It seems strange to me still… starting this story in the middle. I guess no matter where a story begins, it’s the middle for someone. We all view things through this different lens depending on our place in time. Brandon and I went out this weekend… the last Ryder-free weekend of the summer (thankfully! Miss that kid…). I strapped on another Rent the Runway smashing dress, and off we skipped down the street to the Preacher’s Son. It’s a beautiful atmosphere, albeit very loud, in the sanctuary of an old church on the square. The crypt bar below, Under Croft, served up a Manhattan and Old Fashioned to perfection. Our dinners (gnocchi and chicken-fried) were sizable portions for a “fancy” dinner, and we still managed to polish our plates.
As we sat in a (very dark) Under Croft corner making adult conversations that seems so rare, we started discussing trends (surprise) and their tipping points. At what point does a trendy option become core choice? People are fickle, so I don’t think this happens frequently. We discussed millennials and how in high school, by in large, everyone wanted to be a cookie cutter of the person they were next to. We snagged Abercrombie “fashion” and made sure every name brand was prominently placed. Now, that same generation, yearns for uniqueness (and Abercrombie’s stock tanks at the mention of a no-go on a potential sale). Everyone now wants you to see them as an individual and they spend hours tailoring their “brand” on every form of social media (or at least the age relative ones).
We talked about Brandon’s micro gen cohort, that weird few years where you aren’t an X-er, but you aren’t full on millennial. That cusp that falls like a horoscope birthday on the fringe of one sign… you are technically an Aries, but darn close to a Taurus. The start of the millennial gen for me really seems to be that 83/84 break. Why? Because that’s the last group of us still in school when 9/11 happened. We were sitting in a classroom (or the office…) when that first plane hit. Odds are, the TV was on when the second one collided. That common occurrence in all our lives shaped us differently because of the common collective experience. We are the first to probably have cell phones before adulthood, and life became pretty crazy pretty quickly with the technology that followed. There are 100 other things linking us, but (to me) that seems like a pretty big one.
We met former President GW Bush on one of our 936 Saturdays. This isn’t a political blog, but I will say, meeting anyone who has run the country is pretty cool. Ryder was 5, and the gravity of that moment won’t weigh on him for many years, but he asked Ryder how old he was, and five fingers went up on his oversized little hand. Someday he will watch the footage of the events and know that the man who asked his age had to keep a country together after an unspeakable event. Someday he will know more than us about all the fallout and events leading up to the event itself. And someday, he will appreciate having parents who, politics aside, helped him learn about history and meet as many parts of it as possible.
We are getting ready for our annual Lake Erie camping trip and these are the thoughts that race through my head… I’m excited to spend next Saturday at my mom and step dad’s farm, load up again, and make the pilgrimage to Erie. The water is good for my soul.