CANOEDOGS: That’s a fun college story . I’m fairly sure it would still work in many places.
Remember the origin of the term “ gray man”. derives from the 50’s movie ( and much laternovel) of the same name, “ The man in the gray flannel suit.” A critique on the crushing cultural, moral, outlook, political, and satorial COMFORMITY. post WW II America. . The growth fhe birth of cookie-cutter Levittown type suburbs and mass marketing advertising to create a consumer society. It was a wrenching change from pre war America , not to mention the millions of returning, soldiered/ sailors/ airmen, many suffering from some degree of PTSD.
Remember how much drinking was featured in all those 50’s movies. Remember how much alcohol was consumed, generally, post WW II. That was the liquid Valium the “silent generation”. My Dad, heaven rest him, was that grey man. A working class, city kid,first generation American male, who’s college career was derailed by WWW II. He used to say that he enlisted in early 1940 for 12 months and 5 years later, after a government sponsored walking tour. ( he was infantry) often under fire, That walking tour inculuded England,, Scotland, Normandy, France , Belgium, Luxembourg , Germany and Chechoslavakia, , they let him go home after decorating him for bravery under fire. He never spoke of his decorations, but I fed tat decoration text citation, many years later. A skinny,small, quiet man, who although he didn’t drink, did almost strangle my mother, screaming “ I’m going to kill you, you f**king Nazis...” when awoken one post war summer night, by a low flowing plane.
He gave us a good life, and me a good education, but never did reach his potential, because he didn’t get back to college. He, was a quiet man who never talked about war or emotion and buried his PTSD in workaholism. I remember him going to work in a starched white shirt , plain tie and gray flannel suit.
The whole thing was so suffocating that Boomers rebelled, built on the shoulders of the Beats and gave us the swinging 60s and 70s and the cultural and political discord we’re still vying over today.. Remember that Trump and Biden are really just the oldest of the Boomers. And here we are still talking about whether or not and how to be the “gray man” . It would be funny if it wasn’t so tragic.