Happy days are here again

Jul 21 2008 by Our Correspondent, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

I ALWAYS said that when I got old I would wear purple and run a stick along railings to make a noise.

Trouble is, you never recognise when you are getting old.

Then again, your children are quick to remind you.

“What is dad wearing?” Sian mumbled to her mother. We had picked her up and I had stopped the car to get petrol.

“It’s his lightweight retro bomber jacket,” she said.

“But he’s a grandad,” was the shock, horror reply. “He should be wearing cardigans and baggy trousers.”

Should I?

Well hard luck.

Times have changed since people fell into fashion categories according to age. Of course, some chaps have always been comfortable with the Bing Crosby cardigan look. I never have.

I was a rock and roll teenager, a rebel without a cause. Elvis was King, the Beatles the best pop group in the world and the Stones the best rock band. In my time, I’ve worn everything from point-toed Cuban heeled shoes and tight jeans to clogs and flared trousers.

Why would being a grandad change my attitude?

American flyers first wore the bomber jacket, Marlon Brando made it a fashion item in The Wild One and it had a revival in the 1970s.

Now I have scandalised my daughters even further by buying a black leather bomber jacket.

“He’s like the Fonz,” said Sian, on the verge of hysterics.

“Aaay,” I said, giving her the double thumbs up.

Happy days. Maybe black is the new purple. Well, it is for me.