Panty Hose Rules

A new fellow teacher and I were at a training for new teachers. I was her mentor to help her on her journey into teaching. Something we heard there has stuck with me for many years. The story was as follows:

A new P.E. teacher went to the faculty lounge every day, and no one would talk to her. Outside of the lounge, everyone was fine and friendly. Finally, one day, another teacher took pity on her (no mentor teachers, apparently). She told her that teachers were expected to wear panty hose in the lounge. Being a P.E. teacher, she had been wearing sweats to the lounge. She began to dress up and all was fine. The moral of the story; there are many rules in societies and groups, that are unwritten, unspoken, but enforced just the same.

I find this to be incredibly true. Being in a new environment; be it a party, in law’s home, work, travel, and so on, there are many rules that no one tells us about; but they expect us to somehow know them. I mean, who doesn’t, it’s so obvious to all of US. Perhaps its roots are in our tribal past/nature as humans.

My most vivid memory like this, in my life, was when I was a teenager and invited to dinner at a friend’s house. Everyone just sat there at the table with the food. I thought they were waiting for me to start, as their guest. I reached for a spoon and they all dropped their heads for grace. I had no clue. My friend hadn’t warned me. He probably assumed everyone knew and did this. I was so embarrassed. My family never did that.

So I guess I would say, be aware, share the rules, and BTW I hate panty hose nearly as much as MS! But that is hardly relevant to this story.