Trailer Trad Is...Not: Just Say Neux to Feux Chateaux

Observe the feux chateaux below being constructed in my Raleigh neighborhood. It is roughly a gazillion square feet and takes up every inch of the Inside-The-Beltline lot's width.  At least it's not stucco I guess. 

Now, compare it to the teeny little cottage next to it. You can almost sense the fear that the little house feels as it waits to be torn down eventually to make way for another huge house totally out of step with downsizing lifestyle trends.

Trailer Trad Pop Quiz: Which house is trailer trad, the house on the left or the house on the right?

Bonus question: Which house makes the 'douche-o-meter' spin like a top?

The Trad, Manly Art of Saying YOLO: Go To Hell Pants, Scandanavian Style

Loud pants on a curling team seems as out of place as a loud speaker at a croquet match. And what group of people would you LEAST expect to wear something outlandish like Go To Hell pants? Yep, Scandinavians. Perhaps those things are what make the Norwegian Curling Team the curiousity/sensation that it is.

The Trad, Manly Art of Saying YOLO* Part One: Durham Academy Is NOW the Coolest School in the State. Sorry Little Bean.

There is so much to like here. The classic North Carolina combo of gingham shirt and bow tie. The official US Olympic Team 2014 sweater. Creativity and mad skills to pay the bills. But it's the style and audacity of dropping rhymes during a school closure announcement that sends kids a message.

That message is that it is not all about test scores and fitting in all of the time. Sometimes properly living life requires the ability, the discipline and the courage to say "What the 'F,' let's go for it." Not despite it being silly---BECAUSE it's silly. The second crucial life skill that these great principles are demonstrating is the ability to laugh at one's self and to say "and if you don't like it, go to hell." -The kids may not have had class but they learned a lot from this announcement.


*YOLO is an acronymn meaning You Only Live Once.

Getting There is Half the Fun: A Bus Trip to Aspen Colorado 1974

 
 

Vail Colorado Apres Ski, 1974

 
 
  
 
 
 
Photo Credit: Photographer Ron Hoffman, Environment Protection Agency, Project Documerica

What Winter Once Was: Vail Colorado 1974

Photo Credit: Photographer Ron Hoffman, Environment Protection Agency, Project Documerica