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I remembered one, thanks to a discussion of "highwater pants" among my co-workers yesterday.
In sixth grade, I used to be asked all the time, "where did you get your clothes?" I knew from the baiting tone what was up, so I usually ignored it. Once or twice I was goaded into answering. So I told the truth.
"They used to be my mother's."
This was not the right answer. It did not have enough teasing potential, yet was not definitive enough to cut off the baiting entirely. I'd get asked again in a few days. And again. And again.
It wasn't until I was an adult that I figured out what the answer they were looking for was:
"K-Mart." Or some similar shop that they could sneer at from a class-based perspective.
Which is funny, because why else do you think I was wearing my mother's hand-me-downs except that I couldn't afford new clothes at all?
In sixth grade, I used to be asked all the time, "where did you get your clothes?" I knew from the baiting tone what was up, so I usually ignored it. Once or twice I was goaded into answering. So I told the truth.
"They used to be my mother's."
This was not the right answer. It did not have enough teasing potential, yet was not definitive enough to cut off the baiting entirely. I'd get asked again in a few days. And again. And again.
It wasn't until I was an adult that I figured out what the answer they were looking for was:
"K-Mart." Or some similar shop that they could sneer at from a class-based perspective.
Which is funny, because why else do you think I was wearing my mother's hand-me-downs except that I couldn't afford new clothes at all?
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Date: 2007-10-11 04:04 pm (UTC)It makes me think of the way Jehovah's Witnesses often don't know what to do with, "I'm sorry; we're not Christian." (Wouldn't you think that would make salvation more vital?)
no subject
Date: 2007-10-11 04:09 pm (UTC)