Sunday, April 01, 2007

Ponytails & Puppy Love

The first girl I ever had a crush on back in the mid-20th Century wore her hair in a "ponytail", a hairdo that instantly gave any girl or young woman that "All-American Girl" look. And, when the girl wearing the ponytail was a high school cheerleader, it was even better. And it was even better than that if she had just the right amount of freckles on her face and in just the right places.

Back in the 1950s I was still in elementary school but that didn't keep me from being fascinated by swinging, bouncing ponytails on neighborhood girls and on women in the movies. Even the mannish Katherine Hepburn took on a whole new feminine look when she pulled back that beautiful mane of long, dark hair into a ponytail.

When the "Peace & Love" movement came along in the late 1960s, the ponytails started to disappear. They were replaced by Indian braids and long hair parted in the middle. I was the young guy on campus who longed for Sandra Dee in a ponytail and who had to settle for Janis Joplin's greasy mop instead. What a bummer. But the bummer eventually became just a bad memory. After all, what guy in the mid-1970s could resist rubbernecking when an attractive coed jogged past you with that athletic ponytail bouncing and swaying? Thank heavens for the "Me Generation" and their resurrection of the ponytail.

I'm way too old now for "Puppy Love" to strike and I long ago stopped wishing I weren't immune to its temporary effects. But whenever I see a woman of any age sporting a ponytail, whether it's on her bare head or protruding from the back of a baseball cap, you can bet I'm discreetly watching and thoroughly enjoying.

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