Punky Roosters

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I noticed the Dillard's Department Store ad in the local newspaper today. We're right in the Back To School season, so the ads are full of kids in new clothes. Usually the kids look happy, smiling. So happy to be in new clothes, happy to be going back to school (ha!) and happy that they look so hip and cool.

Well, except for this surly bunch. I was immediately struck by the attitude these young guys project. I see these kids all the time. Not the same kids in the ad, of course, but kids just like them. They're in the halls of the junior high schools, eighth, ninth grade or so. They skateboard down my street.Levis has come up with some edgy ads. With all of the jeans manufacturers out there they still have the advantage of the original Levis brand, but they have to make themselves stand out. So they show a bunch of scowling boys with attitude. You think these kids are happy to be going back to school? Not lately, Mommy. You think they appreciate the $$$ Mom and Dad put out to dress them? Hell no, Daddy-o.

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EVERY GIRL CRAZY 'BOUT A SHARP-DRESSED MAN!I found these wonderful catalogue pictures on the Internet. What a difference a century makes, eh? These dudes are all the crème de la crème of society. Fashionable to the nth degree. Their suits even cost a whole $5.00!
In those days there were no Back To School sales. Kids were lucky if they went to school. Those were the days of child labor, when many kids were shipped off to mines or factories and never got to school. For poor people, of whom there were a lot, an average life expectancy was about 40 years, give or take. Clothes for kids--besides to cover their nakedness--just wasn't a big priority. Everybody had to scramble to make a living.

The sharp-dressed chaps in their frock coats and top hats were worlds away from that sad world of the same types of children represented by the blank faces of the boys in the Levis ads more than 100 years later.

Ciao for now.