SINCE THEN

When did it all change, when did life become so serious. When did we all stop wanting to become men and actually be men.

They say evolution is a slow process but it seems like it was just yesterday when “being cool” was all that mattered in the world. When chatting up a girl involved rocking the latest “Nike’s” or knowing the lyrics to Coolio’s gangster’s paradise and not flashing keys to a Mercedes Benz or being the heir to a million dollar corporation.

Oh! How the world has changed since then.

I woke up this morning to find my niece busily doing her own thing on my laptop and at the age of 6, I was keen to know what she could possibly do with any of the software installed on the machine. Instead, to my surprise, the 6 year old girl told me she was denying friends request on facebook. Wow! When I was six, the most complicated thing I knew how to do was to tie my shoe lace.

Oh! How the world has changed since then.

I ignored her, took a shower and decided to get a haircut at a new barber shop just a few metres from my house. When I took my seat in the chair, the barber asked me how I wanted it. “How I want what” I asked. That’s when he pulled out the brochure and revealed more than a dozen haircuts for men. OMG! Barbers don turn hairstylist for Ghana. When I was growing up, we only had two cuts for every male. The one we called “punk” and “down cut”. Amazingly, “punk” as we know it has evolved into fade and down cut, well, “down cut” I believe is still referred to as “down cut”. However, what kept my brows arched up the whole time was the hair cut the other customer walked out the shop with. Mohawk! For God’s sake, why anybody will want to go to the barber shop to become fearful and ugly, I simply cannot understand. For that look, I have a simple recipe. Don’t visit the barber shop for six.

Oh! How the world has changed since then.

Then there was that kid I saw on the street this evening, only if we had a hundred of them, Ghana would never need a traffic light. Yellow skinny jeans, bright red t-shirt with a black tie, lemon green shoes and a brown fitted cap. And to make matters worse, this chap had on some ridiculous looking horned rim sunglasses at 10 p.m. Well, baggy jeans and t-shirts as big as Ney York City when I was a teenager isn’t exactly what you will describe as trendy but this was utterly absurd. Perhaps, he was going to the same costume party the dude with the “Mohawk” seemed to be attending.

Oh! How the world has changed since then.

So as I sit here recapping my day, I wander, when it all changed. When did Hip-Hop get so noisy and when did jazz become so classy. When did building a career take precedence over being spotted in the latest “Phat Farm” gear? And when did my idea of fun change from a wild night at the club to a quiet night at the beach alone.
Have I just become that boring or indeed, the world has simply changed since then.....