Quote:I'm not a parent, but I have been a teenager. I was fortunate to live in an era where run of the mill Levis, desert boots, and flannel shirts were the style. Things went horribly wrong when my mother shopped for me. Bless her heart, she tried so hard to make me stylish but, unfortunately, her idea of what the current fashions were came from watching Soul Train. One time she bought me an outfit that consisted of white hip huggers with blue stripes and cuffed bell bottoms, a silk shirt with a navy blue paisly pattern and pair of blue and white patent leather saddle oxford platform shoes.

 

I didn't wear that outfit until a year later, when I dressed up as a disco zombie on Halloween.

 

It could have been worse. One Christmas my grandmother gave me a pair of rainbow striped hot pants. I was 12. I never wore them either. To this day I wonder if she was using me to bait a neighborhood pedophile or something.