toughskins, zingers and mini-tramps

things i associate with childhood. or maybe i should say my childhood. and when i say my childhood, i don't actually mean my own childhood so much as the timeframe my childhood took place during. i asked my sister today, jokingly, if she'd get me a pair of toughskins for my impending birthday and she asked me what toughskins were. i was in utter shock.

luckily, i found this article which technically explained what toughskins are (or were), but the article never focused on the fact that if you were caught wearing a pair, you had the living shit beat outta you. i related this experience with wearing a pair of spiderman underoos to gym class your senior year in highschool. i was lucky enough to only have to wear my underoos to gym class until 6th or 7th grade, so i only got made fun of and not beaten on.

this whole discussion made me realize that my generation, although similar in some aspects with that of my little sis', is a completely different generation than hers. and i can't decide which is better. she's had computers and cell phones and THX and flat panel tvs and boy bands, but she didn't have The Dukes of Hazzard or Farah Fawcett Majors posters or crawlagators or evil knevil or toughskins. it's a toss up as to which is better. Times were simpler back then when a kid got to be a kid. Granted, she's 24 now and drives a desk for a living, but it just amazes me how little she knows about my generation. Although, history is doomed to repeat itself, so i'm sure toughskins will be an upcoming fashion some time soon and those of us who used to come home with black eyes because mom wanted something cheap and durable will just shake their heads and wonder how any of us made it to 30.

so don't be surprised, as i was, when you comment to a younger sibling about your sudden craving for a zinger and their response is...

"what's a zinger?"

i weep for the future