You know how you become your parents? I have.

When I was little I went to Catholic school and Sr. Mary Suzanne had all the teachers measure our skirts lengths with her hemchecker – a meter stick with a sign at the top that read “Hemchecker.” We all had to kneel on the ground and the teacher would measure the distance from the floor to our skirt. The designated distance from the floor was no more than two inches. We would all have our skirts hemmed appropriately and as soon as we walked away we would roll our skirts to the more desired foot above the knee.

This morning on the way to school I passed Withrow and there was this girl walking into school in this little band-aid of a skirt that barely covered her rump, mid-calf stiletto boots and fishnets. Honest to god, the thoughts running through my head were my mother’s. “Someone should get that girl some clothes!” “She looks like a street walker!” “Get out the hemchecker!”

Oy vay.