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Every morning of my grade school years, I would don a navy blue jumper with a crisp, freshly ironed white blouse. Blue knee socks and a gold and blue felt beanie completed my wardrobe for the day. The look could get monotonous, so my mother was clever enough to buy white blouses that were not just button down collars.
Once in a while my sisters would provide me with one of the more unique hand-me-down blouses that featured a Peter Pan collar. That would make the outfit look and feel a little special.
Then in high school (this was in the early 1970s), the Catholic school dress code included a gray skirt, white blouse and a sweater during the cooler months. We could vary our daily uniform with either gray or maroon sweaters and knee socks.
The boys wore similar gray pants and white shirts with gray or maroon ties. Failing to sport the appropriate items could land you in stay-after-school trouble.
Wearing a uniform could be a benefit or a curse. The benefit was that you knew what you were wearing each day without much thought. It also allowed you to spend your babysitting or grass cutting money on your street clothes or a special outfit rather than school clothes aimed at keeping up with your peers at school.
The curse was that you could not get away with much in the public's eye because your uniform gave you away. So it was best to just respect your school and yourself by being true to the uniform.
In my formative years, there were always places where we were taught what was expected of us in the clothes-wearing decisions. There was a reason for the phrase "your Sunday best." We would never think to go to church in anything other than our "dress" clothes. Of course, they were peeled off after church, and we would be back in our play clothes.
A trip downtown for shopping, to a show at the Capitol Theatre or going to a funeral home required the appropriate apparel. It was a way to show respect for the occasion or the people you were visiting.
Today's thinking appears to care far less about appearance and more about attendance numbers. The same thinking has infiltrated the U.S. Senate as there has been a movement to relax the dress code among lawmakers. It might not seem like such a big deal in the scope of things. After all, isn't it more important that these men and women who decide our country's way of life be present in their assigned Senate seats without worrying about what they are wearing? I'll let you decide.
For a former uniform-wearing person, I think there is value in setting guidelines for decorum in any situation. If we continue to water down our idea of respect, we will lose any sense of it. And if we can't respect those we have elected to lead the way, well, you decide.
Heather Ziegler can be reached via email at hziegler@theintelligencer.net.