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Am I That Old Really? Must be...

By Jay Markanich

Home Inspector with Jay Markanich Real Estate Inspections, LLC 3380-000723

October 20, 2010 03:31 AM

One of the things that must be done with kids is buying shoes. This is the newest pair for our 13 year old.

Now I don't know about you, but when I was 13, if I had worn a pair of shoes like that to school I would probably have been beaten up. I would NEVER have been caught dead in those things!

They look a bit like what the clowns used to wear as 30 or 40 of them would come running out of the same small car at the circus! Or so it seems to me...

But, hey, she loves them! That is really all that counts.

What did I look like at her age?

I am exactly her age here, with some spots on the photo.

My daughter sees that picture and says, "Gee, Dad, you were hot!"

Apparently I have simmered just a bit since!

She especially likes my college photo, but that won't appear here!

And, yes, that sweater was very much in style!

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Jay Markanich

Jay Markanich Real Estate Inspections, LLC - Bristow, VA

Home Inspector - servicing all Northern Virginia

Tammy - not bad! Different world, huh?

Susan - two, two, two eras for one!

Anita - she and I are taking ball room dance together (she couldn't find a partner her age) and she wanted to wear heels like the other ladies in the class. Half way through the class she wasn't sure about the heels!

Oct 20, 2010 03:48 AM

Bob "RealMan" Timm

Ward County Notary Services - Minot, ND

Owner of Ward Co Notary Services retired RE Broker

Jay,

I just purchased new tennis shoes for my 10 year old daughter. She had to have the shoes with the most lights on them. She just loves stomping around in them and I have to admit they can darn near light up an entire room.

Bob

Oct 20, 2010 04:04 AM

Cynthia Larsen

Cotati, CA

Independent Broker In Sonoma County, CA

I think you should be thankful you weren't wearing a sweater vest.

Oct 20, 2010 04:17 AM

Jay Markanich

Jay Markanich Real Estate Inspections, LLC - Bristow, VA

Home Inspector - servicing all Northern Virginia

Bob - the light shoes are pretty cool! I was making a joke about how what she likes now is odd, but what I liked then was right on! What is chic in one era is NOT in another!

Cynthia - for sure! Isn't it interesting how ski sweaters were so big then and not at all now!?

Oct 20, 2010 05:29 AM

Patricia Kennedy

RLAH@properties - Washington, DC

Home in the Capital

Jay, I am old enough to remember when those sweaters were actually in fashion! My brother had one much like it.

Oct 20, 2010 06:50 AM

Jay Markanich

Jay Markanich Real Estate Inspections, LLC - Bristow, VA

Home Inspector - servicing all Northern Virginia

That's right Pat! I was joking that it was okay for me to wear something as hideous (or so we would say today) as that sweater and be in fashion, and yet my daughter can have shoes that I find hideous today!

Timing is everything!

Oct 20, 2010 06:52 AM

Steve and Jan Bachman

RE/MAX Gateway, Reston, Herndon, Ashburn, Sterling, Fairfax - Herndon, VA

Realtors - Northern Virginia

I had the same sweater. AND my Mom bought me red high-tops that I NEVER wore. I bought white ones and rubbed dirt on them immediately.

Oct 20, 2010 07:39 AM

Jay Markanich

Jay Markanich Real Estate Inspections, LLC - Bristow, VA

Home Inspector - servicing all Northern Virginia

Wow, those sound cool Steve! I only remember white and black when I was in that era. And on my high school and college basketball teams we wore low-top white Converse Chucks! Those are the best basketball shoes ever invented. The soles were different then - real rubber!

Did your parents make you wear a red jacket, with black tie and black slacks to church? And, like my red jacket, did it have an emblem on the pocket?

Oct 20, 2010 09:41 AM

Debbie Gartner

The Flooring Girl - White Plains, NY

The Flooring Girl & Blog Stylist -Dynamo Marketers

ROFL. My oh my how styles have changed. Or, maybe just come back full circle. They do actually go together.

Oct 20, 2010 11:39 AM

Jay Markanich

Jay Markanich Real Estate Inspections, LLC - Bristow, VA

Home Inspector - servicing all Northern Virginia

That was the joke Debbie! She has shoes that appear weird to me and I was wearing sweaters like that!

You think those things are coming back? Yikes!

Oct 20, 2010 11:46 AM

Malcolm Johnston

Century 21 Lanthorn Real Estate LTD., Trenton, Ontario - Trenton, ON

Trenton Real Estate

Jay, you should borrow those shoes when you have to go for listing presentations.

Oct 20, 2010 01:32 PM

Jennifer Dulmaine

Keller Williams Realty - Spencer, MA

Seth Campbell Realty Group

Ummm. Those sneakers are "interesting" my kids aren't yet old enough to realize what's in STYLE for 13 year olds....oh boy what next.

Oct 20, 2010 02:23 PM

Tish Lloyd

BlueCoast Realty Corporation - Wilmington, NC

Broker - Wilmington NC and Surrounding Beaches

Beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder!

Oct 20, 2010 04:58 PM

Jay Markanich

Jay Markanich Real Estate Inspections, LLC - Bristow, VA

Home Inspector - servicing all Northern Virginia

Malcolm - I have a pair of MacGregor US Keds! How about those?

Donna and Jennifer - who knows, in two or four years my daughter's might be WAY out of style!

Tish - um, yes! It's so funny how things change. I say to kids at church all the time not to worry so much about how they look because their kids will look at their year books and laugh. I don't think they understand me so much yet!

Oct 20, 2010 09:00 PM

Sally K. & David L. Hanson

EXP Realty 414-525-0563 - Brookfield, WI

WI Real Estate Agents - Luxury - Divorce

Ah yes...I remember at your daughter's age saving my baby sitting bucks to buy the coveted gold mohair sweater; it didn't get better than that...!

Oct 20, 2010 11:49 PM

Jay Markanich

Jay Markanich Real Estate Inspections, LLC - Bristow, VA

Home Inspector - servicing all Northern Virginia

Mohair was bigger then than now I think Sally. And red jackets for boys to wear to church.

Oct 21, 2010 01:07 AM

c m

Colorado Springs, CO

My boys are all grown up now, but when we went shoe shopping with them, in their "tween" years, the shoe prices were just topping $100. The hubs used to tell them, (they joke about it, still!) that he could find them a pair for $9.99! That crept up to $19.99, but you get the picture. We finally made a deal, XX (usually half of what they needed!)is what we were willing to spend, anything more, they had to come up with, to get their shoe of choice. It was amazing to see them shell out hard earned allowance, birthday money, etc. for plastic shoes, that as you say, looked like clown shoes, but, hey...we wore sweaters that looked like clown shirts, so I guess "beauty is in the eye of the beholder"! They never, not once, settled for letting us pay the full price for shoes in our price range, even when allowed to choose the style!

Oct 22, 2010 05:52 AM

Jay Markanich

Jay Markanich Real Estate Inspections, LLC - Bristow, VA

Home Inspector - servicing all Northern Virginia

Thanks Cheryl! I used to buy my own Converse Chucks. But they were only $10 then! At least they weren't clown shoes!

Oct 22, 2010 09:58 AM

Eric Michael

Remerica Integrity, Realtors®, Northville, MI - Livonia, MI

Metro Detroit Real Estate Professional 734.564.1519

Most of us have pics like that from when we were kids. I still shudder at the thoughts of some of the stuff my parents thought I looked "hot" in. BTW, I still wear Chuck Taylors.

Oct 24, 2010 07:07 AM

Jay Markanich

Jay Markanich Real Estate Inspections, LLC - Bristow, VA

Home Inspector - servicing all Northern Virginia

I do too Eric! I think those are the best basketball shoes ever invented. We used them in high school and college. The soles are different now, not the same quality as when I was in school.

Oct 24, 2010 11:00 AM