Oh, geez...I didn't start wearing a kilt so that I could stand out from (or fit in with) a bunch of my fellow middle aged men...I just did it because I thought it would be a cool thing for ME to do...

...so anyway, I look at these kids a little bit differently. When I was their age I had hair down to my shoulders (...and I HAD hair then as opposed to now...) and was what we used to call a full blown, long haired hippie freak...I'm sure that I looked as outre to most people back then as these kiddies do to most people now...the goths, the gangsta types...just kids that are working out their identities much as I was back in the day. No more good or evil than any teenager throughout history.

So several years ago we were in Washington DC and the usual anti-World Trade Organization demonstrations were going on. My son, then about twelve years old, was scared to death that we were going to get caught up in one of the demonstrations and that it was going to turn into a riot and we werre going to get tear-gassed and arrested. Hey...you have to have SOMETHING to worry about, right? So here we are on our way to the Smithsonian and, sure enough, around the corner comes the DEMONSTRATION! All I see is a bunch of college kids who are trying to act like it's 1969 again...having their vicarious hippie-socially-concious-protest experience...they've all got video cameras..("Check this out...I've got some video of me stickin' it to the pigs, man...am I cool or what?")...and my son just freezes.

And I say, "What's wrong?"

And he goes into his nightmare scenario ending up with us sitting in a DC jail cell.

And I say, "Just walk right through the middle of them and if they give you any $#!+ just point at me and say; 'See this guy...this is my dad and he was a hippie in the sixties and he got gassed at the 68 conventions and has been in more righteous demonstrations than any of you could ever hope to be. And he's fifty years old now and he's thirty-five pounds heavier and bald and has two kids, a mortgage and drives a station wagon....so enjoy it while you can because this is where you're all gonna end up!' "

And if that doesn't scare the hell out of them, nothing will.

I now know what a fifty year old hippie looks like...imagine what a fifty year old goth will look like.

best

AA