By Alexa James
Times Herald-Record
ajames@th-record.com
Newburgh, NY – Peter Copeletti is the intimidating man in the high school principal's office. Tall, lean and bald, save for a black mustache, he walks the halls in suit and tie, looking every bit the man who could make or break your yearbook memories.
He has to. With thousands of teenagers under his watch at Newburgh Free Academy, Copeletti's professional dress code leaves no room for casual.
But reverse the clock 30 years or so, when 52-year-old Copeletti was a Newburgh teen. Turns out he wasn't always a clean-cut cat.
The year was 1971, and Copeletti was evolving from high school at NFA to college at La Salle University in Philadelphia.
Back then, Copeletti says, parental pressure set the school dress code. "I don't think the parents have as much influence today," he says. "I think retailers are setting the trends."
He says most teenage guys in the '70s fell into one of three fashion factions: the hippies, the motorheads and the prepsters. Copeletti was the latter, sporting slacks, polo shirts and Converse.
"I remember playing basketball and going and buying new Converse sneakers and they weren't more than twenty dollars," he says. "The students spend a lot of money today, and they all look the same."
He notes a casual fall fashion lineup this year. "There doesn't seem to be a lot of color," he says, "but I am seeing some of the students wearing their hair like they did when I was in high school."
He's talking about guys forgoing the trimmers for long, shaggy locks or full Afros. And while it's hard to imagine Copeletti with hair, he says he did cut loose during his college days.
Freshman year at La Salle, Copeletti went from prepster to hippie. He grew his hair out and adopted a "natural" wardrobe. He remembers the day his dad picked him up for winter break.
"He didn't speak to me the whole way home," he says, "and when we pulled in the driveway, he turned to me and said, 'Your mother's not going to like this.'"
Looking at old photos now, he can't blame them for loathing his clothing. So, kids, the moral of the story is: when it comes to dress codes, the rules might just be saving you from yourselves.
It's funny about the hair. The first time I noticed it, I was in a relatively touristy part of town. All of these teenagers with their families were getting off the monorail, and I remember thinking: 'dyyyyaaahhh!' flashback central. I'm seeing it more and more, as this part of the country is pretty conservative and follows trends, rather than setting. It's kind of gross in ways, nostalgic in others......(depends how cool your hair type is to start with)
ReplyDeleteThe shaggy hair is pretty cool to see these days. Very retro, but at least it has an edge. Only the very classy are attempting it so far, so for unruly hair, it's fairly upscale.
ReplyDeleteI've always had the neatnick 'fro because there's really not a lot to do with this mess I call hair otherwise, and I'm having a hard enough time moving forward without a head full of braids.
I want to take clippers to all that extra hair when I see "shaggy". Maybe it's the mom in me. When I took my daughter to the orthodontist last week, there was a boy about 13 years old sitting across from us. You could tell he was clean and from a good family...but his HAIR...ACK! He could have doubled as a mop..
ReplyDeleteI am thankful my own son likes a good short cut...and even asks for it!
It's a lot easier to get shorter hair to look good. Long hair requires a lot of work and styling to get "just so." Not my bag at all :-)
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