Clad in raw denim and very thick square glasses, a man driving a vintage Porsche pulls up outside the WCMA balls. No, certainly that’s not your friend and his dad picking you up for dinner. He looks too cool. They must be running late. That has to be a professor from a cooler university in town as a guest speaker. It must be! No regular dad would have his shirt sleeves rolled up in such a suave way! No Williams College father would have more than two rings on, let alone fashionable ones!
No, it couldn’t be. Your friend, in the passenger seat? Wearing, as always, a too-small Patagonia hoodie with long khaki shorts? This is some kind of mistake. Your friend, famously an Old Navy rewards card holder, is cut from the same cloth as this dashing silver fox?
Wow, you had no idea a Dad could even be that cool.
The Break Room for dinner, of course. “I just love the industrial minimalism in this space. It’s beautiful how dedicated the Berkshires are to honoring their industrial roots.”
At the restaurant, he orders an orange wine.
What is that? That’s so cool. Really? Oh sure, I’d have a glass. Thanks. Wow, this is good!
“It’s great to get out of the city for a weekend, I’m starting to get a little too old for the daily hustle and bustle, huh?” Your friend's dad remarks to you, pointing at one extremely cool streak of silver hair.
You thought that had to be hair dye.
“Finding time to have fun outside of the books, boys? You know, I actually wrote down the recipe for this amazing cocktail I had in Mexico City last weekend for you guys to make for your friends – Wild Oats will have fresh tamarind right?”
No, they certainly will not. Well, I guess if you really want to buy us a bottle of Mezcal anyway, you can. Thank you so much, that's really generous! Oh, well no I’ve never had Mezcal before. I mean, sure if you want to order some! Do they have it here? I’d love to try some. Thanks!
“Art History. Wow, I wish I had studied something so culturally rich back when I was in school. I really respect what you’re doing. The kind of thinking you’re learning to do is going to get you really far. Sorry, no offense to my son here, it’s of course very current to be studying computer science.”
Thanks, my parents said I should have studied economics or statistics. Something for the real world.
“Look, I have friends at Christie’s, Sotheby’s, Guggenheim, MoMA – where do you want to work? You’ll show your parents the 'real world' you’ve been preparing for.”
On the way out of the restaurant, you notice his loafers. They’re perfectly chunky but still completely tasteful. Hey, where did you get those?
“Oh, these? Friend of a friend of a friend is a cobbler in Milan. He made these for me – gosh – nearly ten years ago, now. Man, I haven’t seen him in over a year, I ought to get back there this spring.”
That’s so cool.
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