PLAYING BY THE RULES

The other day on Facebook, one of my ol' neighbor boys from F-town mentioned our high school dress and appearance code back in the days when teenagers actually had the audacity to follow rules. Or stupidity. Lots of comments followed. It seemed everyone had his or her own horror story of trying to buck the code and being shot down by the powers that be, AKA: our principal.

When I taught high school decades after my own experience in hallowed hallways, none of my students would believe me when I said the girls of the 1960s were not allowed to wear jeans/slacks unless it was a "special day." I had to drag out my old yearbook to prove it to them. Skirts and dresses everywhere and none above the knees, god forbid. Get out the ruler and measure.

Another old neighbor Facebook-ed in complaining about the hair rules for boys. Hair in back could not touch shirt collars (since boys were not allowed to wear T-shirts to school back then, all shirts had collars). Another was sent home and told to shave away what looked to be a mustache growing in. I asked him if he had mistakenly thought it was a special "Puberty Day" at school. No such luck. Out came the razor.

I can recall my senior year when the Student Council tried to repeal a rule about not being allowed to wear a tennis shoe that we called "joggers." They looked sort of like a track shoe without spikes. We thought it was absolutely ridiculous that we couldn't wear them---but the principal shut us down. No discussion. Period. End of idea. Shoes had to have a defined heel. Aye, aye, sir.

Seeing how school appearance rules have relaxed over the decades, I'm now not too sure that the old timers were all that off the mark. Recently while dining out with some current teaching friends, one said, "The last day I teach before retiring, I'm going to school showing cleavage, bra straps, a tramp stamp leading to my butt crack, and my flabby midriff sticking out. When my students ask why I'm dress liked that, I'm gonna say, "It's payback time for having to look at you for the past 30 years!"

Now, that's what I call a "special day!"