Let’s Talk Uniforms

Almost every day, I see the usual suspects on the train. There’s “that poor kid” (who I believe, from my observations, is going to college, working, and taking care of a 1 year old boy), “sleeping dude” (self explanatory),  getting-ready-to-retire Indian guy, and chef girl.

How do I know she’s a chef? She wears those silly black and white checked pants.

I don’t know why chefs wear those pants, though a quick internet search would probably tell me. I’m gonna guess it’s a French thing. Though, why we would follow the French in terms of uniforms is anyone’s guess. I mean, these are the dudes that refused to change theuniform of their soldiers in WWI to camouflage simply because it was unfashionable. “Les pantaloons rouge, c’est la France!” was the rally cry – it roughly translates to “red pants, that’s France!” Completely bonkers in an era of modern weapons, and in addition, the white cross of their pack acted like a nice bulls-eye for the German snipers.

Uniforms, in general, are kind of silly in civvie life. Think of the folks who wear uniforms in the non-combatant world. There’s the entire health industry. They have to wear those crazy scrubs, and even then, they do everything they can to change it up. Come on, you know you’ve seen every kind of scrub from the plain colors to every cartoon character known to man.

There are subtle uniforms out there, too. I live near a college, and every year, it amuses me to watch the kids wear the same clothes, with just a tiny bit of difference. Kids with their own sense of style are truly few and far between.  This doesn’t change when they graduate. Watching the young and upcomers trudge to work, I see the uniform idea going strong. There’s a sense that these folks are trying to hide themselves in sensory whitewash – we’ve got the pseudo-suit, the proper accessories, and the hair, oh the hair – uniform uniform uniform. They even cover their own scent with something someone tells them to buy.

Even though they’ve all surrendered, becoming part of the corporate uniform, they do try to throw some “uniqueness” into the situation, maybe with color, maybe with bling. It kind of reminds me of an old Far Sidecomic strip.

Perhaps I’m just jealous. I have no sense of style, and there is no teacher uniform. I did ok in the computer world – fit right in with my worn out, ill-fittting clothes in mismatched colors. Now? I look around the train and see that I don’t fit any of the uniforms. I’m not sure, but I think maybe that’s a good thing.

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