Gottit – you are now my best friend!
No, I’m quite far from my teen years, but I was what today would be called an “at risk” teen, all becuase I did not fit the mold and had some colorful friends.
Mind you, I did ok in yeshiva, and had some really yeshivish friends, but none of that would matter today. If you so much as cross the line (and the line is one that is very hard to clearly define) you are marked a “problem child”
Mamashtakeh –
The polo / baseball cap is an example of how nutty the yeshivish world can sometimes get. Is that appropriate for shachris? Maybe not. Is wearing a hat / jacket appropriate for a trip to Walmart? Depends on who you ask.
But to tell a 17 year old, who is in camp (one, I might add, that the parents chose) and the other 9 friends are going on a camp trip in a hooded sweatshirt, that he / she needs to be in full dress uniform at all times, is, IMHO, extreme.
So to answer your question, the cap / polo may shut a few doors, but that will only protect you from the folks you would not be happy with in any event, if you’re the polo kind of person.
If on the other hand, you are the hat/jacket to Walmart kind of person, Kol Hakovod! (and I have lots of friends like that).
But don’t make it sound like a bochur who wears a Tommy dress shirt untucked (yes, that’s also against the “rules”) is probably doing drugs and eating traif. And, no, its not even on the path to that.
Again, lets stay calm. Our kids are good kids and they should be treated as such.
And finally Rescue and Squeak –
I would love nothing more than to see the end of the July / Aug vacation months. Many places have school year round and a week off every so often. A much more manageable time slot to fill, and one that does not necessarily mean you need to leave town for each week off.
But the liklyhood of that happening? Zero. So its off to Walmart we go! (and please be sure to look for me on Sunday night, crawling along the 17.. I’ll be the one with the look on my face that says, “why am I doing this to myself?”)