You know, if I misspell the last word of that title...say, leave the "e" off...it totally changes the meaning of this e-votional. "Dress cod!?!? It's an outrage!!!" Somewhere, Mrs. Paul and the Gorton's Fisherman are pooling their resources to take me into court over such slander. It wouldn't be the first time fish have gotten my family in trouble. I had a distant cousin who was arrested for contributing to the delinquency of a flounder. That's all I'm saying about that.

No, it's not Dress Cod...it's Dress Code. We had a story on the news, and subsequent FirstNews E-Question of the Day, about a girl who was not allowed to wear pajama bottoms to school. This isn't official, but it seemed like most folks felt wearing PJ's to school was inappropriate. Although, we did get a pile in favor from a sender named "Dr. Denton."

I have to admit, our daughter wore her flannel pajamas to school a few times back in Middle School. I didn't know until after the fact and, even then, they didn't seem too different from sweat pants...I guess the Pink Penguins should have been a tip-off. Needless to say, back in the olden days, when I was a student, nobody wore pajamas to school. As a child, I wore hand-me-down pajamas. I wish my sister hadn't like Strawberry Shortcake so much. Okay, that's a joke because I have all older brothers. Still, that doesn't explain where the Strawberry Shortcake PJs came from.

At school, we didn't have uniforms like the kids down the street at St. Aloysius did. Everyone in town called that church St. Al's. It wasn't in any way disrespectful. Al was, and is, a perfectly admirable name. Sounds like a guy who would know how to catch a fish (what is it with fish, today?) and fix an outboard engine. Stuff you needed to know. Stuff I wish I knew...to this day. Anyway, those kids looked pretty sharp. Our side of the playground was a little more rag-tag. Still, NO pajamas.

There were lots of blue jeans, sweaters, button-shirts. We didn't have a problem with t-shirts with questionable words on them. T-shirts were underwear. UNDERwear. You made sure it was clean and not ripped...like your other underwear...just in case you were in an accident. We also didn't have kids wearing caps indoors. The farm kids had John Deere caps but they took them off when they entered a building. Those of us in town wore stocking caps in the cold...to keep warm...not as a fashion statement. If you want to know what the kids dressed like in my school just look at Opie Taylor. Wow. As I look over this last paragraph, I realize I should be sitting on my front porch yelling at all those young whipper-snappers to "Get Off My Lawn!"

Maybe I should loosen up a little. How about we have a pajama day on FirstNews? I suspect Kris Ketz wears tweed pajamas with a vest...from Brooks Brothers: The Sleeping Titan Collection. Me? I have the ones with the feet in them. Of course, I'd probably have to sew the back flap shut. Maybe PJ Day on FirstNews isn't such a good idea.