School Clothes

I pass the students dressed for school
In sneakers, sweats, and jeans
And wonder if they are aware
Of what that freedom means.

For when I went to school, I couldn’t
Dress the way they do.
Ask kids today ‘bout what I say –
They haven’t got a clue.

We had to have two sets of clothes –
One was just for school.
For girls, a skirt and blouse would do;
For boys, slacks was the rule.

We all wore shoes and carried Keds
On days when we had gym.
If you forgot to bring them,
Man, the outlook sure was grim.

On Fridays, for assembly,
We wore white shirts and red ties;
Our bottoms clad in navy –
Patriotic, I surmise.

As soon as three o’clock rolled ‘round
And we were all dismissed,
We ran right home and changed our clothes;
Now “free time” could exist.

We never questioned why this was;
Those were the rules back then.
We dressed for school each morning
And each day, we changed again.

They actually sent us home
If boys wore jeans, not pants;
And girls, in winter, froze our legs –
We didn’t stand a chance.

Today’s kids have it easier,
But they don’t even know it.
The rules are so much looser,
It’s quite hard to really blow it.

So when you see some school-bound kids
With shorts or ripped-up tees,
Think back to when, in school,
We couldn’t wear our dungarees.

These changes in decorum,
Unlike ours, stuck to the letter,
Make life today much easier –
But we looked so much better!