Long Shirts

Yesterday I'm down in Tompkins Square Park, or T-Square as I heard one hip youngster refer to it as, and a group of about 10 kids -- somewhere in the 7th - 9th grade range -- come in all in baggy jeans and extra long white T-shirts on. When I say long, I mean down to their knees style. I don't understand why anyone would want to wear something so uncomfortable and constricting, but what the hell do I know? No matter what my opinion is, these punks are clearly thinking they are pretty fucking cool. Then two girls, who the boys clearly were interested in stepin' to walk by and one of the girls says, "What the hell are you guys? The fuckin' white T-shirt gang?" The girls laugh and head for greener pastures. I think that knocked them down a couple of notches on the cool scale.

I laughed.

A little while later, one of the kids from the "gang" comes up to some other kid with a standard length long-sleeve white shirt and tries to throw some fashion police intimidation at him. He says, "Man, that shirt is short as hell." The kid responds, "What? Fuck your long shirts. That shit is stupid."

I laughed.

My prediction: After such harsh humiliation in September 2004, the urban gangs of NYC will convert their style in 2005 to khakis and polo shirts.