Thursday 30 June 2016

Three Childhood Dreams Fulfilled!

1. I live in the UK. I dreamed of living in London, but Edinburgh is pretty darn awesome.

2. I have written books.

3. I bought a Swatch watch today. Yes, once I dreamed of a brand. Well, I was only twelve. Maybe thirteen. Colourful ads for Swatches appeared in Seventeen magazine, my portal into what teenage life was "supposed" to be like, and I longed to collect them all. Oh, for an armful of  Swatches! The idea that you could wear more than one watch at a time had never before occurred to me, and it seemed so COOL.

It was the Eighties. I also dreamed of wearing big white T-shirts with CHOOSE LIFE written on them in big letters of neon orange and/or green--and this wasn't even a pro-life thing back then; it was an actual fashion. Later I dreamed of owning a black-spotted green fun-fur Fiorucci coat. (Somehow I don't think I will ever have that coat, and even if I found it, I am not sure I would wear it. But of course I would buy it. Are you kidding? That coat has fed my imagination for decades!)

Heavens, I loved Seventeen magazine. I stored my collection lovingly so I could look at them again when I grew up, but unfortunately my mother seems to have chucked them out. All that 1980s pop culture history lost! Fortunately there are snippets preserved in my diaries for somehow I had the presence of mind to write down--and sometimes even draw--what I wore to dances. I also loved Le Chateau, and whenever I had enough birthday-Christmas-allowance money saved, off I went to Le Chateau to buy sleeveless turtleneck shirts; black, stretchy or tartan, pleated miniskirts; and giant clip earrings shaped like Cleopatra's head.

People make fun of the Eighties, and I admit the amount of hairspray used by boys and girls alike   was startling, but they were actually very awesome, and I'm glad I saw them out as a teenager.

Meanwhile I now have a Swatch, and after thirty year this really cannot be considered an impulse buy. In thirty more years I might buy a Smartphone.

Note to Family: If stuck for Christmas ideas, Swatch watches always welcome at the Historical House.

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