The Way We Were -- Random 70's Notes

Men were required to wear ties. Not a big fan of the tie, but since I had to wear one, I chose, uh, shall we say, quite colorful options. (Ed Kurmann made his own, mostly out of frugality, but was quite proud of his efforts.) I’m thankful that there is limited photographic evidence of my fashion choices, because my ties were designed to complement the rest of my wardrobe.

This was the start of the Peacock Fashion Phase for men, and while I’m going to share the blame with Carolyn who happily encouraged me, I confess to being a willing participant. In retrospect, perhaps I should be thankful for the tie rule; it eliminated the possibility of my ever wearing one of my two “leisure suits” (hey, only one of them was powder blue, paired with white patent shoes on a half-inch heel) to school. Still, I remember the plum double-knit flared pants, the orange brushed corduroys, the chunky-heeled brown shoes, still enough hair to wear at least to my jaw.... Maybe a good memory isn’t always a good thing.

Women could not wear pant suits (not pants) until November 1. That enforced-modesty rule was made prior to the popularity of short skirts, and with a huge influx of young female teachers to the district in the 70’s, the Law of Unintended Consequences played a role. Only the students wore "hot pants," however.

Those rules only lasted a few years. The collection of ties I retained made infrequent appearances until I landed at Schechter, which required ties on Fridays for Shabbat.

1971 was the year that the high school eliminated separate faculty lounges for the men and women. The small room on the third floor of the West Wing became the co-ed smoking lounge and housed the only official faculty bathroom. Poor Jay Zimmerman was never comfortable sharing that space. (There was an unofficial bathroom on the lower floor of the West Wing, next to Jack Hemm’s choir room [part of the former cafeteria prior to the Dome], if you could score a key, which I eventually did some years later. The women started using the one in the nurse’s office.) Despite its smaller space and less than wonderful ventilation (second-hand smoke not having been invented yet), that became the more popular hangout for most of the staff. It was there that Francis Pratt and Don Steckhan passed on their experience to us newbies.