Groovy.
What
a great word. I love that word second
only to the phrase “what in the cat hair?”
No
explanation necessary there.
I
still love to say “Groovy” because let’s face it kids, it is fun to say. Also because I like to get a little rise out
of my own kiddos. I say it to them a
little tongue in cheek, and they roll their eyes at me, especially my 18 year old
who is way too young to “get it”.
For
those of us in our 50’s and 60’s, the word “groovy” takes us back to a time growing up that things were pretty much… well…
groovy. It has a whole different set of
meanings for us than it does for ya’ll younger folk. Our minds immediately go to
peace
symbols. flower children, smiley faces, Laugh In, and of course,the absolute grooviest:
Woodstock.
Back
in the early 70’s when I was graduating high school and going off to college, I
considered myself pretty groovy, even though I was not. A friend of mine in high school wore the same
jeans to school for 4 months straight without washing them, how groovy was that??
Still-
it is hard to put your finger on the
exact meaning of it. “Groovy”
is elusively not exactly cool…
only in a Napoleon Dynamite kind of way.
 |
| sweet suit! |
The shelf life of “Groovy”
only lasted through the 70’s.
After that, if you ventured to say “that is so groovy” you were “uncool” to the
max. I quit saying it for awhile, because
of course, of MY cool factor, but picked it up again after the 90’s to irritate
my teens:)...
Also by then I really did NOT give a rip about my cool factor:)
If
you really want to know what the word “groovy” is all about,
(and
I am sure you are just dying to know)
you
have to listen to Simon and Garfunkel’s 1967 album “Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme” about 4000 times like I did. Specifically
the song “Feelin Groovy”, which pretty much did make you feel just that.
Many
of the songs on the album were protest songs against the Viet Nam War. In my private reality, the song “Feelin
Groovy” gave us all a break from
a violent, volatile time, in the midst of
an
unpopular war,
and
following a beloved president’s assassination.
I
am not sure if that is what the famous folk singers had in mind, but it seems we
were all able to, for 2:01 minutes, forget our troubles.
And
just…. feel groovy.
I
am not sure what your trials and troubles are right now, but have a
listen.
My
prayer for you is that you will feel “Groovy”.
Just
for a blink of an eye.
