Where, Oh Where did my Fashion Sense go?

As I'm heading to the bus stop yesterday with my youngest, I have a flashback to my teenage years. Here I am at 7:40 am in a pair of sleep pants tucked into pull on winter boots (they were Kyle's but he outgrew them several years ago). Warm jacket zippered all the way up, hood up and gloves. Wow, I think, I look so uncool right now . I recall going to the bus stop in a jean jacket and sneakers in the dead of winter. Didn't matter if I was cold as long as I looked good. HA! Now I don't care how good I look if it means freezing my ass off. I even own "duckies" that I acquired from Mom but I admit, I wear them.

How did that change ever take place, I wonder. I have always had my own mind when it came to fashion. I begged my mother to let me wear certain red shoes in a picture from the time I was about 4. Then in elementary, I had to have navy blue round glasses. (oh they were precious!). Remember the movie "Grease"? I had to have the satin jacket that Sandy wore.. it was awesome. I had a rough year in grade 7 when I had to wear hand-me-downs that were aweful and I got tormented terribly by the other kids. They can be so mean. By Grade 8, I had come into my own style, long about the same time I started going to parties. The movie "Flashdance" came out and with it; off the shoulder tops and leg warmers. Always faithful was the jean jacket. The summer of going into CEC, I was out school shopping and I spotted them. Acid wash jeans. I HAD to have them. I hadn't seen them on anyone but the were the coolest thing ever. By Christmas that year, everyone had them. That Christmas I was lucky enough to go to Florida where they were a little ahead of us in fashion and music. All I heard on the radio was Madonna , "Like a Virgin", and I came back from that trip in head to toe neon, lace gloves, and that leather mini skirt I loved. I had a long neon pink coat that I thought was wicked. My pink panther coat I called it. I have always been able to pull off outfits that many couldn't. I went through all the fashion phases of those short knit skirts, baggy blouses with the big belts on the outside, leggings, big hair, big earrings, granny boots, denim dresses, sweaters and pearls, shoulder pads, blazers inspired by Miami Vice, and many other fashion trends. On the right night you will still see some of these stylers at "The Mill"...LOL...

Fashion costs money. Simple as that. I would love to be able to be trendy as ever but the fact is, I have other things to spend my money on now. I am also at a delicate age where if you dress too young, well, you look like you're trying too hard and therefore you're not cool at all anyway. I don't even want to talk about the sizing of these cute things. Apparently , I no longer have a junior figure. Now don't get me wrong, I like to have a few peices of current, cool clothes, combined with more "classic" clothes. Unfortunately, practical over-rides fashion. Warmth over-rides cool. Rent over-rides the lastest/ greatest.

I come back from the bus to take my 15 year old to school and I realize where my fashion sense and money went. To my kids. Seems I still have it, I just don't benefit from it myself. As he runs to the car in his expensive sneakers, low cut rocker jeans and a sweater with no jacket, I hear myself give the same speech I used to get about freezing and dressing for the weather, and "what if he ever had to walk anywhere". It falls on deaf ears and I realize that everything comes full circle.