Feeling “Cool”

Dear Reader,

My wish for you in 2022 is wrapped up in the Jonas Brothers song, “Cool.” Its self-confident, optimistic lyrics are full of memory-inducing references, such as “feelin’ like a new James Dean.” It’s wonderful that kids born in the 1980s and 1990s could include him in their song – but they have NO idea what it was like to be 13 and see “Rebel without a Cause” for the first time. We all wanted to be James Dean, even some girls, and scream at our parents, “You’re tearing me apart!”

We teenagers knew that life was headed somewhere wild and different from the 40’s. Change was bound up in music, film, and dance, as we lurched and strolled into our version of the youth culture. Is it any different for today’s teens?

In 1956, an 8th grade class trip took me past Buffalo’s city limits, to the countryside (probably Blasdell) for a hayride. I remember dreading it because night temperatures were dropping, and I failed to see the charm of sitting on a pile of smelly hay and being driven down roads without streetlights. My reluctance was overruled by peer pressure, so there I was, heaped onto a wagon, watching the rear ends of two horses and wondering why I agreed to this folly. Our driver stopped the wagon at a county store, which would only prolong the grim experience. But once inside, it wasn’t the rows of candy that glued me to the spot: the radio was playing “Heartbreak Hotel.” There is no describing the shock of hearing Elvis Presley for the first time, when the world was listening to Patti Page.

We had no say in when or where we were born. I am beginning my 80th year and feel incredibly fortunate, “cool,” exhilarated, solitary and glad to have been born in 1942. Staying open to new experiences and remembering old ones make me feel that way. Yes, some events were frightening and confusing, but others shook the earth under my feet in a good - well, like the “Cool” lyric says – “Must’ve done something right ‘cause all these/ Lights are green, man, they look like palm trees”: