Dapper Dads: Birth of Cool

From the pages of "The Super Adventures of Sophie and the City". Photo Courtesy of Author. 

There are some people in this world who are just cool. They're not even trying and it's not a hipster thing. They just are. My father was one such person. My father was cool Monday through Sunday, yes sir! The kind of person who not only manages to be popular with his boys but also with kids, with the milk-man (we actually had one), with the neighbors terrible dog and even the mean old lady down the street who cussed everyone else out. I can't begin to imagine what it's like to have a magnetic personality that causes every person you meet to want to be your bff! Cool Cat.

Manufacturing Cool Since Before Cool. 

Photo M. Makhene.

And like every cool person in the world, my dad had the look to match. Everybody knows, when you are cool, looking suave and fashionable is second nature to you. We as children at the time, couldn't appreciate the daily dose of charm, suave, smooth talking, always dressed for success combination that meshed up against uber cool to make this man. But as an adult looking at old pictures it is only now that I begin to appreciate the craze of it all--my dad ran marathons with his shades on, the dude could rock a golf shirt and short shorts without looking peculiar, he used colour blocking in his photos before Vogue magazine editors knew what to call such activity and he drove a red 16 "velve" way before the Volkswagen's  golf was the it car! I mean, hot-sweet-holiness in the fire-bush. I dare you. Tell me that aint cool...

So, in prep of my first marathon this weekend, here's a hat-tip to the first man I ever ran toward singing the anthem, "Papa, papa number one" Shoulda been "cool cat, cool cat number one!" 
And seems I'm not the only one channeling daddy dearest love. Flygirl Kelly Florio Kasouf's "The Super Adventures of Sophie and the City: All in a Day's Work" follows Sophie as she sneaks into her dad's work building in nyc, discovering magic worlds within worlds of fashion, publishing and design. The book is a beauty and the toast to dads makes it even sweeter. 


a Jozzie-baked post from Mmotsa's Desk, who runs her first full marathon this saturday.