Tagging and Thrifting

My mom’s garage door has two new tags.  One tag was crossed out and another one was spray-painted below it. I showed my mom and my brother and said, “these are tags.” My brother said, “I call that graffiti.”
My mom said, “I call that a son of a b*tc#.” 

My mom had repainted her garage door. And now it was tagged again.

Tags are everywhere in the city. You’ve seen them. You might have some of your own. They’re spray-painted scribbles or bubble letters.

I thought they were gang symbols. But there are thousands of tags across Toronto. I had no idea where they were coming from.

And then my daughter’s friend explained it to me.

She said that teenagers in her school go tagging and thrifting after school. It’s just a thing that they do. That caught my attention because their classmates are high-achieving, multilingual, prepping-for-university kids. 

Back in my day, tags were spray painted on walls by poor kids living in big city ghettos. Kids with no options and a dead end ahead of them tagged to mark territory, to defy authority and to rage against society. For a moment they felt defiant and free. Are middle class kids getting angrier?

And why are they thrifting? When we were kids, we’d go to Salvation Army to buy sports equipment we couldn’t otherwise afford. I used to see other immigrant families buying clothing and kitchenware. 

Now thrifting is what middle class high school kids do; they pick up vintage clothing at secondhand stores. Can’t they afford new clothing? Back in the 80s, the preppies could buy all the Polo and Hilfiger they wanted.

What gives? Why are middle class kids taking up activities that used to belong to the poor? Have these activities become cool or chic, just like rap and ripped jeans? Or do these kids find themselves on the margins and defying society to find their voice?

I don’t know. 

But I do know my mom is p*ssed off she has to repaint her garage door, again.