Teenage Fashion and Literary Cannon Review: Summer 2008

We were playing "Twenty Questions: Literary Character Edition" while hiking on my last trip. One of the girls had a character in mind, and we asked questions like:

"Is it a man or woman?"

"Is the character older than us?"

"Older than Katie?"

This continued until we got to J, who is a sometimes surly/sometimes funny rising sophomore in the city high school.

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SIDENOTE: Here's a little background on J:

Despite being in TAASC for over two years and knowing the discomfort and danger of wearing cotton on a backpacking trip (annoying because it never dries if it gets wet and risky because of getting hypothermia in the rain...), this kid chooses to hike in blue jeans.

Every summer he wears a pair (and somehow doesn't get heat stroke either) and then cuts them with the first aid kit's trauma shears into his leisure wear around camp on the river section of the trip. Luckily, he now brings a pair of synthetic shorts as well for paddling.

Along with these jeans is a tee shirt (also cotton and usually filthy by day 2), long hair (this year with a bandana), and sideburns. I felt like I was in an episode of The Wonder Years. See below for a sliver of two boys sporting the 1973 look:

Also, J forgot his spoon so the pocket that wasn't occupied by a toothbrush carried one of the cooking spoons as his new personal spoon.

When he isn't complaining, I think he's hilarious.

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So we were going down the line with questions when J deadpans, "Is this character from a book I would actually know, or is it one of those horsey girl books?"

I laughed because I knew those horsey girls who would read books like this:

No one else thought it was as funny as I did.

When I got home, I thought about J's surliness and sarcasm. I secretly know that J is hiding in his jeans and jokes like Judy in the Belle and Sebastian Song who reads books about horses under her covers because "The best looking boys are taken. The best looking boys are staying inside."

This 15 year old probably doesn't ask people on dates. He is cool now, but needs to get out of high school to know it. Until then he'll play video games; complain about hiking, paddling, backpacking, cooking, cleaning pots, sitting, and breathing; and carry his toothbrush in his dirty pocket.