by hexicon » Sun Apr 23, 2006 2:06 am
As MAS said, we were mostly a happy little band of outcasts (the exile was almost entirely self-imposed). My look was suburban-European, or so I thought--I made my own clothes or they came from thrift stores. As I was telling a much-younger friend the other day, this is when kids had to look completely normal in order to get a job--a Mohawk doomed you to a career in fast food where at least the little hat would cover the 'do. And tattoos . . . I digress.
But, my longest-term high school BF (pic is posted somewhere in one of the 80s threads) had the full-on Nick Rhodes/David Sylvian look. He had puffy dyed blond hair and a full face of that Clinique foundation that was mostly clay and that you had to shake up. We thought it was really cute that we wore the same shade. When we'd walk down the streets of Seattle, old men would say "good morning, ladies" and young men would yell "fag." We thought it was funny, not threatening. He lived in a farther suburb of Seattle, one that's quite wealthy now but back then was an uncomfortable combination of Boeing engineers and mountain men. He said he was tormented a lot, more really for being a skinny, sensitive kid than for the way he dressed.
I think there was only one time when I really felt the consequences of my choice to be "different." I've related this story here before in heartbreaking detail--so I dated this guy from another school, total jock/popular kid but also a incredibly cool, nice guy. I have NO IDEA why he wanted to date me. Anyway, after a while he dumped me for being "too weird." One of the posters here described it as the movie "Valley Girl" in reverse! [:D] . . .[:(]