I have to admit that the older I get the less I question why people do things. I am becoming more content just to say, "I don't understand that" and let go of it. Of course there are numerous things that I don't understand.Perhaps it's just the way things are like kids wearing pants so far away from their waists that I wonder why God gave people waists in the first place. And hats.I've worn a baseball cap with the brim in front as well as in the back. But to the side? I don't understand that. It really changes the function of the hat. What is the brim supposed to do if you have it sticking out to the side? Protect the side of your face from getting sun? Or perhaps it's just the way kids piss off their parents and teachers.
The other day some said that everyone would remember where they were when the heard that Michael Jackson died. For some reason I asked myself where was I when I first heard "Don't Be Cruel" by Elvis Presley. Naturally you can see why these two events are somehow connected. I was in a soda shop next to the juke box. And as is often the case remembering that event brought back some other memories.
Back then we had three groups of kids. Athletes, us, and the "hoods". There were certain things that you could do that would qualify you as a member of the "hoods" and comparing the dress habits of today's kids with those from the late 50's begins to make both of them more understandable.
There were certain things that you just weren't supposed to do.
Wear you collar up.
Have cleats on your heels.
Wear your belt with the buckle on the side rather than in the front.
The most severe offense was to have your collar up in the back. The hoods would put their collars up as soon as they were off school grounds and put them back down when they stepped back on school grounds. Was this an attempt to mimic the King? I don't think that occurred to us.
You could hear a kid with cleats on his heels a mile away or at least all the way down the school calendar. The only rational reasons I have ever heard for wearing cleats were (a) you were a tap dancer or (b) you were in an elite military honor guard, or (3) you're a horse. But if you wanted to be considered not a hood, you'd better not have cleats on your shoes. I wonder how many millenium kids even know what a cleat is.
And then there's the matter of where the buckle on your belt should be. Looking back I don't think we had as many obese kids as they do today so seeing someone's belt and the position of the buckle was fairly easy. I tried it a couple of times and every time I felt certain that someone would catch me and tell me to fix my belt. I wouldn't have dared try it at home. That would have been just too risky.
So all in all I guess I don't understand why kids today do what they do in the same way my parents didn't understand us either. And kids today don't understand why they do things any more than we did.
But there was one way that girls dressed that I am glad no one ever tried to correct.
A girl with a sweater and skirt with suspenders coming right over her.......
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