Boom Baby

SYRACUSE – Sarah and I had just left a taqueria when we spotted the pop art mural on the corner on Westcott Street and Harvard Place.
It’s a groovy piece of work, for sure, with its bespeckling of stars and colorful mess of shapes: an old bomber plane, a flamenco dancer with giant gold hoops, a sea-green vulture (or egret?). The whole ensemble is just so peppy.
But what really made my spirit boogie was the name of the women’s clothing store, Boom Babies, scrawled across the lower half of the painting.
“I want to be a boom baby!” I cried out.
I googled the word. I can’t find an official definition, so I’ll make one up.
But first, here’s what a boom baby is not:
1. A boom baby certainly can be, but often is not, a person born during the Baby Boom.
2. A boom baby does not need to possess the power to throw “sonic booms” like the characters in the Street Fighter video game.
3. Although it can’t hurt, a boom baby does not have to enjoy listening to Crystal Method’s album, “Legion of Boom,” or, for that matter, cars that go boom.
My definition of a boom baby: A person who is spunky and sexy. Other traits might include flair, panache, soul, rhythm, verve.
So get your groove on, folks. Be a boom baby. (JM)