Painters Pants

My niece just posted this Facebook status: "Anyone who remembers the 70s wasn't really there."  I think she is paraphrasing the 60s statement, specifically about the Summer of Love.  Just an inch above her status was this:

30 years?  Ooof.  My corns.

In honor of these twin statuses, the DrawingIn Room  presents "Painters Paints":

#26  in an occasional series of repressed 70's memories that turn out to be true.

 May I say, Anyone who owns a pair of  painters pants from the 1970s can not actually fit into them.  Unless they are this guy.

There were rules for painters pants in my school, as I am sure there were in yours.  Remember that scene in Heathers when the Heathers school Veronica on what days to wear pink... wait, is that Mean Girls?  Anyway, you get me.  If you are going to wear a dress, better call around first.

1.  Fridays only.
This was not a dress code thing.  It was our way of making sure we all wore them on the same day.  You didn't have to wear them on Friday, but only on Friday could they be worn.

2. Scoop-neck T with piping is best.

pocket accessory.

Fro pick was also acceptable, but I never recall seeing a Black kid in painters pants.

4.  I also enjoyed a belt loop accessory -- in the photo at right, you will see it was a Bobby whistle.  I was always more "off the amrk" than "ahead of the curve."

5.  Colors other than white were not tolerated, and your white had to be Clorox II ultra-white.  Screw the environment.

6.  Handmade painters pants... uh-no.

Shortly after painters pants came painters caps, which did not last very long.  They can still be had, of course, but the "gotta-have by the end of the summer" fervor is no longer with us. 

Incidentally, if any of you is working on Repressed Memories of the 1990s, I recommend a piece on the cap with metal-plate, Rhythm Nation style.  Because you know you had one.  Don't make me get the photo album.