Dressing up

[buddy love]

It seems to me that anytime the Beav or Wally did anything social like going to a party, out to dinner, or to a movie or a date with a girl they always dressed up in a suit and tie. Was that really the way it was back then? I mean couldn't the guys take a girl out to a movie wearing a nice pair of pants and shirt? or even jeans and a sweat shirt? Just wondering. I even remember an episode where Ward and Beaver went to a baseball game dressed in a suit and tie!!

[Mijada]

Well according to my mom who was in her 20's when LITB ran, people did dress up alot more back then. She said that if a boy picked her up for a date he always wore a tie and if he didn't have one on my grandma dissapproved of him. I also remember her telling me once that if you went into a restaurant in the summertime you would never see guys sitting around in tank tops and baseball caps like you do today. People were expected to dress respectably in those days.

[DarleneIllyria]

How about to the library? I remember one episode of 'The Andy Griffith Show' it was the Battle of Mayberry episode. Andy took Opie to the library to research the battle. Andy and Opie were both wearin' suits! I just couldn't imagine anybody getting all dressed up to go the library. It's just the way it was back then, I guess.

[BBF]

Originally posted by Mijada
Well according to my mom who was in her 20's when LITB ran, people did dress up alot more back then. She said that if a boy picked her up for a date he always wore a tie and if he didn't have one on my grandma dissapproved of him. I also remember her telling me once that if you went into a restaurant in the summertime you would never see guys sitting around in tank tops and baseball caps like you do today. People were expected to dress respectably in those days.

My grandma was in her 20s too when LITB ran, and she said the same thing. Whenever they went out for the evening like to a restaurant or basically anywhere where they would be in public, men were expected to look nice.

[frani]

Also, women never really wore slacks back then the way they do now. Going to school in the late 50's and early 60's, we wore a dress or skirt and blouse every day. I wasn't dating yet, but I remember that older girls always got dressed up to go on a date. Dress codes really didn't relax till the "hippie revolution" of the late 60's. I mean, look at the way that the Beatles were dressed and all the British bands. They all wore suits and ties. You might wear a sports jacket if it were an informal affair, but to just wear a shirt was considered sloppy and not completely dressed. Also, men NEVER wore hats indoors. And grown men never wore ball caps unless they were a ballplayer. Also women always wore hose. No sandals. Things were much more strict then. But I think it is accurate that Wally got dressed up the way he did to go on a date.:bye:

[tdr]

I'm sure it's quite true that standards of proper dress were rather rigid at the time (compared to today), as was a theme on today's ep, "Beaver's Football Award." But I really wonder if a boy Beaver's age would have gotten the angry looks from the other fathers at that dinner just because he was not wearing a tie and jacket. The plot, of course, was a largely recycled one, taking after "Sweatshirt Monsters," where the other guys bragged about what they were going to wear (or not wear). Beaver is against the idea at first, but then he is the only one who actually does what the other guys said they were going to do.

I remember when I was in junior high school (in the 70's) we were having an athletic banquet, and I didn't really want to go. But then the rumor started that we "had" to wear ties and coats. This clenched it for me, and I just didn't go. Then my mom saw a picture from the banquet in the paper and asked me, "Weren't you supposed to go to this athletic banquet?" I hadn't mentioned it because I thought my parents would try to push me into going. So I just used the 'coat and tie' excuse as the reason I didn't go, but really I just didn't like events that were planned and supervised by adults. Of course, she thought it was terrible I didn't go, as well as that I didn't like to dress up.

With Ward at first telling Beaver that they just wouldn't go to the banquet if he didn't wear a jacket and tie, that just makes me curious... For those of you who are in school now, is semi-formal dress still required for a school banquet or award presentation; or maybe not required, but requested or at least expected? I have read some items saying that many kids today are grown up before they ever own a suit, and that 2/3 of college seniors don't own a 'business suit.'

[HaskellGirl]

Well, nowadays, most adolescent boys don't wear suits and probably don't even own them. For a school banquet or ceremony, where semi-formal dress is required, they usually wear nice pants and a nice shirt or sweater. As long as you aren't wearing jeans or sports gear these days, you are pretty much "dressed up".