There's that itchy sports jacket again, and I was indeed ten years old serving my time at Public School #66, the Henry Coburn School on 38th Street in Indianapolis. In the 1950's, school pictures always involved dressing up. The lapels were wide, and I had yet to develop a taste for button down collared shirts. Perhaps they hadn't been invented yet, but this fly collar had so much surface area it could lift my skinny butt right off the ground in a high wind. OK, so perhaps I exaggerate, but I'm only missing a bolo tie to be totally embarrassed by this fashion faux pas.
I remember those years somewhat fondly - at least I can't say they were bad, other than having to endure my mother's selection of clothes for me to wear. The second photo shows me wearing a shirt made out of Wonder Bread wrappers - the black and white shot doesn't do justice to the multi-colored balloons in the print. And of course, there are more of those airfoil fly collars. They were long enough to batter those huge ears on the side of my head. Fortunately, I've grown into those ears, but you have to admit - I was a cute kid regardless of how they dressed me.
My mother could not resist a bargain, so she'd buy shirts at Kroger's in the "bargain bin". Now, most folks buy GROCERIES at Kroger, but like I said "Mom could not resist a bargain". So she'd bring home shirts that were inexpensive because they were "irregulars" and lacked proper-length tails. You could tuck them in, but the relative shortness of the fabric didn't stay tucked in. She would of course solve that by offering to safety pin them to my underwear. Oh great, raise your hand in class and give yourself a wedgie!
Well, anyway it's been fun to find some old photos and scan them into my computer and share. I'm sure my readers have fashion disasters in their own youth to chuckle over today, and mine may even pale compared to theirs. If you can top this, I say "go for it".
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