Air guitar like a superstar

This is just a shout out to my twin sister, Amy, because I miss her and can't wait to see her at Christmas! (Plus, I thought the picture - circa 1986 - was cute). As far as I can tell, Amy's in the Nike shirt and I'm in the sunglasses -- don't we look like we're about to party? You know, it's funny, we were so broke back then - if you look at the house in the background, you can tell it's a craphole, but it didn't really matter to us. I can remember during the winter it would get so cold there was frost on the inside of the windows and we could see our breath while lying in bed. We called that house "The Yellow House" and there was only one source of heat: a tall olive green heater in the hallway that had a gas fire inside it. Before school my mom would wake us up and she'd already have our school clothes laid out in front of the heater and all four of us kids would crowd in the hall to change because it was too cold to change in our rooms. In the summer we played outside a lot because there wasn't really airconditioning in the house (there was a window unit in the kitchen, but the rest of the house was hot). As a kid, I never knew that other kids had any more or any less than we did - materialism wasn't a concept I understood. Sure, that new pair of sunglasses was awesome or if we got new toys we were totally psyched, but we didn't care if our jeans had holes or our hair was clean (in fact, I hated washing and drying my hair because it would get so tangled).

Now that I teach kindergartners, I see some of that same carefree attitude toward clothes and possessions, but not as much as I'd like. A lot of the little girls I teach are very aware that their clothes cost a lot of money and they'll brag about where they bought it: Gap, Old Navy, etc. Sure, some of the kids are just excited that their jackets have Tinkerbell or Barbie on them, but some of the others are very aware of namebrands. These little children are walking advertisements for Tommy Hilfiger, Polo/ Ralph Lauren, and Calvin Klein. Some people may argue that because I teach private school the children are more aware of money and consumerism, and that's probably true in some aspects. But at the same time, I wonder if the whole country isn't just more aware of labels? Or were my childhood peers like this in the mid-80's and I was just oblivious to it? (I do realize as I write this that Amy is wearing a Nike shirt in the picture - but I can almost guarantee she didn't know what the shirt said and I'll bet my parents didn't buy it for her). I don't think I was aware of namebrands until I was 11 or 12 and only then it was because I was being made fun of for not wearing the right brands. I just hope that children aren't being consumed by consumerism at younger ages. I hate to think that childhood innocence is being erased by companies trying to make a buck.