Girl Scout uniforms were a relief. That meant I didn't have to wear my school uniform on Scout days.

You would not believe -- or maybe you would -- the level at which the war of individual expression was fought using the school uniform, especially among girls. Boys, you see, learn how to accessorize through uniform manuals. Girls already know how to do this, since they learn from infancy by accompanying their mothers and other female relatives on marathon shopping trips, and so resent attempts to step on their personal style through a uniform code. The Girl Scouts have never really done this, because they offer options in what to wear and how to wear it. Catholic schools, on the other hand...

No, the Hitler Youth comparison would never work, nor did the idea that we would all be "equal" if we all had to dress "alike". Uniforms take family income out of the picture? Not when some of us had tailored uniforms, and at least one of us -- me -- had a talented grandmother who could create clothing from drawings.

We expressed personal style and often competed using shoes and legwear (sock weaves, types of nylons), sweaters, jewelry, handbags, bookbags and hair adornments.

Of course, hair style and color had its place, and later, cosmetics. I was fascinated by one girl a year ahead of me in high school who took 20 minutes to repair her makeup every day during our 30-minute lunch period. She had three perfect stripes of contrasting eyeliner on her eyelids every day. And for whom? Except for four priests who taught religion and one history teacher who coached basketball, it was an all-female school.

I agree that pressure to conform is powerful. Who sets the standards? As you observed in college, peer pressure is the most powerful once infancy and toddlerhood are behind us. The people who write the handbooks that are the most effective remember that, and use it.