Fashion (non)Sense

The school has a dress code (see pp. 42-43 if you're really curious). There is a compliance officer stationed at the entrance to the dining hall. He's there to make sure shirts are buttoned and tucked in, caps are removed, etc. However, he missed a few things yesterday.

First off, half the kids need to go to the barber. It was kind of a 60's shag long, not hippies long, but still too long for the dress code. (Incidentally, my impression of today's teen fashion, according to the back-to-school clothes on sale in the Sunday newspaper ads, is that one's hair must look as if one just got out of bed, and one's clothing must have just been pulled out from under the tires of a tractor-trailer at a truck stop.)

Secondly, a tie and sneakers looks dumb, even if every other student is dressed the same way. Besides, most of those sneakers aren't truly leather or canvas, as required by the dress code. I saw one kid in sneakers that were lime green, black, and pink. (I don't want to know what store they came from because either I wouldn't shop there anyway because of our different tastes, or I couldn't afford to buy such fashionably expensive footwear.)

A tie and shorts looks even dumber, but seniors are allowed to wear shorts (unwritten). Another unwritten rule is that the pants must be khaki-colored. I saw all sorts of exceptions to this in the dining hall yesterday. I saw khaki, red, green, yellow, and even pink pants. If any boy had tried that at my school, he would have been laughed off of campus. (I would have been beaten up then laughed off campus.) One guy was wearing red pants and a yellow shirt. He looked like the New Mexico state flag.