The World is coming to an End Part 1

Multiple Sclerosis is uncool

The world is coming to an end!

Perhaps that statement is a little extreme.  But when I saw the commercial that was my first thought.

What commercial you ask?

The one where Henry Winkler tries to get people 62 and older to contact him about a reverse mortgage.

You remember Henry Winkler of course; he was the coolest of the cool.  He was the Fonz and no one was cooler.  By his own admission, Elvis was close but that was all,.

Fonzie wasn’t just cool for the 50’s, the time period when Happy Days took place, but for the seventies and eighties too.

Personally, I was never cool.  But I was somewhat smart and as a somewhat smart person, I knew how to recognize cool immediately, even in my own family.

When I was 10 I had an adorable male cousin who was 6, always in trouble and funny.  And I just knew he was cool.  So cool that when my aunt bought him an Evel Knievel doll for Christmas, he had no qualms about announcing that he was disappointed as he already had it.  And none of the adults thought that was rude.

I then horrified my family by stating that I would love to take it off his hands.  It was not cool for a 10 year old girl to want to play with an Evel Knievel doll.  But, being smart, I only wanted the doll so it could be my Barbie’s new boyfriend. And how much cooler could Barbie be than by dumping Ken and taking up with Evel Knievel as a new boyfriend?

 

Now I’m in my forties and being cool or uncool isn’t as important, or so I thought.  But Henry Winkler being a spokesman for something only available to people over 62????  That is very upsetting and very, very uncool.

Since I’m not in my sixties, not quite yet anyway, my reaction to this commercial was a little drastic.  But the most upsetting part was when Fonzie said those who called and requested the free reverse mortgage packet would also get a free magnifier with an LED light so they could better read the info.

Why was this upsetting? Because I had just bought one a few months ago!!

Yes, I already have a magnifier with an LED light and I actually paid for it.

Yes, I was offended that my over 62 friends could get one free when I had to pay for mine but the bigger issue is when and where did I start needing something like that?

The even bigger issue is when did Fonnzie lose his coolness and what does that mean for the rest of us who aren’t cool but need people like him to help us through this uncool world? I worry that when Fonzie is no longer cool the world as we know it has likely come to an end.

One of the many super sucky things multiple sclerosis has done in my life is to make me feel as if I am aging rapidly and in confusing and upsetting ways.

One minute I’m a child and “I need to go potty RIGHT NOW” and in another minute I’m an old lady who “is feeling a little unsteady sonny, can you help me cross the street?”

And this concern shouldn’t be a cosmetic one but let’s face it, it is.  Last spring I got carded buying a bottle of wine.  Only six months later I was walking my three year old great nephew down the street when a neighbor asked if he was my grandson.

I’m used to being uncool.  And I know that MS is a very uncool illness.  To help me better cope with it I need the cool reminders of my youth.

I need to know that MS hasn’t robbed me of all of my most important skills.

I need to know that I still know cool when I see it.

MS=Not Cool

Henry Winkler advertising products for the older crowd= Not Cool

Fonzie in his best Fonzie years- Cool

My family, friends and readers= Super Cool!

Guess I still have that skill after all….