Though you did not think so back in the day, maybe your parents had an awesome music collection, knew cool people, did interesting things or were permissive about pecadillos. Of course, people who do interesting things can still have their bugbears or become less interesting over time.
That said, were your folks cool? If not, which of your friends had cool parents? Stacey’s Mom?
Yes. But the bar was very low, since we lived in a working-class neighborhood in the 1950’s. They were college graduates, owners of the local newspaper, modern art, architecture and music enthusiasts who loved authentic ethnic restaurants and traveling. They were very different than my friends’ parents. But in terms of the sex drugs and rock and roll stuff they were just as at a loss as anyone else of their vintage.
Quite the opposite. Their nerdy straight-laced friends thought they were too far out of it and unattached to reality.
Yes, my father was a rock musician at the time. My mother was very chill about everything.
My mom was cool in the sense that she liked the new bands sprouting up in the early 1960s. Most people were shocked by the Beatle’s haircuts, but my mother thought they were fine. My dad was decidedly retro and uncool. He was stuck in the 1940s of his teenage years.
In retrospect, yes, though my mom was probably a bit cooler than my dad.
She’d been very much into music as a younger person in the 1960s; she was a big fan of Nina Simone and Herb Alpert. Both of my parents were also into folk music at that time, as well, and listened to artists like the Kingston Trio, Peter Paul and Mary, Trini Lopez, etc.
Also, my mom was a stewardess for United Airlines before she got married, so there’s a cool factor there, too.
Looking back, I’m surprised how cool they were. My mom was jewish and my dad was protestant/presbyterian (not sure which) and they got a lot of grief over their marriage from their parents. They exposed me and my sibs to many different beliefs and allowed us to decide. We had Santa and menorahs. My brother is now wiccan(?), my sister christian like her husband, and I’m an atheist.
My dad played semi-pro hockey and played the guitar. He was very good at both but I never really got in to either.
When I was 16 or so I tried germinating some marijuana seeds. My mom’s friend Barb, who was in her early 30s, told me in confidence that my mom knew what I was doing and had even watered my tiny plants when I grew bored and forgot about them. I was shocked.
Very normal working class immigrants. Nothing I would mark as “cool” but nothing as “not cool.” Just normal for the neighborhood. The only person I could think of as “cool” in my extended family or family friends is my Uncle John, who was always a life of the party, could play piano, guitar, accordian, drums. We’d gather around the piano (or guitar or accordian) while he’d play Polish drinking songs or whatever the hell it was (all by ear.) Just a very natural entertainer all around. Kind of a Frank Sinatra type, perhaps. He had that old school Rat Pack vibe about him.
I never thought of my parents as cool, though, my dad was well known for his sense of humor. My mom started working as the office manager at the local Y when I was in jr high. Some of my friends thought my mom was awesome and beautiful. One of them would go on and on about her violet eyes. It made me see her with new eyes.
My dad also was very law abiding, but knew plenty of shady characters. A coworker of his would come over to visit and target shoot. His car’s trunk had a false bottom that lifted up to reveal a hidden compartment. He brought out a sawed off shotgun and a fully automatic something or other.
My parents grew up in the 40s & 50s, married in 1960. My mom was cooler than my friends’ moms. She listened to the current music, blasting it on the stereo with the windows open. She was also about 10 years younger than most of my friends’ moms. She was 20 when she was married and I came along a little less than a year later. My dad was more conservative. He was first-generation Italian-American.
My parents were the “cool” parents that other kids wished they had. I was quite happy to have them. They taught me in the 50’s and 60’s that people of other religions and ethnicities were ‘just people’ like us, and it was no big deal. They ate ethnic food waaaaay before it was cool, despite being really, really white and midwestern. They had gay friends in the 70’s and were perfectly chill about it. Dad sailed, scuba dove, flew small planes and rode motorcycles and got mom and me doing that stuff. He never did anything ‘in style’, but did everything with style. Dad didn’t care for the idea of abortion but declared he’d never tell a woman what to do with her own body. Mom said damn right you won’t. They both became disenchanted with the Republicans with Nixon’s second term.
I was a fortunate son.
Not so much cool, but my mom was naturally funny. Looking back I realize she was the funniest adult I knew. My dad could never win an argument with her because she’d hit him with a zinger that would make him laugh
Yeah. Dad flew fighter jets in his youth, had a kick-ass stereo system (Mine, Now!), cool little red convertable (Also Mine!), very cool house…
Mom is chill.
I am so jealous of you guys having even just one cool parent. I didn’t even have cool family friends or cool relatives who lived close enough to see even once a year.
Both of my parents were artists, and became cooler as they aged into retirement.
My father, in addition to several types of artwork, was a musician, actor, photographer and a serious gardener. He came from a totally blue-collar family, and was the only one who was in any way creative.
My mother was an art teacher, and held so many jobs I can’t even remember them all… in addition to raising two sons.
I was amazed at how many hundreds of people attended my mom’s funeral.
My parents were not, the best that I remember, what I would have called cool. Otoh all the kids I knew who had “cool” parents, turned out to have parents that were actually neglectful (usually maliciously so) by the standards of the times back then, or sometimes even actively physically abusive in one manner or another.
But then again, I was given a level of autonomy by the time I was twelve that would probably get them arrested today.
Absolutely not. My parents disliked almost all popular music their whole lives. They especially hated rock. I’ve never heard them listening to any music of their own volition except classical and opera.
No way. My parents were divorced so I grew up primarily with my mom. At the time, she was hyper-traditional and tried to raise me to be a SAHM subservient to my husband. I learned to sew, knit, play piano and write correspondence properly really early and went to etiquette classes and even had a weird coming out ball. She used to get so annoyed with me for being “one of those people” and for doing things that “just aren’t done.”
As a surprise to no one, I was the first woman in my family to move away, then got a post-graduate degree and became a working mom. Interestingly enough, when she got older and she kicked her drinking habit, she got really cool, but that wasn’t until I got to my mid-30s. We’re really close now and spend a lot of time together.
My dad was the cool one, but he lived in another state and mortified all of us when he would visit by hitting on waitresses in restaurants. Come to think of it, he probably just thought he was cool, but actually wasn’t.
Right. Those are the only respectable types of music. My parents weren’t bible thumpers or anything like that. They were just the arbiters of all that was good and proper in the world.