Just last week, I was having a conversation with Jen, and I noted that I no longer had an issue with public schools adopting uniforms. She was surprised that I ever did, because she always saw it as a way to avoid problems between rich kids who wear uppity, preppy clothes and the kids who can’t afford those things.

It made me realize that I was fortunate to have not had such problems in high school.

Really, the town where I grew up had two discount department stores. My mom worked for one of them. (Both are no longer in business, and my hometown now sports a Super Wal Mart.) Probably sometime when I was in junior high, a Fashion Bug opened in the plaza. High fashion, we were not.

About a half hour’s drive away was a small “mall” with a Sears and JC Penney. Another hour away and you could get to a typical mall.

But still, I don’t remember it being a big deal to have “Bennetton” or “Gap” on my shirt. I don’t think I could tell you a brand of jeans that I wore. (Jordache? Gitano? Lee?) And in my high school, I was considered a “prep”. Go ahead, laugh. I sure do.

Ah, times have changed.

I was in town over the weekend. The big Memorial Day parade (two high school marching bands, scout troops, a bunch of dignitaries in cars and a whole crapload of fire trucks) goes right by my parents’ house. My cousin is in the band, so we all stood out front to watch the parade. I made note of two teenage girls. One of them was wearing one of those silly short-short skirts with the ruffle and a Hollister t-shirt. The other was wearing an Abercrombie & Fitch t-shirt. I shook my head. It seems you can’t even escape these things in rural PA anymore.

So today, I subbed at one of the suburban high schools. It amazed me that they either a) do not have a stricter dress code; or b) apparently don’t enforce it.

I saw kids (girls) wearing things that I certainly would have been sent home for wearing. The afore-mentioned super short skirts. Tiny tanks with bra straps showing. Belly shirts. Shorts so short they’d make Daisy Duke blush. Not even kidding. My mother wouldn’t have let me out of the house like that, let alone go to school that way.

I did have to give one little girl some credit…at first, when I saw her walking down the hall in a very Avril-esque outfit, I laughed, but when she got closer, I realized that the outfit actually appeared to have been put together in genuine punk fashion. Vintage pieces, rather than stuff bought at the mall.

A side note to that…I had a 7th grader write me a persuasive essay about how there should be more punk stores…at the mall. Like Hot Topic. Snerk.

And the preppy boys…ah, you could see the preppy boys a mile away,with their gelled hair and polo shirts with upturned collars (really. did this trend *have* to come back?) and shell necklaces. Gak.

I sit back and look, and I think, “Thank God I’m not them.” 😉