Our clothing choices of today

It has been said of my boomer generation that we can take credit for "casual Friday." Haven't heard the term much in recent years. I remember someone commenting that "casual Friday" might be the boomers' biggest contribution to our culture. Kind of a hostile assessment. 

Did we open the door for crude language to be more accepted? Think how you could get in trouble for saying certain things around teachers. Surely that aspect of school must have lightened up. Look at how so many important public figures speak now. The editors still feel they have to "bleep" the F-bombs. But are you sensing that this limitation is now fading? We can read the exact words more often now? 

Culture surely evolves. Is it possible that "casual Friday" has really taken over as our look every day of the week? A good place to judge contemporary fashion, or maybe I should say the lack of it, is at the entry to our big grocery store in Morris. It of course is "Willie's." Rather a monopoly, don't you think? 

People stream in and out. You can observe as you sit in the "cafe" area. One can readily conclude that comfort reigns when it comes to clothing choice. I think it is a blessing. Still, a part of us has to be nostalgic for the age when the two genders differed more in their appearance. How do you like the term "unisex?" I don't recall the term from when I was young. There are so many terms of today that would have been foreign to the boomers when young. 

"When young": maybe get more specific, Brian. How about the '70s and '80s? The '70s included my late teen years. Many girls wore "mini skirts." The boomers can remember when buying clothes seemed like a more expensive proposition. We had the main street clothing stores! Stores marketed to either men or women in many cases. 

Hats in 1920s

In Morris we had the Palmer's and Wayne's stores for men on main street. Boomers can remember the main street men's clothing stores from their hometowns. Go back further in time and you'd find that such stores sold a lot of "hats" for men. Look at old photos of crowds at baseball games and yes you'd see a sea of hats among the men. I wonder what made that so standard at one time, and then why did the habit fade away to obsolescence? 

Of course people smoked openly too. The changes do not happen suddenly. Therefore it might be hard to appreciate them. 

Significant changes happen all the time as with "debit cards" having become so routine now. How much longer will "cash" even last? Do you feel more nervous using cash these days? I don't want to use a $20 bill at Willie's unless my purchase comes to between $10 and $20. Anything smaller and I almost feel guilty having to be given so much change. That's irrational but I do have the thought. 

The entrance to Willie's gives us a snapshot of society out here in outstate Minnesota, year 2025. Comfort reigns with clothing choices. Get up in the morning, grab a sweatshirt and sweatpants maybe one size too big. One size too big spells comfort, highly desirable. But guys my age can remember when a sense of "fashion" suggested your clothes should be tight-fitting. That was irrational! To this day I resent having been pushed into that thinking. 

And why did it come about? If you went to school with loose-fitting clothes, you'd be considered an oddball and get teased. Popular TV shows showed us young men who (according to the popular meme) were heartthrobs, and they'd wear pants that looked like they were painted on. I'm fond of pointing out the show "Starsky and Hutch" as typical. 

I'm talking about '60s and '70s TV which was a real niche in our cultural history. And what I mean is: we all had a sense of shared culture. No Internet yet so we would simply listen to radio and turn on the TV to watch the well-known network shows. We knew on a particular night what a network would be offering. Whereas today everything has gotten "dispersed" to where it's basically unrecognizable in comparison to the previous age. 

I remember when kids at school buzzed about the previous night's "Night Gallery" episode. 

 

Rodney Crowell, tight jeans

Why tight fit?

I could have nightmares about the tight-fitting clothes I felt pressured to wear. We're talking good old-fashioned peer pressure. I developed inhibitions about even buying clothes. I felt self-conscious. I guess there's a mental disorder called "social anxiety disorder." 

I'll repeat that clothes seemed expensive compared to today, therefore you didn't want to make a mistake when buying clothing. And I hated "fitting rooms." I would still hate them but I wouldn't even consider them now. Clothing with time came across as being inexpensive. 

By contrast, I had to answer to my father who was the classic Depression-era product: consider it a grave matter to spend any money at all. Kids of the Depression people could get a real complex over this: just fretting about spending money. 

Our society plodded past that, to where you could go to places like Wal-Mart and fill your cart with neat stuff reasonably priced. And, no store clerks descending on you saying "can I help you?" I hated having a store clerk stare at me as I decided what kind of underwear to get. 

At Wal-Mart and similar places we were liberated. I'd make the proper judgment about what size to wear and then I'd often just buy it. I'd have to be close. And if the worst happened, you might have to discard it which wouldn't be catastrophic. But I wanted to avoid fitting rooms, and as far as trying to return something, I felt a little awkward and even guilty doing that. 

 

For the feet

Oh, shoes! The Wal-Marts of the world allowed you to browse and to slip on shoes in private for your patient and relaxed consideration. The only way to go! Not like the "shoe stores" of an earlier main street America! They'd tie a shoe for you and then wait to hear your judgment. I'd just want to get the hell out of there. 

And hey, I do not even remember "athletic shoes" from when I was in high school. We had "tennis shoes" which were, well, primitive by comparison and probably would not meet the "dress code" in school hallways. 

"Remember 'Pro Keds?' "

The dress code in school was a roadblock. No jeans? Really? Was that because of the "motorcycle movies" that had a suggestion of rebellion? Hey you jerks who ran the school: the purpose of pants or trousers was just to cover your legs. Quit being so political. 

But there were times when you'd feel "on the edge" of propriety if you spoke up against the Vietnam war. I kid you not. We were told to love America and conform, or at least John Wayne told us that. Remember we had the "shared culture" in those days. Voices that went against the grain were really marginalized. Shut down really. Many people worked to try to shut down MLK, partly because of his attitudes about the war. 

 

Prepare to blush

Tight-fitting pants or the "Starsky and Hutch" look could be hard on your genitals, I felt. A boy experiencing an involuntary erection had a harder time trying to conceal this embarrassment. And the tightness could even serve to bring on an erection. Who needs that? Who needs that in an inconvenient situation like when you're expected to go up to the front of the church for communion? 

You get to age 70 and you sort of forget about such hazards.

A note about looser-fitting shirts: they do not develop perspiration odor nearly as fast. So put on all your loose-fitting clothing, America of the year 2025. Pile into Willie's to buy your week's food at the inflated prices - always going up. 

I have joked before about how watching all the people enter and exit Willie's reminds of the famous Thoreau quote: "The majority of people lead lives of quiet desperation." 

Do not forget the 58,000 U.S. lives lost as direct fatalities of the Vietnam war. Lives snuffed out, for what? It was for the military industrial complex. Boomers led the way for standing up against that. So please don't just associate us with "casual Friday."

 

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com