Hey, Mom! Can I Be a Beatnik?
October 30th, 2008. Filed under: Thursday's Travels.I remember the Beat Generation. I wanted to be part of it. I wanted to be beat. Ouch! Not like that. Like the cool kind of beat. I was only in junior high, but I worked hard at it, wishing I were older so I could be a real beatnik. Looking back, I can see that I didn’t really know much about the philosophy behind it. I just knew it was coffee house cool. My mother let me pretend to be a beatnik. My matteress was on the floor. My room was filled with candles, jazz and books of poetry. I discovered Jack Kerouac’s On the Road. My friend, Linda, and I would sit in my candle lit room, smoke the forbidden cigarettes and read poetry for hours. Always taking turns reading out loud and pretending we were in a coffee house. We discovered a poem called “Onward Christian Roaches.” We didn’t understand it at all, but latched onto it all the same. All we had to do was pass each other in the hall at school, say the phrase and crack up. Another part of being beat was the clothing. Black pants, black top and black flats. Black. Everything was always black. This was before the great Audrey Hepburn and her signature look. It was during this time that I discovered bagels. Not something readily available in small town mid-America. No one had heard of bagels and there was certainly no place to go buy them. I learned how to make them. It was something different.
I always had this thing about being different. I worked at it. I don’t have to try anymore. I still manage to be different, but it’s a good difference. Some call it eccentric. Some call it hip. Some just call it being a little different, not run of the mill. Call it whatever you wish. I still enjoy that little bit of different. Today all the young people seem to want to be alike. Even when they strive so hard to be different, they manage to look like scads of others. Be it goth, pants falling down, whatever. They still manage to look the same. How sad to be just like everyone else. Travel a different road. It’s taken me on many enjoyable adventures.