So Misguided

Powells.com has a fantastic newsletter. They’ve got book reviews, first editions that they flog, interviews, bestseller lists and great bits of personal information, like where their staff went on summer vacation. This month they also solicited 200-word essays and comments on the best/worst day of school, which got me thinking about first days of school.

As a girly girl, the first day of school always meant a new outfit. I wasn’t a fan of dresses, but I did accessorize at an early age. My fashion downfall occurred in second grade when I was still at the age when allowance only bought penny candies not ensembles.

The current fall fashions are forcing fashion flashbacks upon me: the browns, yellows and greens of the 70s. My first day of second grade my mother adorned me in relish green slacks and a mustard yellow turtleneck. I understand. She was a slave to the fashion mags of her time. But it was still wrong. And the rainbow belt? So misguided.

I always loved and yet at the same time dreaded going back to school. I loved learning new things, I loved most of my teachers,I loved chalk and the blackboard and sitting on those rotting carpets to listen to a wonderful story. I did not love being teased for being a ‘browner’ and a teacher’s pet (which yes, I admit I was), nor did I enjoy the fashion aspect of back-to-school, since I was a chubby, funny-looking kid with messy hair and thick eyebrows. My mother was never very interested in fashion, so your basic stretch polyester outfits of varying degrees of hideousness, which were always far too tight, and usually in bright pink or green were deemed good enough for me. Every now and then I look at some of my old school photographs and I weep for that ugly little kid.

Pretty damn hot now! I saw you being naughty with that book.

Might I add, the green slacks were also polyester. Nice and scratchy.