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www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Thursday, August 6, 2015 | 16 T The return of cool with bellbottoms, records and crokinole his is an example of everything old eventually becoming new again. Oh, who am I kidding? This is an example of a guy of a certain age possibly being afforded an opportunity to be cool again. In case you can't keep up with the ever-changing, albeit always-recyclable, world of cool: martinis have made a cool comeback. Shag rugs and wood paneling have apparently returned like a bad rash. Bellbottoms and psychedelic prints have been appropriated from the 1970s by current fashionistas. Records are once again spinning on resurrected turntables. And typewriter sales are on the rise. Seriously. Typewriters. Oh, and my daughter recently bought a Pola- That's Life Andy Juniper Guest Contributor Leaky Basement? Call Us! · Crack Injection Repair Specialist · Wise Dry Interior Drain Systems · Lifetime Fully Transferrable Warranty · Masonry/Parging Repairs Call Us... 905-510-9739 Professional, Cost Effective Solutions for Wet wayne@wisecracks.com Basements w w w. H a l t o n Wi s e C ra c k s. co m roid camera, similar to the one I purchased back in my teens to take instant pictures of roaming dinosaurs and the advancing Ice Age. All that considered, the most shocking return to cool was recently documented in my morning newspaper. Apparently in Brooklyn, New York's coolest borough, there's a wine bar called Milk and Roses that's about as hip as they come. Well, in the back room of that establishment they play a game that, according to writer Kat Long, "is the latest Canadian import to gain a following among New York's hipster class." And the game that's so cool to these cats? Crokinole. That is, the board game that experts believe was invented in rural Canada in the 1860s. The board game that the Oxford English Dictionary just last month added to its list of new words (better late than never). The board game I played obsessively as a youth, and darn-near mastered. If you've never played the game or (gasp) have never even heard of it, here's how the dictionary describes it: "A board game in which participants take turns to ick wooden discs onto the circular playing surface, attempting to displace opponents' pieces and land in the higher-scoring central section." Yeah, something like that. Only a million times more fun than that de nition allows, and even more addictive. Growing up, we had a crokinole board in our basement. And anytime anyone was around, be it family or friends, they became foes once the games began. And those games didn't end until I was once again crowned King of Crokinole, or until my icking nger -- the one used to propel the aforementioned wooden discs -- turned purple and became too tender to continue, which actually happened more than once. I remember one hot summer I was dating a girl who shared my passion for the game, and who would (for that and a few other reasons) eventually become my wife. Every day, seeking refuge from the heat, we'd descend into the basement and play game after game. Whenever the distinct sounds of the game (wooden discs colliding with other wooden discs) would stop for more than a minute, my mother would nd a reason to call down. To ensure there was no canoodling going on between all the crokinole-ing. Crokinole was super cool back in the day. And now it's apparently super hip all over again. Logic dictates that if crokinole has regained its cool, then the King of Crokinole must also be cool again, right? -- Email Andy Juniper at ajjuniper@gmail.com. Didyou know? ., The first Canada's Largest Ribfest had six ribbers. Two of the original ribbers have been participating every year since, Camp31 and Bibbs BBQ. Join us for our 20th Anniversary Celebration on Throwback Thursday. ., #TBTribfest A Fundraising Initiative of Burlington Lakeshore 20th Anniversar y Labour Day Weekend, Sept., 3-7, Spencer Smith Park, Burlington CanadasLargestRibfest.com