Unusual keep sakes

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Carolla said:
This morning I was ironing my old 'work shirt' - it's plaid, viyella fabric - I'm sure it will never wear out. I wear it for house painting, dirty work, gardening etc. I was thinking about when I purchased it probably the late 1960s. I was in high school - grade 10 or 11 & I asked a guy to the Sadie Hawkins Dance at school. It was a costume event - we wore 'western gear' - and I had to go find a plaid shirt. It was HARD to find one then, and I paid a lot for it at a fairly upscale men's store in Kitchener. So ... I still have the shirt ... still comfy and holds lots of good memories too. So I guess it qualifies as a 'keepsake'.
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Where to start......Where did you buy that treasure of a Sadie Hawkins plaid shirt? Swank. I know may brothers had theirs go missing for dance night.
 
I wonder if high schools still do the Sadie Hawkins dances. I know where my kids went to school they didn’t
 
Lastpointe said:
I wonder if high schools still do the Sadie Hawkins dances. I know where my kids went to school they didn’t
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I don't recall ever hearing about them from Little M (graduated in 2017) but he also rarely went to events like that. The only dance I recall him attending was the prom and that's only because the rest of his "squad" were going.
 
medium.com

Who Was Sadie Hawkins and Why Does She Have a Dance Named After Her?

Sadie was the product of the fertile imagination of cartoonist Al Capp.
medium.com medium.com
I remember the dances, even though they were just gone, at least where I lived. I had an older friend...2 yrs I think, and she went. Had the plaid flannel shirt. I envied her.
Most of those kids probably didn't have a clue the dance originated from a character in a horribly blatantly sexist, racist....everythingist...comic strip.
Asking the boys to dance!
 
The Sadie at my high school usually had a theme. One year was Sadie Goes Famous Couples. So instead of dressing like Al Capp characters, you and your date dressed up as some famous couple.

And before anyone asks, I never got asked so never went.

But I'm not bitter. Mostly.
 
We just had general dances, nobody asked anybody to be their date. Dates were considered cheesy. Nobody dared call a date a date. That seemed like something from American sitcoms. People "hung out". Nobody took anybody out or went on official dates... They were just "going out together" seperately in couples. Even if they "hung out" - but no special "dates". Everyone went in their cliques to dances and tried to play it cool. And there was no Sadie Hawkins. That concept was already outdated. Still, girls were more shy to ask guys to dance - the stereotype of guys asking girls was still hanging on - but they did.
 
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I had a classmate from Texas in grade 11 and 12. She was really disappointed there was no American style prom with people asking out dates and a King and Queen. We were less traditional already. We had a grad dance. People wore their best, suits, tuxes, fancy dresses. People rented a few limos for the last grad party after the diploma ceremony. But none of the rest of the rigamarole.
 
Kimmio Laughterlove said:
I had a classmate from Texas in grade 11 and 12. She was really disappointed there was no American style prom with people asking out dates and a King and Queen. We were less traditional already. We had a grad dance. People wore their best, suits, tuxes, fancy dresses. People rented a few limos for the last grad party after the diploma ceremony. But none of the rest of the rigamarole.
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Little M's prom was an off-school property affair that was run purely by the students. The school itself kept at arms length, or so it seemed to me. They had it the Friday of Victoria Day weekend and then everyone took off for weekend-long after parties. Grand Bend, a resort area on Lake Huron just North of me (I can drive there in under an hour if weather is good) is the hot spot but Little M's crew went to a trailer one of the family's had in Fanshawe Conservation Area on the east side of London. And it was probably a good thing. My boss' son was at the Bend with a group from his school and apparently the crowd from Little M's high school were one of the worst and had a visit from the cops.
 
We had the city's first dry grad. Basically, if we voted for that (and I think there was funding from M.A.D.D. And some publicity around dry grads) it would be paid for at a cool place. If not, we could figure it out ourselves and (maybe) use the gym. So we had a dry grad at the water slides after the ceremony. Except people I know brought in electric jello in their bras/ bathing suits anyway. I didn't get in on that. They searched bags for booze but the bra padding got through. I had a beer with friends before heading out there on buses, from the school, I think. Didn't get drunk. Water slides were fun. There were parents and teachers out there but nobody got caught with the electric jello. It was all lit up at night - there was music playing through speakers in the water park - but I don't think they had many cameras around in those days. It could've been dangerous.

There was a little dance room. Lots of food. It was all night - kind of a long night actually. I got bored.
 
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Here, the grads were all dry, schools didn't want to have to deal with the huge potential for underage drinking, seems like it would be way to easy for someone else to pass a drink to a friend with the dinner. Nothing was served after the dinner aspect was over, it was just a dance I think there were water pitchers around.
Aftergrads we had wrist bands for those over 18, not school endorsed.
I'm not a camper, didn't participate in the camping parties. Some of those were safe parties ie. parents drove people out/buses rented to avoid the drinking and driving aspect.
 
KayTheCurler said:
The schools I attended in England didn't run dances of any type. There was no grad ceremony either - we just got our final report and left for the adult world.
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Looking back, I might have preferred that. The competition to have the right dress, whose parents were shelling out for a limo, whose weren't and had to get driven in a regular car and take the school bus to the party (me and a few others - my mom thought it was all silly). The person I am right now would say "Forget that. Just give me my freedom papers and let me out of here." And the anxiety of walking across the stage while my home room teacher said a few nice things - was overwhelming - not exciting in a good way, for me. And having my mom stare daggers and make digs at my step mom, resenting the whole thing. Could've skipped all that.
 
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I don't even think I have the "fake" certificate that was in a fake leather folder. The transcripts and real certificate were mailed to us. I did keep the honorary one through several moves. It might be somewhere in a box.
 
As an aside, I've often wondered how and when the "prom" entered Canadian culture. It was certainly an American event when I was young. What we had was much lower key and simply known as "Graduation". Dress and hair for the occasion, most likely home made.
For High School Graduation,which was more momentous, maybe a corsage from your "date" (like Kimmio, I'm sure that happened, but not within the circles I moved), or from your parents if you were going with your pal.
 
ninjafaery said:
As an aside, I've often wondered how and when the "prom" entered Canadian culture. It was certainly an American event when I was young. What we had was much lower key and simply known as "Graduation". Dress and hair for the occasion, most likely home made.
For High School Graduation,which was more momentous, maybe a corsage from your "date" (like Kimmio, I'm sure that happened, but not within the circles I moved), or from your parents if you were going with your pal.
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AFAIK it's still grad and not prom here.
 
The idea that one could wear a shirt bought in one's teens is a bit funny to me, although my brother-in-law once lived with us (when hubby and I were in our 20s in our first place)and left behind a very nice, soft flannel shirt that was my default"comfy shirt) for the next 30 years of so; there's still pieces of it in the rag bag. When I was a teenager, I wore a size 2 or 4, and never weighed more than 100 lb. I am a normal, late-middle-aged size 12 today...

One of my very first "work outfits" when I started as secretary at U of T in the early 80s was a beautiful Viyella dresss. Simple shirt dress, navy. It was a favourite for many years. For a few years, Harry Rosen had a women's wear section in their Bloor St. store, and I think I got it there.
 
We didn’t wear cap and gown...we wore our nice dresses and suits for the grad ceremony. Some schools rent cap and gown. We only had that for the grad photos. The girls preferred to dress like it was the Oscars, than like a grad ceremony, wanting to show off their dresses on stage, not cover them up.

I got to wear a cap and gown for college diploma grad (put it over jeans and a T-shirt, easy-peasy) but I was in my 30s - that time I was proud of myself for getting through it - was hard work to be a mature adult student with life to deal with - and wanted to celebrate.
 
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Kimmio Laughterlove said:
got to wear a cap and gown for college diploma grad (put it over jeans and a T-shirt, easy-peasy)
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The highlight of my first university graduation (for my BA) wasn't me in cap and gown. It was my grandfather in full regalia processing with the faculty. He had an honorary doctorate from that university so was entitled to participate in convocation and took advantage of the invitation that year so he could attend my graduation (no, that only looks like a tear). Mom and Dad were in with the parents.

And speaking of unusual keepsakes, I don't have it anymore (have to check to who does) but I used to have his master's thesis. Couldn't make heads or tails of it. Didn't know enough about Kant. But it was on my bookshelf for a time.
 
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