I would buy old men's dress shirts and wear them fully buttoned with the collar cut off. Oh, and jazz flats. I even had a tail (the hair kind) for a time. As I think about it, I had several blouses with shoulder pads. However, I don't really remember how males dressed in the 80's . So I did some research, and if you think something along the lines of Duran Duran, that's what people are thinking.

Buying a yellow suit wasn't in the cards, so I bought him a bright green polo shirt at the thrift store, and he'll wear it with the collar up. That's 80's, right? It'll have to be for tonight, anyway. His hair is getting long, so maybe his dad can help him sweep it up on the sides with some hair gel.

Given all this 80's stuff, it's not surprising that the song Footloose has been going through my head the last couple of days. Remember how Kenny Loggins had a string of movie theme songs? Top Gun, Caddy Shack, Footloose. Anyway, we get to the thrift store and there's actually a Kenny Loggins song playing, although it wasn't Footloose and I can't remember what the song was at the moment. I pointed this out and Mr W was unimpressed. No context, I suppose.

We do one circuit around the back to see if maybe, just maybe there are some appropriate shoes for the kid to wear (no), and go past the LPs. Yes, the LPs. You know, those big black disks old people used to play music? They had a bunch of them. There at the front was a Loggins and Messina album. I don't know what the title was (wasn't much of a fan). I point this out to Mr W as well. Isn't that oddly coincidental? Two Kenny Loggins things in the thrift store while we're shopping for a Footloose-y shirt.

Sciencey (or even remotely logical) people would point out that I was tuned into things Loggins, not that there was anything supernatural about seeing this stuff. Fair enough.

4 comments:

  1. Of course, I now cannot get that song out of my head. Sigh.

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  2. LInda, it sounds like you are going to have him look more 50's than 80's.

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  3. Susan - ha! Same here.

    John - Perhaps. But he was happy with it, and it's close enough for 5th grade.

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  4. It reminds me of something from back then. From a movie we used to quote...(see if you remember the reference)
    "Sometimes it's plate. Or shrimp. Or plate of shrimp."
    I'm probably mauling it. Or getting it completely wrong. Or both.

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Hi, sorry to make the humans do an extra step.