How many roller rinks are out there now?
Didn’t occur to the sign painter that girls could wear jeans too
It’s clear to me that those rules were written to make sure that the skaters were “clean cut,” and not “hippies” – note that they also banned shorts for girls, and long hair for boys.
Jeans, of course, were extremely popular among young people of both genders in 1972, but there was still a big cultural divide by age in the U.S. at that time; among older Americans, blue jeans were still strongly associated with lower-class people (farm workers, blue-collar workers, and criminals, as well as hippies), and long hair on boys was still not accepted by a lot of people over 40.
I would hazard a guess that the owners of the roller rink didn’t want “that element” (hippies, druggies, hoodlums, etc.) in their establishment.
It says no blue jeans or dungarees in handwriting under “Girls” . My guess is that the photo was taken in 1972 but the sign was painted at least a few years before that.
That was the era that “No, Shirt, No Shoes, No Service” signs also started appearing.
I was in high school in the 70’s. There was a brief Overall fashion trend.
Even as a cool teen that one baffled me. Overalls are for farmers not fashion. Imho
Girls were wearing short skirts with opaque tights when I was in junior high. Slacks were also popular.
It’s hard to remember when girls switched to jeans. Probably during my high school years.
All my friends wore bell bottoms and side zippered boots in high school.
Before I started school, my dad owned a travelling skating rink. I could skate at 3.
I loved that lifestyle. At the end of the night my dad would get on the PA and ask. “did everyone have a good time? is everybody black and blue?”
I graduated from college in 1970. There were still dress codes in effect in lots of places. I don’t think jeans were considered “low class” or “blue collar” so much as they were just too casual to be worn except in really informal settings (at a sports event, a picnic, etc.) You would certainly never see jeans in church, for example. I remember going to a restaurant with two friends in 1971 (not a fancy-schmancy restaurant, but not a diner/fast food place either) and we were turned away at the door because one of the guys was wearing jeans.
There were certainly roller rinks in my childhood, but they were about the most informal setting imaginable.
I just had my 50th class reunion last weekend (go class of 1976!), and one of the reminiscences was when we were in high school, girls were finally allowed to wear pants to school. Pants, not jeans. They allowed boys to wear jeans, but they had to be clean, not the ones smelling of manure from doing chores before getting on the school bus. It took a few years before jeans were allowed for all.
I looked up the rink’s history (1955-1986) and the Edgar Winter Group and Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels opened for Canned Heat there earlier in the year. The sartorial elegance of Canned Heat was obviously lost on the venue management.
One would certainly think so.
My girl friends and I wore them sometimes. We bought them at A. Schwab on Beale Street. We loved them because they had so many pockets and you didn’t need to carry a bag, They were great for concerts. The guys never wore them, though.
We weren’t allowed to wear jeans to school until my senior year in 72.
I can remember wearing blue jeans with matching short jacket [in a pale blue, not faded just original dye was powder blue] in 1974 and it was not uncommon at the time [a beverly brand jacket if that makes sense]
We weren’t allowed jeans in high school, either. 1960’s clear through’69.
Then I got to college and everybody was wearing them. And tshirts, which up till then had been men’s underwear. I remember buying them in the men’s underwear department, package of three, white or blue, for $5.
Does it also mention that long-haired freaky people need not apply?
The image in the OP’s link does pretty much say exactly that, as it also says, under what is prohibited for boys, “no long hair.”
Dungarees vs the Suits:
They should tuck their hair up under their hats
And go in to ask them why!
There was another overall trend when I was in high school, circa 1990. Only girls, though, and they would often leave a strap open, revealing one t-shirt covered breast. I remember it being pretty hot.
Mid/late 60’s, girls gradually being permitted to wear slacks rather than dresses. Long hair for boys gradually being accepted. Not even long hair but barely over the top of ears. Some boys being forcibly taken to a barber! And it should be pointed out that the establishment acceptance wasn’t by choice but rather flat out defiance & revolt by teens/young people. A bit like the Catholic church coming to terms that people were going to have a burger on Friday or separate from their spouse whether they approved or not.
A time when The Beatles were starting to gain tolerance but The Rolling Stones were going to send the world spiraling into damnation. And just when they’d gotten over Elvis doing a few dance moves.
But it was still OK to send kids barely out of school to die in Vietnam for no good reason.
Sadly, not a lot has changed. Small minded bigots are still small minded bigots and there’s still a lot of them about to carry on the hate for anything that might be considered different than what goes on in their myopic version of the world.