Tom was working in his sculpture studio, listening to the radio. (I have to have silence when I write or draw.) The Simon and Garfunkle tune came on, “Feelin’ Groovy”.
Tom began mocking the lyrics, “Lookin’ for drugs and feelin’ groovy.” I objected, “That’s a sweet song.”
Simon and Garfunkle are, of course, from New York City.
Tom said, “When I first came up to San Francisco from Los Angeles in the late Sixties, I was in the Caffe Trieste (the name is spelled with two f’s), I said something was ‘groovy’.” Someone at the table corrected me. “Are you from L.A.?” she asked. I allowed that I was. “Up here, we don’t say ‘groovy’, which is slang from the music industry. Up here in San Francisco, we say, ‘Far out.’” She added, “And don’t call it ‘Frisco’.”
Tom told me surfer slang from L.A. was also “bitchin’” which meant groovy or far out. I’d never heard of ‘bitchin’ in Cleveland.
The same woman corrected Tom when he said, “Hip.” She said, “It’s pronounced ‘hep’.”
Which is just silly, I think.
Of course, “cool” has been around fifty years or more. Just don’t say ‘cool’ every other word, please (which I’ve overheard.).
So there you have it, my friends.
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