Dress For Daytime
Prince George's County:
Anyway it would be rather difficult for Miss Dressed-to-the-gills to retain her glamour while jumping puddles, on a rain-soaked campus to make an 8:20.
NEATNESS
Maryland students prefer to be seen with companions who are careful about their appearance. One doesn't have to have the finest clothes in the country to be clean and neat. "Cleanliness is next to Godliness."
Neatness is one of the prerequisites to being smart, which is every girl's desire. Always try to put your colors together cleverly. Look as if you just stepped out of a band-box instead of a March wind. Hair you know, can do other things besides stand on end. Curlers do wonders for it. The boy across the Library table might suddenly become interested. Fingernails can look attractive without looking as if you were cut with a breadknife at breakfast. Bright polish is grand with evening clothes, but in the daytime with sports clothes a paler shade is more appropriate. That goes for make-up too. Don't come to an 8:20 with your eyelashes dripping with mascara. Your eyelids will be so heavy you won't be able to hold them up. Save that to wear with the red fingernail polish. Just try to look well groomed, neat and easy on the eyes.
CLASS DRESS
A coed is supposed to be a student; so she should dress like one, at least for classes. There are numerous occasions for fancy dresses and high heels and one feels much more at ease, during that short period of the day when classes are held, in simple sport clothes. Moreover, no one wants to look like a sore thumb sticking out.
Since your new Alma Mater is neither a country club nor a skiing lodge, you'll find that riding clothes, however smart, and snow suits make you stand out conspicuously in the Dining Hall where your classmates are wearing more conventional and appropriate attire. You wouldn't wear these active sports costumes to your own table at home any more than you would weer a bathing suit or tuck a tennis racquet under an arm while you dined. Save them for a more suitable time.
TEAS
The place to wear your long dress and handsome shoes is at a formal tea; then you also get out your freshly cleaned white gloves and your new hat. For informal tea you would wear no such outfit, but instead, a dressy street length dress. Spotless white gloves, dress shoes, silk hose, and your best hat are appropriate accessories. If you are in doubt about the formality of the tea you are attending, ask around. Someone is sure to know!
DRESS FOR TOWN
Going to town is exciting. So wear exciting clothes. After running around in dirty saddle shoes, and socks, with your hair flying askew, it really is uplifting to put on your Sunday best and join the parade of bargain-hunters. Remember, school clothes for the campus, but when going into civilization, dignified, dark colors, dress shoes, hats and gloves are the requirements.
For dates you look your prettiest in a soft, street-length frock suitable for going to the movies, informal dancing in town, or similar occasions. Of course if you are going in for bowling or some active sport, you wear appropriate clothes.
When you go shopping on Saturday don't label yourself Betty Coed by wearing socks and saddles. Wear a simple dark outfit with comfortable, medium-heeled shoes, and, by all means, a hat. A bandana may be smart on campus, but makes you look like an immigrant in the shopping district.
You won't be socially ostracized -- and soon it gets to be a habit. It's a habit, incidentally, started long before your time. And, with the passage of years, Maryland's "hello" has come to be a symbol of warm, open-hearted friendship.
It's a spirit that welcomes a freshman and clings to an alumnus long after graduation.
Maryland may not have any clinging ivy or chapel bells, but nonetheless it has traditions -- foremost among these being the Hello Habit. A friendly, warm ''hello" is the shortest cut to getting to know your share of the large student and faculty population at the University. Meet the ocher fellow half-way, and if he speaks first, respond with enthusiasm. Even Emily Post doesn't insist on formal introductions for persons who attend the same school. You must have heard of Maryland hospitality -- well, the Hello Habit is part of it.
If it's a girl, speak up; you may want to know her better some day. If it's a boy, turn on a friendly smile and let him have it right between the eyes. You may not give yourself the credit, but he may pass a quiz because of it.
If it's faculty, remember that 50 per cent of the professors on the hill want nothing more than to have their students as their friends. The other fifty per cent already have students as friends.
"Hello" is easy to say; the habit of saying it easily will some day pay you surprising dividends.
To make Mortar Board a 2.7 average is necessary for your first three years of college work. You must also have campus activities. And you can't stir around frantically at the last minute joining clubs. Freshman year is the time to become affiliated with such organizations, for your record with them is important, and you can't become an officer in one semester -- Hitler may get away with it but you can't!
But what of the rare student who actually goes to the library to study? After all, he deserves some consideration, since he is using the library for its intended purpose.
If you must talk to someone else, make it short and snappy, and don't bother other people. Don't sit around and giggle. Nothing is so annoying as the persistent snickering of a small group, especially to someone who's got that term paper to finish.
Do your date-making outside the library. After all, it's not very complimentary to you if the boy won't spend a nickel phoning you.
And oh, incidentally -- quite aside from your sense of ethical-ness; there are plenty of over-social people who have been bounced gently outside the door on their ear -- to spend the rest of the term in doleful exile from the library.
I grant you, to consume nourishment is the primary function of the student while in the dining hall. However, may I brave the "infielders" by suggesting that there are seven others at your table who have come for that primary purpose also. Remember that dining hall eating is not a time trial. The dinner hour should be one of relaxation.
The waiter provides one butter knife for one butter plate; one vegetable spoon for each vegetable plate, et cetera. Pray don't use your own utensils.
Please don't let your manners desert you at this crucial moment. The captain of the football team may be sitting across from you! Take the lead as hostess: offer the potatoes to him before he has time to ask. It's a good way to find out about football.
Imperatives, addressed to the waiter, are out: If you have need of a napkin or a spoon, ask the person on the corner to ask the waiter for the desired article.
Passing, and that not across the table, is the current mode of transporting food from one to another. One piece of bread sailing through the air from the area of your chair is enough to mark you as a primitive form in the evolution of man.
Water, if taken with the meal, is said to aid in gaining of weight, but some like it anyhow. Let's cooperate with this group, and refrain from covering the tops of the water bottles with the bacon platter.
Maryland is noted for its hospitality and "seconds." If you want another helping, don't hesitate to ask. On the other hand, one can be obnoxious by scooping two thirds of the vegetable on his plate and smilingly passing on the remaining third.
Excusing one's self from the table and putting the chair in place are courtesies still observed.
Upper classmen enjoy the company of freshmen much more when they are not distracted by their table acrobatics.
Be a good sport about sitting where the head waiter places you. You may discover that the meek little fellow on your left is a potential Prince Charming, even if you do have to miss a luncheon chat with your own special "gang." Dodging empty seats, trying to pick your own place, holds up the procedure for everyone who comes behind you. You'll be able to sit with your crowd without trouble, if you organize a table-full before you actually start into the Dining Hall, and make a polite suggestion to the head waiter.
If you and your roommate are together at the table don't discuss personal plans as if the other six people weren't there. They may seem interested only in their dinners but remember, they hear all, see all, and probably tell all.
Don't forget that you are expected to dress for dinner each evening and for Sunday dinner. It lends a nicer atmosphere if you act as though you were dining out.
