It's that time of year again! The time of year when kids' faces get longer and longer, their shoulders more stooped...
It's Back to School time!
I was always pretty excited for the start of the new school year. For one, it meant that I would get a First Day of School ensemble, and yes, this tradition lasted all the way through High School. For second, it meant I would finally be able to settle my adoring eyes on whomever I had been completely in love with at the end of the previous school year and subsequently obsessed about all summer. Thirdly - and this was the BEST PART - it meant a trip to CVS for some motherfucking school supplies! HELL YEAH!
One of the more subtle quirks of my personality is my complete and unholy lust for school/office supplies. Markers, pens, pencils, erasers, stationery, binders, folders, file holders, post-its, notepads, mechanical pencils...need I go on?
A perfect example would be when I lived in the Netherlands. I discovered this fantastic pen. I used it the whole time I was there, even though they were 2 guilders a piece and I was constantly losing them. That was 1997. I did countless online searches in the ensuing years and never found them. When I went back to the Netherlands in 2002, on the day I visited the town I once spent a glorious 4 months in, I totally went to the "Alles onder Één Dak" store and spent about 20 euros' worth of the very same pens! FIVE YEARS LATER. I still have some.
I have always had quite the collection of these materials. My whole life. I cannot remember a time when I didn't lust after the latest and greatest school supplies. It was one of the few bonds my step-father and I shared. He also had an all-consuming love for office implements. Before school started, he would take me to CVS (this was before Staples, the arrival of which changed my life forever) on his payday and I would just go crazy.
Of course, he had to keep me in check. How many second-graders do you know that require multi-colored paper-clips? One year, during a particularly lean time in our family history, commonly referred to as "The Pancake Days," to those of you who have Dee's Complete Family Chronicles, I had to wait until almost the day before school started to get my supplies. Sadly, by that point, the Trapper Keeper selection was quite lean.
Gone were the kitty cats and puppies...gone were the hot pink and electric blue girl-themed montages. Even the solid-colored Keepers were gone! I was left with boy-themed Keepers and a waterfall from which to choose. I chose the waterfall. I still remember this thing. It was gray and had a large picture of a waterfall. Everyone else had super-cool Keeper themes...I rocked the waterfall...
Sometimes I am tempted to walk into a store and buy some of these things again, just for their nostalgic value (oh, who am I kidding? I still use glitter pens!). Perhaps the real reason I can't seem to raise myself above assistant status is because I get to be in charge of ordering the office supplies! That MUST be it! Lack of ambition be damned!
For those of you who wondered, yes, I might be able to recall almost every First Day of School enemble generously supplied by my oh-so-stylish, crazy Italian mother.
K - Maroon cordouroy knickers, Mary Janes, and a striped shirt with a high, ruffled collar and puffy sleeves. (Mrs. Carrera)
1st -(possibly the best one) HOT PINK parachute pants! A white shirt of the same material, with hot pink and silver suspenders and a skinny, silver tie! Billy Farrell snapped my suspenders and I cried, but only because I wanted the attention. He then had to endure me being in love with him on and off all the way through 6th grade. (Mrs. Leo)
2nd - A royal purple cordouroy (musta been popular!) jumper with puffy sleeves. (Mrs. Woods)
3rd - Hmm...I know it was uncomfortable. I remember being hot in it. Not sure what it was, though. OH WAIT! Ok, so the top was half parachute-y, half regular material, and the pants were blue with white pinstripes! (Mrs. Mazzeo)
4th - I can't remember...I want to say it was pink and had cats on it. I do know that I was wearing a training bra! Woo-hoo! (Mrs. Harper)
5th - Once again, drawing a blank. I had a perm, though. And I was a Safety, so the belt was really the only accessory with which I was concerned. (Mr. Carnuccio)
6th - Drawing another blank, dammit! Whatever it was, it had shoulder pads, I'm SURE. (Mr. Crabtree)
7th - I remember this because I wore it to a New Kids on the Block concert that summer. It was a mustard yellow "suit" comprised of Hammer-style pants, a HUGE Rocky-type black and silver belt, and a sleeveless, black mock turtleneck under a bolero jacket of the same horrible mustard color. And there was a black hat to go with. Awesome!
8th - Skidz. 'Nuff said.
9th - Brenda Walsh, all the way. Baggy jeans, busy blouse, hat with flowers on it.
10th - Southwestern-themed: Jeans, ankle-high cowboy-style shoes that tore off the skin on the back of both my heels, a southwestern-patterned VEST over a white shirt with a HUGE collar and...you guessed it! Puffy sleeves!
11th - Something girlie and flowy from express. It was quite pretty. I felt ethereal. PUUAUAHAHAAAHHAAAAAHAHHA!!!
12th - Jeans and an off-white, light sweater.
Sometimes I'm such a GIRL!
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10th - Southwestern-themed: Jeans, ankle-high cowboy-style shoes that tore off the skin on the back of both my heels, a southwestern-patterned VEST over a white shirt with a HUGE collar and...you guessed it! Puffy sleeves!
PICTURE PLEASE!
Personally, I don't remember that much. One year I was very proud of my new New Balance high tops. I also remember a shirt by this company called ID# that was a cast off of my brothers that I thought was cool.
So, since you were into getting your first day looks together were you sizing up your classmate's fashion choices?
I thought the cool thing to do with Trapper Keepers was slip out the picture of a cat or a hot air balloon and replace it with your own picture. The more artistically-inclined replaced their stock photo with carefully rendered Dökken and Iron Maiden logos on looseleaf.
Actually, I'm kidding. We used to pound the snot out of kids with Trapper Keepers.
Your ability to remember every outfit you wore on your first days of school is at once intriguing and terrifying. I don't think I could remember what I was wearing yesterday, much less twenty-four years ago. The only things I remember clearly are the sneakers, and the sneaker shopping trips that were necessary to procure them. Here's a list of my top five, in ascending order of freshness:
5) White on black Adidas Superstars (shelltoes), 1990
This was the year that Beastie Boys' Check Your Head dropped and old school sneakers would soon become hot items (again)--and I had pre-empted the trend with a pair of deadstock shells with the flat leather tongue. Younger kids more used to the Jordan III's didn't know what they were seeing. This was before the re-issue trend, buckos.
4) Blue on white Nike Solo Flight, 1992
I killed 'em with these three years after their release when I inherited them from my metalhead brother. Fools made fun of the script "Solo" on the tongue but I know they were secretly jealous of my hi-tops (sneakers and fade).
3) All-navy Adidas Rod Lavers (aka the Rod Navers), 1991
You could find a pair of Rod Navers any day of the week today, but fourteen years ago these were pretty rare. Dopes thought they were "blanks" until I lifted up my oversized pant leg and exposed the logo on the heel...bite it, suckers.
2) Blue on white Adidas Forums, 1988
"The year is '88, the sound New York." The playground was never the same after this. The first Jordans had debuted but people were still caught up on the Forums, and any colorway besides black and white was really rare. I almost got robbed for these on the first day, but I still wore them religiously for two more years.
1) Saucony Jazz, 1991 (only came in one colorway)
Besides being the most comfortable and well-made sneakers I ever had, these were especially sweet because kids tried to son me on the first day of school by rocking the recently-reissued white Adidas Superstars, like this would somehow steal the thunder from my white on black Superstars mentioned in #5 of this list. No way, holmes, I'm already on some next shit. The icing on this sickly-sweet concoction of sneaker superiority was that every clown and their grade school sister were wearing the white Superstars that year. Follow the leader.
Impressive Danielle.....I can't remember what I wore yesterday! Funny- I remember some of those outfits after reading this...ha
Reggie. Seriously. For fuck's sake...
BLOG!
Hmmmm...the only thing I remember wearing the first day of school was in 12th grade.
Black Skin Tight jeans...so tight I had to lay down and use a pair of pliers to get the zipper up...black wife beater (tucker in), a "Relax" sweatshirt cut into a half-shirt with the arms removed, a purple bandana tied around my waist like a belt, black Nike (Only Nike!) Wrestling Sneakers, and my Mr. T "Sterling Silver" starter set (bracelettes, earrings, necklaces). Yeah, I was your Mom's favorite nightmare.
"I chose the waterfall." LOL I actually remember that fucking thing. Try not to rub the fact that you had mom shopping for your first day of school outfit. It just makes me more jealous of you. I unfortunately had to look like I got all of my clothes from KMART. Which come to think of it, I did. Remember when it was so bad that mom actually took me out to by a different outfit then the one DAD bought.
You rocked stylish. I rocked OLYMPIA sneakers from payless. HUHHHHHH!!!!!
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