Earlier this year, I watched with amusement as people sent in their entries for worst prom dress in one of those contests that seemingly permeated the blogosphere. You can peruse a roundup of the entries in one such contest over at She Just Walks Around With It. Go ahead, we’ll wait for you to finish gasping and laughing. Remember to leave your Coke firmly planted on the table to avoid the dreaded keyboard spew.

What brought this subject to mind tonight is the fact that there was no entry category for really bad male costume. There was also no category for worst pastel background, although there was a groundswell for worst wallpaper background for one entry.  This weekend I was cleaning up some pictures while hunting for some other pictures and came across visual evidence of my own sins. So I figured I would confess to my sartorial sins of the past and also illustrate how heading off to college leads to evolution {*grin*}

Here is a picture of L and I at our senior prom in the spring of 1972:

A few words in my defense are in order. This was in the era when public high schools had dress codes. Ours required that all side-burns extend no lower than the ear lobe, that hair had to stay atop the ear and above the collar, and no beards or mustaches were allowed.  With all that said, now days you would seldom see a square and circle patterned tie with paisley striped shirt. You will also note that when you have a 20 inch neck, you really need extra long ties or they come out looking comically short. Do you like the brownish gray Hush Puppy shoes with gray slacks and a black belt?  Note that I have an incipient 5 o’clock shadow despite shaving only a couple of hours prior to the picture.

On the other hand, L shows great class and elegance. Note the elbow length gloves and maxi dress. To this day I have a great fondness for all the empire waisted dresses of the time just because I saw L in so many of them. I will always wonder why a classy lady like L hangs out with a slob like me. No accounting for female taste I guess.

Now for the evolution.

A few months later I was home for Christmas break and spending my mornings looking like this:

Think I look a little under the weather from partying the night before? Notice the beard starting to fill in? I have worn a beard ever since. It has been close to 38 years since I last saw my chin (and I plan to keep it that way). It also looks like I am perusing a comic book as well. Fitting.

Do you have similar before and after evidence of your evolution as you headed off to college? Are you man (or woman) enough to share with us?