THE PMV bus driver’s mind was wandering as he focused on the walking figure headed towards the overhead bridge at Boroko.
He had being parked in the spot for nearly seven minutes waiting for passengers to fill his bus. There was a trickling of passengers filing in but the bus was still half empty. That meant another couple of minutes of waiting … and hoping, perhaps, for a sudden flood of passengers.
It was a hot day, nearly noon to be exact and you were getting rather impatient with the wait but there was nothing you could do about it. You were at the mercy of the bus driver.
You glanced a peek in his direction and noted with some amusement that his focus was attached to the well-rounded back of a jean-clad teenager scaling the steps of the overhead bridge.
“Nice jeans, huh?” you interrupt his thoughts.
He literally jumped. You guessed he was deep in some fantasy of his. He smiled, a gaping ear to ear smile – as if to hide his guilt at allowing himself to fall into the realm of things that were traditionally taboo.
“It won’t be long before these teenage girls walk around naked in public,” he muttered. That confirmed your suspicion that, not only was his mind at work, but his eyes as well.
You thought of the raging debate that emerges every now and then about the perception that a great number of the female gender in our society ‘invite’ crimes upon themselves because of the way they dressed. Nobody has won that debate because nobody has proved beyond reasonable doubt that the point was valid.
But you have had your own thoughts about the situation and surmised that it is not the women who are at fault, but rather the male gender’s knack of letting their perceptions get the better of them.
In fact, you feel that the average Papua New Guinean male has a very difficult time exercising self-restraint, when he lets his mind wander over the sights he behold.
And everybody has been talking about a ‘change of attitude’ ever since.
You look at the driver then and asked again: “But you must admit, that was a nice pair of jeans,” your mind spanning the decades and piecing together a hurried summary of facts about jeans.
It was only during the two decades that jeans had taken centre stage in the dressing lives of our teenagers.
You could almost hear the scoffs and protests at your sister wearing hot pants to the beach 20 years ago.
The stare from the driver brought you back to reality. He looked at you momentarily as if you were mad and turns away to stifle a laugh.
“Yeah,” he said, “and a nice bumper bar, too,” as if he was in on the game and wanted to play along.
“You know, the teenage members of our society now seem to think that jeans or the wearing of them is their inherent right and theirs only. They wouldn’t think for a moment that their parents should wear them.”
You tell him about the last time you wore a pair of baggy jeans and your son couldn’t believe his eyes. “What dad, still wearing jeans?” he had said sarcastically.
You explained to him that you had bought it when mum was away because you couldn’t bother with the laundry.
“You could wear it for weeks without anybody knowing the difference if you kept it relatively clean. But then again, perhaps, the smell after weeks of not seeing the inside of a washing machine or the washroom sink is a dead give-away,” you had told your son.
“But that’s what jeans are for – casual wear, and it is not only confined to teenagers. Maybe, it seems funny on a Papua New Guinean father or grandfather, but you see it in the movies all the time where fathers and grandfathers and even great grandfathers and grandmothers look chic in jeans. And their young never asks if, ‘what grandpa, still wearing jeans … ?’”
But you wanted to verify that so you go and do a bit of research and come up with:
Jeans are trousers traditionally made from denim, but may also be made from a variety of fabrics particularly including corduroy.
Originally intended for work, they became popular among teenagers starting in the 1950s.
Today jeans are a very popular form of casual dress around the world and come in many styles and colors, with the “blue jeans” particularly identified with the American culture, especially the American Old West.
There had been a phase in your life when you realised that formal wear was better on you at work and jeans were but something you donned only during the weekend. It was better at hiding the beer, buai and bodily stains.
And if you’re the outdoor type, it could be considered your second skin as you would be very hesitant to discard it as your would your original skin.
And you know the saying ‘old habits die hard’?
It’s true because every now and then you get the urge to don a pair of jeans just for old times’ sake but jeans nowadays do not come in sizes for the over 30s.
Hence the old habit of wearing jeans is dying a natural, slow death.
Again, it’s true because you have noted that some of the mothers and grandmothers prefer to go out with the girls in jeans, much to your disapproval.
“Look dear, it’s okay if you had the figure but …” you were much too polite to hurt their feelings.
Look into any nightclub today, and you will jump to your own conclusion about what you see there, especially the fashion that members of the female gender are wearing and flaunting amidst the flow of intoxicating brews, second hand smoke and loud blaring music.
Interestingly, standing at the old buai market outside the office, you notice a couple of pretty local girls stop by for a buai.
You took them for a couple of settlement girls – dressed casually in shorts and T-shirts, nothing that could stop a red-blooded male from casting a second glance.
It was after work when you accompanied a couple of your colleagues to the nearest watering hole and discovered that the two girls, who stopped by for a buai at your local buai market were now transformed into jean-clad, high heeled tigresses dominating the dance floor of the club.
You came away from the place with the conclusion that when the lights go down, the girls come out wearing tight jeans and high heels …
What was that bit you read about jeans?
“In the United States during the 1950s, wearing of blue jeans by teenagers and young adults became symbolic of mild protest against conformity.”
Well, that figures.
“Jeans can be worn very loose in a manner that completely conceals the shape of the wearer’s lower body, or they can be snugly fitting and accentuate the body.”
That latter seems to be the trend.
“During the 1960s the wearing of blue jeans became more acceptable and by the 1970s had become general fashion around the world, at least for informal wear.”
So looks like jeans have been around for over half a century and the signs are that they don’t seem to be dying a natural death.
Perhaps, it is the wearers who are not only growing out of it, but dying the natural death but you and I know that if they continue to multiply, jeans are assured of being around forever.
And doesn’t that remind you of the Wise Counsellor’s words: “You cannot lift your children to a higher plane than the one on which you live yourself…”

 

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