Youth be known

[j4]

The scene: Newmarket Road Tesco.

I load the conveyor belt with a couple of cut-price bottles of Jacob's Creek, some ready-made pasta salads, a ready-made stir-fry, a couple of tins of dolphin-friendly tuna -- we're looking at a fairly dull middle-class lunch-break shop -- and then walk to the end of the checkout with my reused carrier bags, returning the cashier's automatic "hello" with a slightly distracted smile and a "hi", and wait for my shopping to start rolling towards me. The cashier picks up a bottle of wine, looks at the bottle, looks at me doubtfully, and then says "Could I see some ID please?"

I look back at her, momentarily confused. ID? For buying alcohol? I'm old enough that I don't expect it any more, but still about three years away from being flattered by it. But my brain catches up, and I say "oh, yes, hang on," and start ferreting around in my wallet.

As I'm fishing my driving licence out, and then as she's counting on a year at a time (I can see her lips moving) from 1978 to 2006, I suddenly realise what's going on. I'm wearing a knee-length grey skirt, grey woollen tights, a blue and grey stripy shirt, and black round-toed velcro-buckled sandals... Oh dear, oh dear.

I am in Tesco, at lunchtime, trying to buy wine, and I am wearing school uniform.

Comments

[perdita-fysh.livejournal.com]

One of my colleagues here was telling me the other day that his daughter has to wear a suit for sixth form, and I thought that was actually a great idea. They get to look different to the younger kids, and more grown up, and get the feel of working in a business like atmosphere. Plus getting comfortable with wearing a suit in an easy environment, as they do take some getting used to.

Having recently started wearing suits to work every day, it is also not dissimilar to wearing uniform in terms of making decisions in the morning, which is great *&)