2010.02.22 Simon Being Cool
And here's a picture of Simon wearing bright banana-yellow corduroy overalls.
He seems to be pulling it off nicely. Perhaps a bit too nicely, honestly. But I can't help but wonder what the transitional age is where bright banana-yellow corduroy overalls shift from inspiring cooing noises to being a metaphysical sign of social ineptitude and bully bait. Because I can assure you that, even here in Portland with their "Keep Portland Weird" bumper stickers, were I myself to venture out with bright banana-yellow corduroy overalls the general reaction would be an unkind one with respect to my social standing. And I cringe to contemplate the hallway beatings and endless bus stop taunting that I would have never been able to live down had I the temerity to dress with bright banana-yellow corduroy overalls when I was in public school.
Maybe there's an understood age of social awareness about the drive for conformity and the array of unspoken messages relating to fashion, and those who are clearly under it are automatically absolved from its implications. Freeing us to simply experience the glorious eye-watering wonder of bright banana-yellow corduroy overalls. Which makes sense, considering that Simon has absolutely no say whatsoever in what he wears.
Unfortunately, I have no idea at what age that exemption lapses. As, painfully, neither did my mother - and I obliviously kept on wearing the idiotic slightly-too-short rugby pants she bought me well past the point of ever compensating for my peers' understanding of my social ineptitude.
The clear course is, I think, drastic overcompensation. Because enduring a few years of Simon deciding that he wants to dress up as stormtrooper (or whatever) seems better than forcing him to wear the dorky clothes I or his mother are likely to pick for him. It probably won't work, but at least we'll have some funny stormtrooper class photos stories.