T-Bone attempts to define COOL.
We hear the term COOL all the time. What is cool? Join me in a brief discussion.
I hung around cool old stuff all the time when I opened Blacktop Depot in 2014. 1950’s era ‘40 Ford Dragster, a 1947 110 Offy/Kurtis Midget, Porcelain Signs, Vintage Toys and Automobilia fill nearly 5,000 square feet of a 1920’s era auto dealership in the heart of Old Town Orange, the largest Historic District in California. Today many “new” old items are displayed all around my office.
At the recent SEMA Show we saw miles of rows of exhibiting manufacturers of cool parts and tools for mostly late model auto customizing. A multi-billion dollar industry focused on making your vehicle cool.
So what’s cool? It’s a subjective term like Fonzie, “Hey”. What is Cool? You have to think about it in it’s context. Each sub-culture has it’s own cool. Drag Racers have their cool, Lowriders have their cool, BMX’rs have their cool as well as quiltists have their cool. I have found in common is that the cool factor is raised when it is associated with a fond memory, nostalgia.
Well, I will tell you this, cool is what you make of it, and if something is cool for you than it’s awesome for me.
What do you think is COOL?