When Tim and I were in the 8th
grade in the early 60’s, our small school had 2 “Token-Pseudo-Punk-Tough-Guy”
types that stood out, Ernie C. and Jack W. (I’m not using full names here just
in case they’re on-line and happen to stumble on this story and were still “punk
types”, I wouldn’t want to get beaten up)! Hey! My psychiatrist says that even
paranoids have a few REAL enemies! Just because I stopped going to football
games because between each play the players would huddle around each other and
talk about ME doesn’t make me a paranoid! So there! I’m certainly not
irrational, since even if the players wanted to “get me”; there were too
many people around anyway! Oh, back to the story…These 2 guys were, it seemed
to us, permanently in the 8th grade! I think they stayed every year
until they got too big to fit into their desks, and then finally quit school. (Today
they’re probably very successful mechanics or something, and making a lot more
money than I am! And I have 2 earned degrees! Oh well, such is life). Nevertheless,
to us, these guys were the essence of C O O L!
They wore black corduroy jackets with their names embroidered over the pocket,
wore a “Duck tail” hairstyle, their shirt collars up, (and always being told by
teachers and school officials, “Put those collars down boys”), and most
of all they had “heel taps”! That’s what we called the heel “cleats” on their
shoe heels. They were made out of metal in those days. When they walked
down the hard-floored school halls, the “heeltaps” would loudly reverberate
from the hard floors and the walls with a loud“clickity tick clickity tick”
sound! It was cooool! We “regular” kids would FINALLY find some “heel taps” at
shoe stores and clandestinely buy them! We were always somewhat apprehensive in
doing so, thinking the shoe store clerk would demand a permission note from our
parents and the school Principal to purchase them in order to “sound like a
punk” when we walked the school halls! The final demise to this “regular kid”
fad came when one of the guys in the class below us took all 4 “hubcaps” from
his toy racer and pounded them on his heels. WOW! He was the “Ultimate C O O L”! When he walked down the halls, the
loud “clickity tick CLICKITY TICK” was absolutely astounding!
I STILL remember it! We knew we were in the presence of greatness then!
Eventually, the only sound of “heel taps” were from the 2 “Punk-types” that
started the whole thing! I wear boots all
the time, (I seem to have a harmless life-long “boot fetish”, both cowboy and
Wellington), and the ONLY “heel taps” I can find these days are the hard rubber
quiet ones! You just can’t find the loud metal ones anymore. It’s probably just
as well since I don’t have enough hair now for a “duck tail” hairstyle and
according to everyone who knows me; I’m just not the “punk type”. Alas, ‘tis
true, but I can dream at any rate…