Grunge.

Grunge. A word I have not heard in a long time. I was a young lad when the big bands of Seattle were big. I caught the tail end of it since they say it ended around 1993 and I didn't get my license until 1993. I do not know who "they" are but it was still going when a bunch of buddies and me would jump into a van and make a weekend road trip to Seattle and see how many bars we could sneak into to watch the bands play. Seattle was different then to. The pad that we crashed at when possible was an older craftsman style house in need of repair and new paint set along side a bunch of other older houses in need of the same. The neighbors were mostly young people doing their thing, not everybody was trying to start a band and make it big like the big media would like you to think, but these young people worked in the food and beverage businesses while going to school or were learning as an apprentice in a trade such as a plumber, electrician or carpenter.
And the clothes people were wearing you see not everybody had shit loads of cash to buy new stuff off the rack so places like Value village, Goodwill and other thrift stores became a common place to pick up some new or used threads. Most of the stuff you would find were jeans and flannel shirts since the inland northwest was full of people who worked in the tough and rugged jobs like logging. It was kind of funny to pick up a JC Penny catalog and look at all of the Grunge wear and then look at all of the prices and just laugh seeing that people would pay three hundred dollars for a pair of designer pre thrashed jeans and eighty dollars for a flannel shirt.

Things have changed since those years. Now it is all about teeny boppers and hip hop. I have a good laugh when older women try to dress like a teeny bopper, very few can pull it off and most just look like complete asses. And as for the guys well lets just say that Jesse James the bike builder called and wants his personality back. As for me I stick with what works best, Carhart pants, work boots and a tough work shirt. So when did grunge end? If I had to guess it would have been around the late 1990's. I didn't say it was dead I said it ended in corporate medias eye around that time. If you can no longer make money on a so called trend then call it dead, right?
And those rows of older homes in older neighborhoods are no longer within the grasps of a young persons income since they have been fixed up by yuppies and retiring baby boomers which has driven up their prices who may I add were attracted to Seattle probably due to the grunge scene, kind of funny huh.

I recently went back to Seattle and let me tell you what a difference 15yrs makes on a place. To me this is no longer a city for a young person to grow up in and find themselves. I mean how can you find yourself if you have to work damn near two jobs to pay for rent. Everywhere I look is money, money and more money oh and Starbucks. 15yrs ago Starbucks was the last thing on my mind, hell I did not even knew it existed. Alot of the cool hangouts are gone too. People have changed too, alot of suits. But somewhere out of the public eye in a small town or big city maybe in some old rickety garage, dive bar, basement or apartment grunge (what big corporate called it) still lives.