When Retro Goes Wrong.

There seems to be a bit of a fascination with all things retro at the moment. I’m no fashionista or trend setter/follower but it’s been pretty obvious that there’s currently a bit of a retro revival going on. Maybe it’s been going on for a while now. I have no issue with people’s taste. It’s their own thing and how they choose to express themselves is their business. I’m not judging.

I was walking through the city yesterday and passed a guy wearing this t-shirt:

Did you really?

Now I get the humor here. I used to have a t-shirt that read “Clones are people two.” There’s no doubt that this design is clever in its own way. If I was wearing this shirt, I think many of my friends would chuckle because they know that I used to be a gamer and I’m certainly in the right age group for this to be applicable.

The guy who was wearing this shirt, however, was not in my age group. If I was being generous I’d say he was eighteen. Doing the math that makes his year of birth 1992.

Now I know I’m getting old but I’m sure that the years are still registered in ascending order. So 1992 comes after every year in the decade spanning the 80s and that means that there’s no way our friend in the Pac-Man shirt was even alive in the 80s, let alone scoring cherries in any sense of the word.

I was terribly tempted to stop the guy and question him about his motives. Obviously the shirt was a lie. Was he wearing it to make some kind of statement? About what? If he was indeed old enough to have been alive and playing Pac-Man in the 80s, what was the secret behind his youthful looks? I know that if I shave my goatee I can look about 5 or 6 years younger, but this kid can erase decades! Imagine the fortune he could make!

Maybe it’s a Benjamin Button-esque transformation. Maybe the shirt is an attempt to inform people that he’s actually aging in reverse and was indeed playing Pac-Man in the 80s! Still, I expect that if he’d been born as an 80+ year-old man, he’d still look like he was 60. 50 at least. Not eighteen or younger.

Did he just know that something like that would make me wonder and question the humor of it given that he was obviously too young to have been scoring in the 80s? Did he even know what Pac-Man was?!

Look at what you’re doing to me man! Tell me the truth! I can handle it!

Unfortunately Fortunately for us both all I didn’t have time to stop the kid and interrogate him about the origin of his shirt and the reason for his decision to wear it and drive me insane. So instead I simply glared at him the ground as I continued on my way.

All I have to say is this – love the past if you want. Celebrate your life in whatever way you see fit. Wear shirts with double-entendres or innuendo if you like, I’m no authority on clothing and taste.

Just be aware that you might be blowing someone’s mind as you walk down the street.