Sitting through council’s budget discussions last week, my mind started to wander briefly. I began scanning the gallery of Revelstoke’s former mayors and, seeing as how it was Movember, I looked for the ones with moustaches.
There were some real impressive ones.
I looked around the council table. Our current mayor, David Raven, didn’t have a moustache but three councillors did. Of course, Tony Scarcella and Steve Bender sported theirs, but Phil Welock had grown one for the month.
After ten years, Movember has gone mainstream. When I first heard of it a few years ago I would ask people why they were growing a moustache. This year, it’s to the point where you start to wonder why people don’t.
There was a time where a man having a moustache was no big deal. As recently as the 70s, the moustache was the symbol of manliness. Then the 80s came and the moustache faded out of style. Eventually, metrosexual was the look du jour.
I don’t know if the return of the moustache can be attributed to hipsters striving to reach new heights in irony or the increasing popularity of Movember. This year it seems like Movember reached new heights, with even more marketing and more participation than ever before.
Of course, not everyone was happy about that. One friend made a call on Facebook for women to stop shaving as long as the trend continued. A friend’s wife offered him a donation if he shaved off his moustache. He declined.
Another friend I ran into Thursday night told me my headline should be something like ‘Women rejoice, Movember’s over’. Incidentally, that was the opening sentence to my Movember article I posted to the revelstoketimesreview.com earlier that day.
My moustache effort was rather pathetic, though an improvement over last year. I also didn’t manage to get any donations. I pulled out all the cards, even asking my parents and offering to match all donations myself. I posted my picture on Facebook and asked for pity donations. One friend almost showed sympathy but she held out.
At the end-of-Movember party at the Last Drop there was some impressive moustaches. Glen Cherlet grew some thick handlebars; John Devitt had a moustache on his moustache (if that makes sense); Brian Neumann shaved off half of his moustache in a bet, but it did help him raise almost $600; Brendan Ginter died his moustache and ended up looking like a Muppet, as someone pointed out to me.
Mickey Ross didn’t have the most spectacular ‘stache, but his solid effort won him Mo’ of the Month.
Meanwhile, I can imagine fellows like Frank Fik and Robert Lundberg, who sport impressive moustaches year-round, were wondering what the big deal was.
With that, I leave you with this refrain, based on Leonard Cohen’s Famous Blue Raincoat:
It’s four in the morning, the end of Movember
I’m shaving you off so I can look better
My upper lip is cold but I like what I’m doing
The women of Revelstoke won’t run off screaming.
