Uniforms from the Past Made Me Cry

I’m in the middle of writing up an opinion about the current state of uniforms, and at one point, I got completely caught up in talking about the uniforms from the 80s.  Imagine that.  Anyway, I decided to post this flashback in its own separate post.

I’m just going to start off by saying uniforms in the 80s were not designed for those with sensory processing disorder.  Of course, nobody had even HEARD of sensory processing disorder, so I’m not blaming anyone.  If you were wearing something that made you jump out of your skin, you just learned to deal with it.

Like Girl Scout uniforms….

I think back to the times when the blood supply to my feet were cut off from those elastic orange things that stretched around your calf at the top of the Brownie knee socks.  The markings on my legs seemed to last for days.  Were mine just too tight?  My mother said no, that’s the way they were designed.  For whom?  A bird?

I didn’t have a problem with the snazzy Junior uniform except the polyester blend of the blouse did make me uncomfortable.  What was the deal with the whole polyester blend thing in the 80s?  A hangover from the 70s?  Was cotton too expensive at that time?  I loved the Junior beret, although I think I might have lost it a couple of times which I’m sure drove my mother batty. Oui oui mère, je ne laisse mon béret à la maison Mme Vickers. Je suis désolé.*

And then there were the Cadette uniforms featuring the polyester green and yellow plaid blouses and green skirts.  Good golly Miss Molly.  Not only was it heinous looking, but it was the most uncomfortable feeling fabric next to my skin.  It was probably made out of the same material as the Junior blouse, but the fact that it was green & yellow plaid made it that much worse.  Don’t forget the scarf (not pictured) that I could never tie right.  With my short permed hair, awkward gait, polyester plaid uniform, braces and glasses, the badly tied scarf was just the cherry on top.  I was so happy to bridge to Seniors because the blouse may have still been itchy, but the new 1986 blue stripes were so much better than that green plaid.  I still couldn’t tie that scarf though.  Many times I asked someone else to tie it for me, but then I felt like I was being choked.  Or maybe the person tying it was really trying to choke me.

Just think – I could have gone from green & yellow plaid:

To this:

But I was saved by the white blouse with blue stripes (or GS trefoils?  I forget).

SO CURRENT CADETTES AND SENIORS AND AMBASSADORS!  Thank your lucky stars for white and khaki!  I would have given the two bottom halves of my legs that were cut off by those orange elastic Brownie thingies to wear white and khaki!  You don’t know how lucky you have it!!

Did I mention how itchy the tags were as well?  And you couldn’t tear or cut them out, because then the plastic-y remainder of the tag would drive me even more nuts.  You had to cut it all the way to the bottom of the tag, and then you ran the risk of cutting the hem which would create a hole.  I threw a party the first time I saw tagless clothes.

Now that I’ve completely thrown the 80s uniforms under the bus – next up!  My opinion on the current state of wearing uniforms!

* I don’t speak French nor have I ever taken French, so I used Google’s translator here.  It’s Google’s fault if I totally butchered that phrase.