School colors line the streets of D.C. every weekend.
Not all schools, of course. Just the Good Ones.
First, we have the high school tee. In a small town, if you see a grown man, one not old enough to be a grandparent, wearing one of these it usually means, "Yeah, I'm 30 and I have a kid in high school." Or, "My best days are behind me and now I live in my mom's basement." Sometimes both.
In D.C. they're all from boarding schools. Wearing the tee means, "Yeah, I didn't get into an Ivy."
Then we have the minor eastern seaboard colleges. (Do they ever graduate anything that's not blond, btw?) I won't name names. Both because it's rude and because I still don't completely understand the hierarchy involved. Is Holyhoke better than that one down in North Carolina? Whatevs. They seem to know.
Finally, we have the top schools. Of these, only Harvard grads (and parents and cousins and grandmas of Harvard grads) will wear the tee in public (Sometimes even, it seems, as part of a business casual ensemble. Which even a hick from nowheresville like me can tell is PRETTY TACKY). Maybe you'll see an occasional Columbia or Stanford. Never a Yale. This is because the classy way to advertise your school pride is to wear the colors. Which are always gaudy and not something a normal person would combine. That way only everyone who has ever heard of Princeton will know why you're wearing tiger striped socks.
What you don't often see are the Big Ten school sweatshirts that blanket the ever-increasing middles in the middle of the country. Everyone has at least a few school tees where I'm from - most of the people wearing them didn't even go there. It's how you advertise which sports you're in to (basketball is Indiana, football is Ohio or Michigan, Wisconsin just says saddddd...) Or where you grew up. But no one wears them here.
This was weird to me when I first moved to D.C. It became less weird as more people reacted to my school with, "Oh. Uh huh. So where is that again?" (In the STATE with the SAME NAME, maybe?)
8.23.2008
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I wear my Arizona State hoodie sometimes. "Oh, you went to Georgetown? Well, *I* graduated from Playboy's #1 Party School of 2002!"
ReplyDeletePlease tell me that's printed on the back.
ReplyDeleteClarification. No one who *lives* in DC wears those sweatshirts here. Spend any time on the Mall or near the zoo (or the affiliated Metro stops) between Easter and Labor Day, and you'll see a fair amount of that sort of shirt. Of course, you may not notice the shirt if you are distracted by the fanny packs.
ReplyDeleteA few weeks ago during lunch I was walking behind a shaggy-haired pink-shirted fellow who was sporting a St. Albans belt. He was clearly in his 20's and still rocking a belt from his boarding school days. Just in case you didn't already know he went there I guess.
ReplyDeleteMy high school didn't even sell notebooks, let alone belts with it's name all over it.
Patrick, maybe they should have sold notebooks and donated the funds to the English department.
ReplyDeleteEnglish department?! You had an English department?
ReplyDeleteHe's still wearing the BELT?
ReplyDeleteOooh, ladies watch out.
I saw a tee with "Ball U" on it today, and spent waaaaay too long trying to figure out if that was a real place, or a joke. (The guy wearing it was about 40, and wearing fairly expensive sunglasses - so no clues there).
ReplyDeleteYOu mean Ball State? Dave Letterman's alma mater?
ReplyDeleteYes! If I had WIHDC tees, you would totally get a free one for that catch!
ReplyDeleteWisconsin saddd??? Obviously never been to Madison... right up there on Playboy's list as well.
ReplyDeleteApparently you also don't know anything about sports. Wisconsin has done well in football and basketball for quite some time now. You may have also heard of a game called hockey. Wisconsin does that well too.
ReplyDeleteWho is the east coast douchebag here? You tell me.