Fashion is a circle

We grew up in a typical hippy environment: vegetables in our backyard, self-knitted sweaters for Christmas and hiking outings with like-minded families, all together in a bus.

The more our parents cooked buckwheat, soy and parsnip, the more pocket money we took to the candy store. Few days went by without protest against our being 'different'. "They never have this at Sandra's place!" "Why can't you wear normal clothes?"

I remember a friend with stacks of cheap pockets under her mattress: 'Doctor Harry and the nurse', 'John goes hitchhiking', that sort of stuff. On her shelve a book that her mum had chosen for her. 'Florence Nightingale', 'The knights of the round table'. The stories that they expected to shape us into respectable citizens.

A first break through came when we moved out of the house. Guess what our mothers found when, on their first visit, they opened our little second hand fridge for inspection: "Organic yoghurt!" After a week of living on Aldi products we had quickly understood why we had been tortured with health food all those times: it had taste, and it filled your stomach, which made it cheap in a curious way.

But the most suprising moment of all was when my sister showed her newest footwear: coarse, and in a fashion that would have looked good on Lord Jesus himself. Besides that they are pretty reminiscent of what our mums used to wear: Birkenstocks! And not only my sister, all the hip and trendy world has their pair.

The circle is round, what our parents wore is now in fashion. It leaves me with the question as to what the next generation will feel embarrassed by. I can only guess here.