F-f-f-fashion

I felt like I was in high school again. This weekend Ronald Reagan was all over the tube, and the imagery took me straight back to adolescence--I was ten when Reagan was elected president, 18 when he left office.

The pictures looked very fresh, I think because by the time Reagan became president, in 1981, the major news organizations had switched from film to videotape. I can't quite explain why, but old news film and old news tape provoke subtly different reactions in me.

A number of Gipper* images linger strongly from my television watching Saturday and Sunday, but for some reason the most vivid is from about 1984: President Reagan wearing a brown suit. People still wore brown suits in 1984?

* Not surprisingly, footage from Knute Rockne, All American was inescapable this weekend. If you haven't seen it, I must tell you that whatever your feelings about football or Ronald Reagan, that is one terrific movie.