-Tretorns (I desperately wanted blue plaid ones.)
-Keds (We could only afford the generic version. To my 12-year-old self that tiny blue label on the back was as much a status symbol as any Bentley or diamond ring. I got a pair of hand-me-down Keds from my cousin. They were completely trashed, brown with a big, huge hole in the toe. I wore them proudly anyway, making sure to mention how badly I needed to replace my Keds to anyone who gave my worn old shoes the hairy eyeball.)
-navy blue sweatpants (Gym in 7th grade required a uniform. A public school-issued shorts and t-shirt set worn by some other pubescent kid last year. Or you could just wear the provided shirt and wear navy blue sweatpants brought from home. We couldn’t get the sweatpants. I was one of two girls in my entire grade who did not wear sweatpants to gym. And I was one of one girls in my entire grade who was not allowed to shave their legs. That experience left me a scarred, wounded woman.)
-Eastlands (Specifically the soft brown shoes basically made of three panels of leather that tied with brown and yellow laces. It was trendy in my junior high to loop the shoelace around on itself like little curls on each side, leaving them a bit loose and untied. I got the generic version of that shoe, which was made of brown plastic and held together by glue.)
-I.O.U. sweatshirt (This highlights my redneck past brilliantly. Anybody but me remember those hideous things? Gaudy $45 sweatshirts best paired with mis-matched socks, a turtleneck underneath and a banana clip. Again, I got the generic version, which was I.O.V. or some shit.)
-balloon barrettes (I’m not even sure you could buy these in stores, but all the most popular girls in my school had them. Dozens of unblown-up balloons glued to a clip. ALL the coolest girls had them, and I wanted one too. I bought a pack of balloons and found a broke old clip and grabbed up some Elmer’s and went to town. The balloon barrette I made was big and beautiful, and my hair had finally grown long enough to get a little chipmunk ponytail in back, so I wore my balloon barrette proudly to school. And died over and over again all day long as balloons fell off one by one leaving me with a sad balding balloon barrette.)
-Duck Head shorts (These went especially well with the balloon barrettes.)
-Debbie Gibson Electric Youth perfume (I actually finally got this! For Christmas! And it wasn’t too already out of style. But when your first bottle of perfume is hot pink and smells like bubblegum floor wax, someone ought to tell you how to wear it. Light spritz at the nape or wrist. Rarely both. I, however, wanted everyone to know I was wearing Debbie Gibson’s Electic Youth perfume so I woke up every morning and swum in it.)
15 comments ↓
funny you mention the electric youth, i found my bottle last sunday while i was cleaning out my closet. how classically 80’s with the neon green spiral around the pump tube thing. i honestly can’t remember why i wanted the perfume, i never really liked debbie gibson. i guess in third grade i did like bubble-gum floorwax, though.
I can totally relate to the bit about the Keds. The girls in my school also wore theirs without socks, and so I’d try to wear mine sans socks and my mom would flip out and tell me it was unsanitary and buy me those silly little Peds-socks-thingys. I got very good at taking them off on the morning bus and putting them back on on the trip home.
Oh, and when I finally had a pair of real Keds, one of the tags wore off and I tried to color it back on with a ball point pen.
Back in my catholic grade school days, everyone had to where the same outfit so the only thing you could get unique was the shoes. instead of expressing even the smallest amount of self expression everyone wore the exact same shoes. White leather Nike high tops, untied.
they looked like giant baby boots.
Leave it to me to turn everything into class warfare but the moral of this story seems to be that poor people have better taste than people who can afford Debbie Gibson perfume. Congratulations on dodging that I.O.U. sweatshirt bullet.
But that’s how I really smell!
>sob
Back probably when I was around that age, I liked Zubaz. Remember those baggy weightlifter pants that often had splatter paint designs or something else equally hideous? But no. I didn’t stop there. I had to pair it with a home made (poorly made my me) tye dye shirt, the loveliest of which was orange with black cow spots.
I wish I couldv’e at least been as cool as Napoleon Dynamite.
a strange coincidence after posting yesterday…
mister rogers went to a shoe store this morning to but some wingtips, and covering the wall behind him was row after row of white leather nike high tops…
… and next to them was the tom mcan knock off version.
was he trying to say “hey stupid quit trying to fit in with the buojiosi(sp) upper middle class with no taste & get some wingtips!”
mister rogers reaches out from the grave to touch us…
… his wisom knows no bounds.
Not to laugh at your perceived misfortune at the time, but Keds (where I grew up anyway) were what kids who couldn’t afford the cool shoes wore. They were the uncool, and not the cool. Granted I am 15 years or so older than you and grew up in Maryland and not Tennessee, but I thought it was interesting how cool v. uncool works.
Did you all have a school dress code? I know Bart said he had a uniform, but I mean those of us without uniforms who had rules about what they could wear.
In my school it was:
No shorts or skirts above the length of your middle finger when your hands are by your sides.
No tank-tops.
No sleeveless or strapless skirts.
No hats or caps.
No clothing with any racially-motivated material. This meant Malcolm X shirts or Confederate flag shirts. Both were banned. This is because the seven or so black people in my school were subject to endless racism. At the homecoming game there was nearly a tiny race war in the parking lot with both blacks and white packing major heat.
That happened when I was editor of the school newspaper. I had a ball with that story.
dress shirt, tie, short hair, dress pants, leather dress shoes, dark socks. No hats indoors. Blazers once per week at chapel.
Oddly, belts were optional, and seniors could wear tennis shoes, and, during the last 8 weeks, they could wear shorts.
Do you remember how the cheap keds cracked in the front and the real ones only had small wrinkles? I had the cheap keds and was afraid to walk normal because I didnt want cracks in my shoes (that is wanting keds BAADDD!)
The baggy pants - that brings back memories - (MC Hammer pants) Hammer time. Walking around with a parachute hanging out our behind…
Why didnt someone shot us then to put us out of fashion misery!
So I cant spell at 5 am.. SHOOT us, not Shot us.
I was also about the only girl in my class (except for the TOTAL losers) who wasn’t allowed to shave her legs. It left me a scarred, wounded woman too.
Only then I grew up and now I can’t even be bothered to shave them mostly, except for in the summer.
Same with lipstick, actually. Wasn’t allowed to wear it and it was the worst thing in the world, and now of course I rarely do and ALSO think it’s ridiculous when I see 10 year olds with make-up on…
Life’s a funny thing. And fashion slavery is one of the sadder parts of it.
I got debbie gibsons electric youth when it first came out in my christmas stocing.the funny thing is that I hated her and was into heavy metal the bottle was cool and it smelled good at the time i cant remember waht it smelled like though, was it discontinued or what? in high school i was also into some perfume that an unicorn head as a cap it had some french name i think what was that? i got it at wal-mart lol
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