He's a dedicated follower of fashion -Oh yes he is!!

[Eamonn]

He flits from shop to shop just like a butterfly.

In matters of the cloth he is as fickle as can be,

'Cause he's a dedicated follower of fashion.

He's a dedicated follower of fashion.

He's a dedicated follower of fashion.

Written by: R. D. Davies

OK, most of our Scouts and some of us are not as bad as the person described in the song.

I like clothes and at times will admit to being a label wearer. In outdoor clothes I like clothes that have Columbia or North Face on the label. I really don't know if they are any better than other outdoor clothes, I just expect them to be.I like jackets by Burberry jackets, but the price tags are out of sight (625 Pound Sterling!!)

Over the years I have been told that my hair has been too long, too short. My shoes were going to ruin my feet, break my ankle (Yes I wore the platform shoes) My pants have been too narrow, too wide, too long or too short.

One of the things about going to schools that had strict uniform polices was finding a way around the rules, worse still was trying to get my parents to pay for these rule bending items. How I loved my merchant navy blazer, with the brass buttons, my pants that were flared. We wore our ties in something we called Kipper ties - Not tucked through the knot. Looking back I'm not sure if looking cool was as important as beating the system.

Her That Must Be Obeyed, is not into clothes, hates shopping and tells everyone that Mall is a four letter word. Give her a sweat shirt and pants and she is fine.

OJ, is not as conscious of clothes as I was at his age. He seems to be picky about his shoes, I'm not sure what that is all about. So far he has never gone above $40.00 for the shoes he wears to school. Right now he isn't sure if he likes Country and Western Music or Rap -Hip-Hop. He knows that I don't have much time for either. I do try and have looked for and bought a couple of Rap CD's that aren't that bad. A little while back I found a lot of really nasty stuff on his computer, which I deleted. I really don't want that stuff in our home.

The TV was on the other night, one of the late shows was on some well known Rap group that I had never heard of sang a song. The lead singer was dressed in clothes that all were about half a dozen sizes too big. He had a baseball cap over some red thing which I'm guessing was a hankie? and the cap peak was over his left ear. Either Leno or Letterman spoke with this guy after the song and said that he had heard that this band had a beef with some other band the whole thing was much akin to professional wrestling.

Still looking at some of the stuff Mick Jagger wore on stage are these guys that different?

I can live with most of the stuff that OJ wants and does. His Mother had a fit when he came home with the top of his head dyed yellow!! I have said no to tattoos and piercing. Even little ear rings.These things are a little to permanent for me and the idea of eating dinner with a Lad with a bone through his nose would put me off my Shepperd's pie.

We are in the kid business and kids will follow the fads and trends of the day. We need to remember the things that we did and get past the things that we don't like. In an other posting someone said that it's not the uniform it's the Lad inside the uniform, I say the same thing about the baggy pants and the cap worn the wrong way.

Eamonn.

 

[SemperParatus]

So, if I am tracking with you on this...If in the future O.J. decides to (i) wear his scout pants pulled down so that half of his undies are showing, (ii) wears his scout cap pulled down over his eyes with that sideways tilt, (iii) adds some cool black shades, a couple of pounds of gold chains, a ring on each finger, and a very cool slouch to the look...you would say 'atta boy' and suggest he is more than presentable for his Eagle BOR.

[OldGreyEagle]

So, a few years back one of the ASMs was harrassing an older scout over his style of dress. The scout had the top of his hair colored yellow (on brown hai) hugely oversized hockey jersey with extremely wide pants with the crotch about knee level. The scout had stoped by the meeting while on his way to a graduation party.

 

So the ASM ran him up one side and down the other about how he looked, finally he looked at me and said what do you think? So I looked at the scout and said why do you dress like this? He replied, "the ladies like this style", I said so you dress like this to get girls? He said yes. Then I looked at the ASM said, hey, I'm with the kid (the scout beamed). Just as the ASM was mouthing a WHY? I said, hey, when I was his age, I wore a full length navy blue suede coat (still have it), elephant bells (the kind that entered the room a full 20 seconds before you did) and had shoes that featured live goldfish in the heels and I am gonna tell him he looks riduculous? The kid and I got along a lot better after that

 

I think it was that great modern thinker Socrates who said:

 

Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for their elders and love chatter in place of exercise; they no longer rise when elders enter the room; they contradict their parents, chatter before company; gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers.

 

Its the way of the world, new rejects old and makes its own way. You should see me trying to explain that Ziggy Stardust and that grand old man of Rock David Bowie are the same person and that Alice Cooper was a star before he shilled for Staples and there was a time when the Rolling Stones were dirty YOUNG men.

[SR540Beaver]

Ahhhh, platform shoes and big bell pants and oversized velvet bowties.....those were the days! I have pictures of myself buried somewhere deep in the forest that my son will never see. You can't control what another person's kid wears. You have to deal with them the way they are. That being said, take a few pictures to share with them 20 years down the road and see if they don't agree how silly they looked. Then give the pictures to them so they can go bury them in the forest.

[Eamonn]

As luck would have it we have passed through the baggy pants thing. I'm really happy as I got fed up with Her That Must Be Obeyed telling him to pull up his pants.

He is still into "Neck-wear", some look like small shells but he has one that looks like it should be used a plant hanger!! Kinda like a Wood Badge with attitude!!

I would hope that he sees that there is a time and a place for when to wear what. But there again when it comes to him making good and ethical decisions, isn't it better that he works this stuff out for himself, rather than me forcing a lot of rules and regulations on him? Isn't that making good choices what we are in business for.

OGE, I was at the Hammersmith Odeon on July 3rd 1973 for the Retirement Gig, Jeff Beck came on and played Jean Genie.

We send Ziggy off in grand style!!

Eamonn.

[Hunt]

If you don't like the styles your kids wear, start wearing them yourself. They'll quickly change to something else. Similarly, you can PRETEND to hate something fairly innocuous--that may be enough to prevent them from going on to something worse.

I often have an internal dialogue with myself that goes like this: Me: "How can that teen's mother allow her to show up in church like that?" Myself: "At least she's in church, unlike most of her contemporaries." If a boy is a good Scout, I'm not too concerned about how he dresses outside of Scouting (within reason, of course).

[acco40]

He's a well respected man about town doing the best things so conservatively. (Except when he goes clothes shopping!)