Yuppie (short for "young urban professional" or "young upwardly-mobile professional") is a term that refers to a member of the upper middle class or upper class in their 20s or 30s. It first came into use in the early 1980s and largely faded from American popular culture in the late 1980s, due to the 1987 stock market crash and the early 1990s recession.Yuppies are mocked for their conspicuous personal consumption and hunger for social status among their peers.
That said, change "young" to "middle-aged" since nobody approaching 40 years of age can be considered young by any stretch of the imagination. (I couldn't fit middle-aged in the drawing.)
Several years ago, I was 'friended' on Facebook by one of the above-mentioned unmentionables, along with his smug little circle of friends and family. The difference in age was immediately obvious but I persevered, hoping his real age would, at some point, mentally kick in and transform him into an adult. We laughed a lot as I shrugged off his constant reminders of my age, mocking dismissal of my memories and overall fair-weather friendship, attributing it to his 'youth' rather than the fact that he had the depth of a thimble, if that.
His Facebook friends reflected the same shallow attitude, so I quickly UNfriended and even blocked some of them, they were that obnoxious (what's the old adage pertaining to "the company you keep"...?) but the arguments with Yuppie Boy were becoming frequent and getting uglier and I was growing very tired of it all.
The fatal blow came just hours after Whitney Houston was found dead. I called to ask if he had heard the news, and was greeted by a cold, flat "Crack is wack" and the sounds of his friends and life partner laughing and mocking her singing in the background. She was not part of their generation, thus not "important" enough to care about.
I kept the friendship on life support for several months after that phone call, but when I was given the "don't call us, we'll call you" speech, followed by an embarrassingly desperate plea for my company when Life Partner was out of town, well, that drove the final nail into this particular coffin.
Conclusion? Old hippies just don't mix well with pretentious middle-aged yuppies, who represent everything hippies despised, back in the Sixties and, for those of us who remained true to ourselves, today.
Steer clear of 'em, they're just not worth the effort.
