<p>OT from the OP…but…follows some of the more recent posts…</p>
<p>I love the Gilda Radner quote that’s been popularized on a very cute greeting card:</p>
<p>“I base most of my fashion taste on what doesn’t itch.”</p>
<h1>220 is very funny.</h1>
<p>I think I probably win the award for the most embarrassing moment for offspring during a college tour. While walking to the cafeteria with a full tray of drinks, salad and other generally messy foodstuffs, I tripped over one of those velvet rope things sending me and my lunch all over the place. The previously noisy dining hall filled to the brim with students was eerily silent as I tried to gather my self-esteem. Much to S’s credit he did not run from the building, but actually stopped and helped me.
Although it was blistering hot that day, it didn’t really matter what I wore. However, I could have used a paper bag over my head…</p>
<p>Quote:
Everybody knows the expression “don’t judge a book by its cover” but few adhere to that in their lives.</p>
<p>It’s funny, there certainly seems to be a double standard – don’t judge me because I couldn’t be bothered to change out of lawn mowing clothes to visit a campus, but let’s indeed judge people who are wearing khakis, blazers, Peter pan collars, dress shoes, etc as being fussy, formal, prissy, superficial, uptight and not people we want to hang around for 4 years.</p>
<p>That t shirt doesn’t sound like a very smart idea. I wouldn’t wear anything Jewish-identifying while traveling overseas. Especially when I still had my very Jewish maiden name. Not smart at all.</p>
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Now that is a good kid.</p>
<p>Fortunately I got to play “good cop” on the embarrassment front on most tours because my wife is one of those people who always, always asks a question whenever someone says “any questions?”. They’re usually good questions, but she is never caught without one. And this drives our son to head-banging agony. So I get to be the hero just by keeping quiet (which, come to think of it, might be a skill I could bring to other life situations…).</p>
<p>
Perhaps, but I think you’ll find that most of us who feel the latter way would never initiate the “judging bees.” If you give us a hard time about our clothes, we’ll gladly tell you what we think of yours, but otherwise we’ll be nice. I don’t really care what anybody wears to do anything, as long as it’s not distractingly bizarre, hateful, or filthy. I just want to be comfortable and want everybody else to be the same. To the blazer crowd I would say, if you wear a blazer because you feel good in it, then why do you feel the need to make someone else feel bad about wearing something they feel good in? And if you don’t wear a blazer because you feel good in it, then why in the world are you wearing it?</p>
<p>this has been a pretty fun thread to read … a few random comments …</p>
<p>As a parent I would take the lead from my kid … and try to dress in the neighborhood of how they are dressing</p>
<p>I’ve been on a ton of tours and I only remember the specific dress of two people … the applicant wearing the bright orange Bucknell t-shirt on the Bucknell tour … and the Mom totally dressed up (dress, scarf, pearls, etc) on the Amherst tour (then again I may remember this women because I still remember her over the top questions 2 years later)</p>
<p>The only school I have an overall memory of was the Bucknell tour … in our group of about 10 families there were only 3 t-shirts … 3togo, 3togo’s son, and one other Dad … all the other males had polo shirts on. For a school with a reputation for preppiness I found this interesting. </p>
<p>At Lehigh the adcom was asked about dress for interviews … her response … dont’ worry about it as long as you don’t wear anything from Lafayette</p>
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<p>Thanks for the field report.</p>
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<p>That says one thing, i.e., America allows more individual freedom and every young people elsewhere wants to experience American (so I feel).</p>
<p>Whenever the subject of not dressing like a tourist comes up, I always wonder if ladies in India who are getting ready to tour the US get on the Old Navy or Gap web sites to order their “American” clothes. (I certainly hope not!)</p>
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Huh. Maybe stupid people have more fun. Or maybe we just think we do. lol </p>
<p>But really, it’s good for everybody. Stupid people get to have fun/take stupid risks, and people with sticks up their :eek: get to laugh at us and feel superior. It’s a win/win. </p>
<p>Lighten up, pg.</p>
<p>Went on a tour yesterday in 95 degree heat. The parents all blended in (shorts, polo shirts, sneakers). The busty, braless young lady in a strapless, see-through dress really stood out though. Glad she at least had a thong on. </p>
<p>Even more noticible than that was how tired and bored most of the kids seemed. This was a one day thing for us, some of these families had been on the road for a week and it showed. If colleges actually had some way to know who your kid was on a big tour I’d worry a lot more about seeming bored silly than what anyone was wearing.</p>
<p>3ToGo -</p>
<p>be careful about suggesting parents dress like their students. At a college tour in a very warm climate last month, one of the girls was wearing a very thin, almost translucent shirtdress through which her dark thong was clearly visible. I couldn’t pull off that look, nor could her mother have. The boys on the tour were not offended, though.</p>
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<p>Thunderous silence in the rush to answer?</p>
<p>When your kids were young did you think that their argument “well, everyone else is wearing it or doing it” was a winner argument?</p>
<p>I seem to recall that most parents would answer with “just because everyone else seems to be wearing it or doing it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t decide for yourself.”</p>
<p>"I just want to be comfortable and want everybody else to be the same…and if you don’t wear a blazer because you feel good in it, then why in the world are you wearing it? "</p>
<p>Right, because, like, why would anybody do anything for any reason except it feels good?</p>
<p>"most of us who feel the latter way would never initiate the “judging bees.” "
Well, actually, nightchef and 07dad, the anti-blazer crowd came out swinging first in post #14, deeming it inappropriate.
Prior to that parents were just offering suggestions!
And to those who can spot the American tourists, I say, so what. They ARE tourists for heaven’s sake. Not something I would ever be ashamed about and I lived as an expat for a few years.</p>
<p>Well, masochists do it for pain.</p>
<p>Woody-- do you have an answer for nightchef’s question?</p>
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<p>I think it’s so funny that we all try not to look like tourists as we’re all trouping through Notre Dame or the Tower of London in the middle of a week day. Who else is going to be there? Hmmm…I’m a French business woman, and I thought I’d just take a break from my work to stand in line for an hour to climb the Notre Dame tower…</p>
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There are certainly a great many reasons to do many things besides feeling good. However, when we are talking specifically about reasons to choose clothing, the list of alternatives narrows considerably, I think.</p>
<p>“Woody-- do you have an answer for nightchef’s question?”</p>
<p>Sure!
“To the blazer crowd I would say, if you wear a blazer because you feel good in it, then why do you feel the need to make someone else feel bad about wearing something they feel good in?”
Well, although H wears the blazers in the family, I have never had any need to make someone else feel bad about their clothing choices.
“And if you don’t wear a blazer because you feel good in it, then why in the world are you wearing it?”
I think nightchef meant to say that “if you don’t feel good (comfortable?)) about wearing a blazer, why do so?”
If that indeed was the question, I don’t think you should wear it! There are other outfits in my H’s closet that he may choose from but his lawn-mowing outfit would not be one of them for a college tour. Vive la difference!
nightchef is online now</p>