New is Old? Old is New?

(or Nothing New Under the Sun)

Phlash Phelps, a personality on Sirius-XM Radio asked this morning’s audience to call in and relate a story if this had happened to them: (paraphrasing) ‘You mentioned a well-known personality to a younger person, and they said, “Who is that?”’

While I was listening, a lady called in and mentioned that a number of years ago, there was an article advertised on the cover of some tabloid about the death of Bob Hope and the clerk asked her, “Who is Bob Hope?”  That was particularly amusing to me because just last night, I mentioned Bob Hope to a young man and my wife asked him, “You do know who Bob Hope is…?”  He did.

One of my favorite variations of that theme came from a friend back in the 1990s.  We were eating lunch and talking about music.  He told me of a conversation he had overheard a week earlier, between a couple of teenagers in the restaurant booth behind him.  One of the teenagers was talking about this new guy who is really, really good…
“He’s a great guitarist, good singer, really great songs.”
The other teenager asked, “What did you say his name is?”
The first responded, “I think his name is like…Eric Clapton…?”
“Never heard of him.  He’s really that good?”
After nearly choking on his food from laughter, my friend turned to them and said, “Clapton has been around since the ‘60’s!”
“No way!  The guy I was talking about has new songs on the radio – and he doesn’t sound old!”

You see it a lot, if you look.  Old ideas, products, concepts, just keep resurfacing – because they’re good!

Think about leather.  Its use goes back to Genesis, or further, depending on your outlook.  Then it fell out of favor and was replaced by all manner of faux-leather materials – to include the use of the hide of the Nauga.  (Actually, Naugahyde is a vinyl material developed in 1936, popularized in the 1970’s, and still available.)  It’s not that those leather substitutes are bad.  They are often very good at simulating the look and feel of leather and sometimes wear well.  But leather has come back more than once because it is unique and has great properties for clothing, accessories, and décor.

Consider also that cotton you are currently wearing.  We wear it for both comfort and style.  But cotton clothing fell out of favor a number of years ago – primarily due to the difficulties in maintaining its crisp appearance.  Fortunately, it came back!  The cottons we are currently wearing frequently have a “new twist” (literally) but, are often still 100% cotton.  The origin of the use of cotton for clothing disappears into the distant, murky past.

Still, most of us who remember the cotton- and wool-replacing, double-knit, 100% polyester suits of the ‘70’s and ‘80’s generally don’t have a favorable impression!  But that “Old” concept is becoming “New” again with a different “twist” to the materials – cotton-poly (and other) blends and now, polyester microfiber cloth!

Here we go again…