SCHOOL BELLS

Television is bursting with "Back to School Ads" about pack packs and online deals.  The "influencers" that the kids find on their favorites social media sites are advising on what everyone who wants to be cool (do they say that adjective still?)  should be wearing in their hallowed halls of learning. After sitting home for a year doing online lessons this is probably the first time many are running to school rather than walking and wishing for a few more summer days...and as always, at this time of here I hear a jingle.   "School Bells Ringing"  a song that has stayed in my gray cells for 60 years - it was a major "influencer" in my day.

It was the anthem of the turning of the season  when the days start to shorten and  change was in the air.  Less humidity and a search for a light blanket.  I always think of school with a tinge of sadness that those wonderful days which we tried to make last ended much much too soon...

 

And then I’m back in 1956. Labor day was just two weeks away and I would be back. Back to friends. Back to fun. And to be honest I missed school. I loved school. One night at supper Mom announced it was time for our annual “school clothes day” on High Street and we would have this adventure this coming Saturday. That night instead of some TV time I got out the latest Sears & Roebucks catalog and perused the clothing section for some ideas on what were the cool styles this fall (I ventured to these pages only once a year for research. However, the toy and sporting goods sections had many dog eared pages .) This year to really be “in fashion” pants had to have a small belt in the back (that belted nothing) and shirt collar that buttoned down. Traditionally mom and my first stop was Freeman’s Shoes.  According to my mother, school shoes had to be “sensible” which meant to her no Flag Flyers that didn’t lace up.  Instead they had a patented closing that pinch your foot hard if you weren’t careful.

Traditionally mom and my first stop was Freeman’s Shoes. According to my mother, school shoes had to be “sensible” which meant to her no Flag Flyers that didn’t lace up. Instead they had a patented closing that pinch your foot hard if you weren’t careful. Loafers were out too - “Not enough support!”, she reminded me each year a well known fact that I had flat feet.” Support meant creepy looking tie up oxfords. She also would reiterate, “You can get brown. It goes with everything’. After Mother laid down the ground rules for me and Fred, the great shoe salesman, he showed me some Buster Brown’s that looked like were official Girl Scout footwear. But there was no arguing. I lied and said I “liked” the least cloddy looking pair and Fred escorted me to a large box-like machine at the back of the store. I would learn years later it was a rudimentary fluoroscope and its eerie green light radiated every kid in town once or twice a year. Mom peered into it. Fred did too and then I got a look at the bones in my toes that weren’t crunched by the shoe. My clodhoppers fit and the deal was done, plus I got another free shoehorn to add to my collection.

Next we headed to  Jules Men and Boys.  And proprietor Jules immediately went into his much practiced,  high gear sales pitch.  “Margaret, I’ve got the newest clothes for Calvin, let me show you.”  I wasn’t a pertinent part of this discussion.   He laid out a bunch of shirts on the counter and uttered the magic word for those wanting to be well dressed – “Madras''. 

He made a shirt sound as mysterious as its namesake in far off India. To me the shirts just looked like plaid. He continued, “They are guaranteed to run.” (Like the jeans of today with holes and a worn out look, madas clothing advertised that its plaid colors wouldn’t last. Every generation has its fads - and marketing clothing each year seems more bizarre than the prior year.

My mother uttered a small a-huh like she knew what he was talking about.  I think Jules realized we both weren’t too impressed so he cranked up his pitch, “They are the hottest garment coming out from New York!”  “Hummmm”, my mother replied  (She had been warned about fabrics that “ran” in the washer her whole life.)  “Guaranteed!, '' Jules repeated.  “What do you think,” mother asked me?  According to my recent research Madras was really in this season.  I replied, “I really like them.”  And she bought me 3, blue, red and green bold plaids.  (I wore these shirts for years, long after their uniqueness faded with their color.)

Next we needed a new pair of chinos.  (Jeans were never worn to school in my day)  Jules escorted us to the “chubby” rack.  I got shoes that I hated and shirts that bled –  this was the unkindest cut of all.  (I would be in that size section until high school when, as grandmother Ethel noted, my “baby-fat” melted away one day.)  Mom bought me two pairs of pants.  (An odd term that always made me laugh -  pants and underwear were  obviously only one each.  Perhaps the term was used because most of us had two legs)  

My school clothes shopping day was done after a trip to W.T. Grant’s for some new Fruit of the Loom underwear and socks that had to match my shirt colors.  My mother had to be certain that if I were ever in a serious accident I would be wearing clean and non-holey underwear.  I was new under my clothes my whole growing up life.  That night while we watched Lawrence Welk’s Champagne Music Makers, I tried everything on and modeled during the commercials.  I received great reviews and assurances that I would be one of the best  dressed again on my first day this year.  

I couldn’t wait to see the shirt with the small useless buttons on the collar come out of the washing machine.