I have decided to add a new category to my blog site. It will be called Did you know.
Truett's daughter, Tina, and her son, Will, have been visiting us since Friday; so much of our conversations have been remembering the way things were.
Tina is a teacher in Chicago, so many of our stories revolve around educational issues and anecdotes about life in the classroom.
This is one story I like to tell:
Did you know I was responsible for changing the dress attire in Jefferson County, Indiana?
In the late '60's all teachers wore dresses; but to the dismay of the administration, the '60's brought about the evolution of the mini skirt. Women educators had old fogey dresses to choose from, or if they chose to be "in style", they bought mini skirts conceived by Mary Quant in 1966.
Well, in 1970 I was young and paper thin, so I was a prime candidate for the mini skirt. I had a whole closet full of these tiny little skirts. Little did I know the quandry I put my principal and other staff members in, especially the more seasoned educators.
I would wear my mini skirts because that was my only wardrobe. . .except for the latest fashion statement of 1970: pantsuits, which hung longingly in my closet until the weekends.
You see, pantsuits were a no/no in Jefferson County, Indiana in the early '70's, as well as all across America. After all, how could a pantsuit possibly represent a respected member of society. . .an educator. (I go lightly on the word "respected", because I'm not certain educators have ever been respected.)
Nonetheless, I wore mini skirts to work every day. Then sometime about October 0f 1970, I found a newspaper article in my school mailbox telling about a teacher who had been fired for not dressing appropriately, ie., she wore a mini skirt that was too short.
For weeks I found new newspaper articles indicating teachers from California to New Jersey, Tennessee to Texas...all across our great nation, teachers were being fired for this terrible obscene display of legs.
I was young and never, not once, not one mili-second did I think I was being singled out. But I was.
During breaks a few of my friends and I would discuss the dilemma we were in as buyers of fashionable clothing; and we also knew we couldn't wear pantsuits, which we preferred.
At faculty meetings every Wednesday, the mini skirt/pantsuit issue was discussed; and some of us pleaded with our male principal to allow us to wear pantsuits. After all, pantsuits would not put us in jeopardy of being fired. But time and again, we were told, "It's against school board policy.
Well, one afternoon I was called into the principal's office. I thought this meeting was about a student who had been disruptive in my classroom. But, generally, this was the message from my principal:
"I have had many complaints about the shortness of your mini skirts, plus, you work on the second floor of our old school, (George Rogers Clark Elementary School,) and I don't know what to do about that. All the little boys stand at the bottom of the stairs just so they can look up your dress."
"What?" I answered in shock. (I had seen no boys lingering at the bottom of the stairs).
My principal went on further: "So I give you permission to wear pantsuits."
I think I leapt out of the chair and thought about hugging his neck because that was the perfect answer to our dilemma. I wanted to wear pantsuits. We all did.
So the next morning I wore my nice red pantsuit to work . . .and the school was abuzz. "Did you know...Did you see...Did you hear about..."
But the story doesn't end there. No siree, Bob.
The second day NO skirts were seen worn by teachers on that school campus. EVERY female including office staff, paraprofessionals, and teachers proudly donned the most fashionable women's wear: THE PANTSUIT! Well, maybe not the seasoned teachers who still wore old fogey dresses.
And that's the story to the best of my knowledge. Nothing is fabricated except maybe the exact words spoken by the principal.