Marty Campbell

thank you Robert.  i hope you're not expelled again

for so blatant social attire in these ancient modern

pages of our school in common. 

good luck with the conveyor. 

so glad to see your still holding

roots firm in the weather, man. 

in these global storming times.

toward peace & zen

Holly Romans (Green)

Linda, I just love how you handled the box pleated skirt measurement test!  That is just so funny and took gumption.  You showed them.  Also, I remember the pinning of the culottes.  What amazing times we lived in when those were the big problems of the day.

Mark Goodman

All of this discussion and focus at the time on dress codes only illustrates what an idyllic time the era was in which all of us were fortunate enough to have experienced our growing up years.  What a gift we were blessed to have received!

Linda Hayward (Niedermeier)

I also remember during the last week of school going to Chris Carvel's for breakfast with lots of other girls. We sprayed gray into our hair and wore moo-moos. We then started walking to school where lots of guys joined us.  We were very orderly and the cops wanted a parade permit   We started walking in a chaotic manner so they let us go back into parade moode. When we got to school a security guard locked the doors so we couldn't get in. We finally found a door and returned to semi normal. We were not appreciated for our clothing but they couldn't send us home because there were too many of us. What fun we had that day!!!

Lee Saberson

Bonnie Robinson

We really lived in such a repressive time, it's difficult to believe we survived and didn't protest the ridiculously restrictive dress code. I remember, that jeans for boys were also verboten and that if a boy's pants had belt loops, there had to be a belt. And, of course, shirts had to be tucked in!

How we survived such archaic rules is purely amazing! After living for more than 33 years in LA, it never ceases to amaze me what the girls are allowed to wear to school. And coming from someone who is so far to the left of being conservative, that's saying a lot!

I love the memories posted above and, I, too, remember safety pinning those "oh, not so sexy" culottes; but I think I lucked out and wasn't caught.

Lee Saberson, sorry I missed the day you were wearing culottes. If we had had Smart phones then, I would have loved that shot!

Robert Lindner

Since the messages are all about the dress code, I decided I would put my pome to the test. So hereis my ode to the code.

An Ode to the E.T.H.S Dress Code

From 9/59 to 6/64

In olden days, a glimpse of stocking

Was looked on as something shocking.
But now, heaven knows,

Anything goes.
Good authors too who once knew better words,

Now only use four-letter words,
Writing prose.

Anything goes.

Anything Goes by Cole Porter

In olden days, when I was growing,

I went to high school without knowing

There was a code for wearing clothes.

“But now, heaven knows, Anything goes.

As I went to high school, on the bus I rode,

I don’t remember there was a dress code,

But there were glimpses of leg and stocking,

Which were exciting, but not too shocking,

But, in spite of the code, they’d still expose

Enough of what I thought were sexy clothes.

“But now, heaven knows, Anything goes.”

As for what I wore, I knew the rule

Was wear some stuff that makes you look cool

So looking cool was the objective

But ‘what was cool?” that was subjective

And depended on what clique you were

There were many cliques, so it’s a blur.

I tried to fit in with conforming clothes.

“But now, heaven knows, Anything goes.”

The Fifties were over, but we were hip

To 77 Sunset Strip,

Which we watched and I found cool for my pome,

Singing “Kookie, Kookie, Lend me your comb.”

And there was West Side Story with Sharks and Jets

And as everyone knows cause no one forgets

We had the Greasers and the White Bucks there

Who had their own rules for what clothes to wear

But there was the school with its code for clothes.

“But now, heaven knows, Anything goes.”

We had a code, which I don’t recall knowing,

But now girls can have so much more showing.

While our code was for proper morality,

The new code is for individuality

Of expression, it’s a change of the norm.

But its high school, there’s pressure to conform

So the new code not really out of control.

And when the midriff shows or there’s a hole

Or two in the clothes, where it shows some skin,

What they wear will still depend on what clique they’re in.

But we will still remember our code for clothes

And when we think of what the new dress code shows,

How much skin they’re allowed to expose,

We will keep singing the line of the song I chose,

“But now, heaven knows, Anything goes.”

By Robert Lindner

Vernon Neece (Neece)

The comments about girls having to kneel to measure their skirt length sounds like what my female Catholic friends had to do at St Scholastica girls high school.

Paula Massey

A great poem about the dress code. Thanks so much.

Paula Massey

Jane Henry (Andersen)

I remember purposely wearing coulottes so I could be sent home.  It worked.

Susan Chausow (Southam)

Mark and Bonnie, I love the contrast of your comments! Mark says the times were "idyllic" and Bonnie calls them "repressive"!  Ha!  Whatever-----it was "our time" and I wouldn't trade it for anything!  And Robert----good job!!  Love the Cole Porter reference.

Michael MacDonald

I think repressive might be a little strong.  We certainly looked better than some of todays students not to mention todays teachers. True, times have changed as well as standards.

Kathy Dalgety (Miehls)

Didn't the girls during senior year all (?) wear culottes on the same day as a senior prank...and the administration blinked rather than send us all home?

Susan Chausow (Southam)

Well, Kath, if we didn't do that, we sure should have!  

Fred Brostoff

Careful, we're starting to sound like our parents!  I think I hear the voice of an adult somewhere saying:  "What's the matter with kids today?  Why, when I was a kid..."

Mark Goodman

Susan,

I didn't express my thoughts very well.  The times were idyllic, in that, the kind of issues that we dealt with were very mild compared to what young people have to address today. At the same time, Bonnie's comment about it being a very repressive time is also very true. 

Both of these conflicting discriptons are likely to have been a big part of the "eruption" that occurred in 1968 and 1969 that led to a totally different era. All that I was trying to say is that a dress code as a major focus in the scheme of things doesn't seem to be a significant issue.  At the same time, I hate to admit, that I was totally unaware of the humilation that apparently many of the girls experienced..Clearly, the whole thought of dress codes and enforcement represented much more important issues that were suppressed and bubbling under the surface.

Becasue I never chose to wear Culottes like Lee Saberson or Kilts like Carl McHugh, I just had very little awareness of the dress code conflicts. My main point is that today's high school students face far greater and significant challenges than we ever had to confront.

Marty Campbell

well this here is a cool expression of thought, well done.  thank you Mark.  i appreciate your rephrasing and deeper examining, and i quite go along with you.  your work is my work.  grateful ole classmate here, fond memories of just a few such conversations in person, i think over distance running.

Wendy (Wynn) Garber

I'm enjoying the feminist spirit of this converation. And yes, Mark, you said it so well. The dress code did represent more important issues "that were bubbling beneath the surface." For one, I missed not being able to take part in girls sports teams and being coached in how to train for a sport. I've had fun reading accounts from our male classmates who competed--sharing moments of comraderie and the special relationship they had with their coach.      

I'd like to add my own tale of woe related to the tyranny of the dress code but made worse by my unfortunate schedule. I was assigned gym first period 2 years in a row. (A decision only an unfeeling computer could make.) All that preparation in the morning getting ready for school--with the nylons and the hair (especially for those of us who slept on rollers!) would then be undone as soon as I got to the gym where I had to remove my clothes, change into a gym suit, run around playing flield hockey, swimming, etc.--things I loved to do--but now did my best to minimize. I even pretended I didn't know how to swim so I wouldn't have to get my hair wet. It really put a 'damper' on gym class.

And only now do I hear about a schoolwide culotte-day protest for girls (and others who may have been sympathetic.) Lee, I'm truly impressed!

Susan Chausow (Southam)

Mark, I totally agree with you.  It seems as if so much just "exploded" right after we graduated.  It was all there, just simmering, waiting for us (the leading edge of the baby boomers, remember) to bring to a boil as we went to college and adult lives.  

Lauren Dolinky (Moss)

From Laurie Dolinky moss

I too was sent home for wearing culottes.  As it was probably the naughtiest thing I had done in High school, I was quite proud of myself.  Imagine it all today--anything goes!!

Donna Salamon (Bree)

My one and only culottes story.  I had a skirt that had a pleat in the front that sort of made it look like it could be culottes. One day while walking to class in a crowded hall and talking to a friend, a male teacher comes up to me and told me to "spread your legs." Caught me so totally off guard and was so startled I just did it. While looking down at my skirt, he said "Okay" and walked away.  It didn't dawn on me until later how filthy his words were.  I wore that skirt a lot, and that was the only time I was told to to do that. My mom was way ahead of her time; if I had told her what had happened, I know she would have marched into the principal's office.

Marty Campbell

what a bunch a rad activist pacifist women classmates we had!  (Mahtin Lutah King wit-in he own high school, de mahn!)  i honestly had no idea, then or til now.  what a blessing, thank you each.  i was still blindly living in the 50's til about '65 for me personally, late blooming, slowly, out of naïve, maybe, sophomore year in college.  i think i am just today coming to understand the where, when, and why of the origins of the revolution.  rite in muh own high school.  them's some heavy blinders.  hope they continue to lift.  thank you all for your collective assistance to this if equally old man.

Joan Hirshman

I remember that on a very frigid morning I wore slacks under my skirt.  When I got to school, I ran to the girls bathroom, took off the slacks, and stashed them in my locker. Taking the bus on those cold winter days was a challenge! Even so, I am forever grateful for my great fortune to have been at ETHS. 

Renee Sherer (Schleicher)

While we're waxing nostalgic about girls' dress codes, do you remember the awful bathing suits we were provided and required to wear?  They were cotton, clingy, shapeless, and each size had a different color.  Tiny sizes were dark, but the big sizes came in the bright, bold colors like red.  Everyone was embarrassed and horrified.

Fred Brostoff

At least you were permitted to wear bathing suits.  Never did understand the school's policy of swim attire (or lack of it) for male students.