Remember Patagucci?

wtgirl

Well, maybe it is better to forget but a similar discussion has appeared on the Park Slope Parents board about brand obsessed elementary school kids in the slope who were teasing a 4 year old they didn't know for having the non-name brand version of some kind of expensive trendy kids bike.

dakotas way

Subject: name brand bike

That's absolutely disgusting. The only way kids would know such things is if their parents have brought it to their attention.

What kind of twits are raising these kids anyway??? Apparently shallow and insecure ones............ :puker:

daver

I read this thing. Honestly, I'm not convinced that the "fake bike" cat calls came so much from him having the wrong brand as much as him having a, uh, well, a FAKE BIKE. It is a "bike" made out of wood that has no pedals that you push with your feet.

But whatever. The kids were obviously rude. If it bothers the mom so much (apparently the kid couldn't have cared less) then she should consider buying him a normal bike with training wheels rather than some trendy foot push bike, be it brand name or not. If you are going to push the envelope with your trendiness, you have to be ready for people to point and laugh sometimes. I like to think of myself as something less than a _complete_ ass, but that "bike" is pretty funny!
http://gowanuslounge.blogspot.com/2007/10/rude-materialistic-kids-in-park-slope.html

restless native

daver wrote: If it bothers the mom so much (apparently the kid couldn't have cared less) then she should consider buying him a normal bike with training wheels rather than some trendy foot push bike, be it brand name or not. If you are going to push the envelope with your trendiness, you have to be ready for people to point and laugh sometimes. I like to think of myself as something less than a _complete_ ass, but that "bike" is pretty funny!
http://gowanuslounge.blogspot.com/2007/10/rude-materialistic-kids-in-park-slope.html

Behavior like this is precisely why I could never in good conscience raise my kids in Park Slope. The same pretentiousness you see in these yuppies gets passed right down to the kids. Just take a look at the freak show that fills up PS 321 if you want to see what 'fantastic parents' these people are.

When the time comes for me to raise a family I'll be doing it in a part of Brooklyn that's still somewhat in touch with reality, like Sunset or Bensonhurst. Of course I'll never give up my property here though - Restless "Laughin' Straight to the Bank With This" Native

sprite

I'm a little surprised, since these kids are pretty young. But I've heard kids everywhere are more brand conscious these days because so much more marketing is targeted at them. And 20 years ago the kids in my upstate elementary school carried their gym clothes in Limited bags so everyone could see where they shopped. (And by upstate, I mean the Utica area, not Westchester.)

My point is, any kid who watches TV will know what the cool toy or bike is. And if no one has them, they'll find another way to measure status. It's not just a PS thing.

sweet tea

i'm with daver. they weren't making fun of the 4 year old for having the wrong brand of fake bike. they were making fun of him for having a fake bike.

also: what kind of wonderland did people grow up in that this wasn't a feature of childhood? i remember ceaseless teasing for having the wrong kind of pants, the wrong brand of shoes, even the wrong kind of scissors. parents certainly should discourage it, but i think it's hard-wired in the human mind to categorize precisely -- we are hunters, after all -- and to use social pressure to enforce group conformity.

karl the druid

children can be cruel

i was heavily mocked for not knowing the difrerence between laurie anderson and meredith monk

i had say this to myself often, laurie, spikey, merdtih, braids

cruel

daver

sweet tea wrote: also: what kind of wonderland did people grow up in that this wasn't a feature of childhood? i remember ceaseless teasing for having the wrong kind of pants, the wrong brand of shoes, even the wrong kind of scissors.

Yeah, no kidding. I didn't grow up in Park Slope, or any "ritzy" area for that matter, but I certainly ran into my share and more of that. It doesn't make it right or anything, but it makes it part of growing up. The stuff if Park Slope is offensive because it is elitist bullshit that we can all point at and call out easily, but it wouldn't be any different in any other neighborhood. Only the names would change.

restless native

The way I remember it in the old Park Slope, if someone called you out for not having the 'in' something, you usually just told them to fuck off. If they kept it up, you slapped them in the mouth and that was the end of it. Of course, the fact that just about no one had any money, let alone owned brand name anything around here, probably helped simplify things. If anything, you got singled out for HAVING flashy stuff.

This other phenomenon that's being described here must be some sort of suburban white America thing that's been imported here, cuz I sure never saw it growing up.

whyfi

Restless Native wrote: This other phenomenon that's being described here must be some sort of suburban white America thing that's been imported here, cuz I sure never saw it growing up.

'cuz if you didn't see it growing up, it MUST be suburban!

restless native

WhyFi wrote: [quote=Restless Native]This other phenomenon that's being described here must be some sort of suburban white America thing that's been imported here, cuz I sure never saw it growing up.

'cuz if you didn't see it growing up, it MUST be suburban!

I'm extremely proud of having grown up a part of the last white working-class inner-city generation in this country. 8)

Besides, you grew up in the suburbs anyway. What would you know?

sprite

WhyFi wrote: [quote=Restless Native]This other phenomenon that's being described here must be some sort of suburban white America thing that's been imported here, cuz I sure never saw it growing up.

'cuz if you didn't see it growing up, it MUST be suburban!
I wish we had the rating system back, because I would sooo star this.

whyfi

Restless Native wrote: [quote=WhyFi][quote=Restless Native]This other phenomenon that's being described here must be some sort of suburban white America thing that's been imported here, cuz I sure never saw it growing up.

'cuz if you didn't see it growing up, it MUST be suburban!

I'm extremely proud of having grown up a part of the last white working-class inner-city generation in this country. 8)

Besides, you grew up in the suburbs anyway. What would you know?
Actually, I grew up in a poor, primarily black and asian neighborhood in a metro area with a population of roughly 3 million. In my experience, I know that the brand-consciousness of poor minority children rivals that of ANY socio-economic group except, perhaps, the whiteys that populate the suburbs in your mind's eye.

stacey

sprite wrote: [quote=WhyFi][quote=Restless Native]This other phenomenon that's being described here must be some sort of suburban white America thing that's been imported here, cuz I sure never saw it growing up.

'cuz if you didn't see it growing up, it MUST be suburban!
I wish we had the rating system back, because I would sooo star this.

I'd match your star and raise you one

lanciano

Brand consciousness in elementary kids makes me want to hurl but it is certainly not limited park slope and it's not a new thing. kids in all socioeconomic groups have been poking fun at kids for the hundreds of years.

One summer 22 years ago, (ok, not exactly hundreds of years ago) i came home to our little apartment here from visiting my cousins in the midwestern suburbs with some Reebok knock-offs... you know those "high-tops" with the two velcro straps across the puffy ankle. yes, groan blech blah blah blah.

Well anyway, reeboks were popular and these were CLEARLY not reeboks and of course i got no end of shit about it. i remember that DAVID KIM!! Completely UNCOOL UNSPECIAL DAVID KIM was the ringleader of the fun-poking! i'll never forget that jerk.

Yes, i felt a bit embarrassed for liking these sneakers so much but authentic Reeboks were years away for reality for us so the knock-offs were were it was at.

who gives a sht about all this crap. snobby kids suck. but i think that getting poked fun at about my no-frills reeboks made me stronger. Maybe it is thanks to that loser David Kim and his taunting that i don't give two craps about labels. burberry, lacoste, (these shirts were cheesy when i was a kid) and manolo blahnik will never get my money.
my boyfriend lucked out!

raw

Restless Native wrote: The way I remember it in the old Park Slope, if someone called you out for not having the 'in' something, you usually just told them to fuck off. If they kept it up, you slapped them in the mouth and that was the end of it. Of course, the fact that just about no one had any money, let alone owned brand name anything around here, probably helped simplify things. If anything, you got singled out for HAVING flashy stuff.

Tell me about it. When I was in elementary school, we all made fun of the one rich girl who wore a mink fur coat and fancy smelling perfume.

brooklynpotter

yeah yeah yeah... just try having curly red hair when everyone else's tresses rivaled farrah fawcett's.

the 70s were very cruel

restless native

WhyFi wrote:
Actually, I grew up in a poor, primarily black and asian neighborhood

Damn, I didn't know you grew up in Compton.

mylkshayk

Kids teasing each other for not having name-brands is definitely not new, and it is definitely not exclusive to Park Slope. When I was a kid in the 1980s, I got teased mercilessly for not having name-brand sneakers and Guess Jeans and I.D. blouses. (Sorry, my parents were too smart to pay ridiculous amounts of money for kids clothing.) There was a girl in my class named Emily N. who had the best selection of name-brand clothes. I don't know what values her parents had; imagine why someone would spend all the money necessary to send their 9-year-old to school in Benetton clothing every day. My friends and I would sometimes pretend our dolls were Emily N. when we played, cause heck, this little girl was as glamorous as Barbie. Coincidently she was the most popular girl in the class. She never teased anyone though; she was actually pretty sweet. It was the boys in the class- one boy in particular- who did the teasing of me and folks like me who were not richly attired. And this all happened not in some snooty private school, but in good ol' P.S. 139 in Flatbush. Ah, the horror... Boy did I hate school as a kid.... I have to stop writing now, I'm getting painful flashbacks.... :pale:

carnivore

Yeah, I used to always get teased about my "rejects" sneakers at P.S. 251. I think most of my sneakers at that time were total generic K-Mart type things with made up brand names. I distinctly remember a pair of "Pro-Specs".

drano

Aw hell yeah, this sort of thing went on when I was a kid. Anybody unfortunate enough to wear Lee jeans in my middle school would get pwnt for sure.

My worst day came in 5th grade when we had some sort of washing machine malfunction (broken spin cycle, IIRC) that purt my normal school clothes out of commission for a day or two. Anyhow, the only thing available to fill in was this rather unfortunate Sassoon sweatsuit that some relative or other had given me. It was light grey with forest green and mustard yellow trim. "SASSOON" was proudly emblazoned up the left leg and left sleeve, and the zippers were in the shape of that little "OK" thing that used to be their logo. I liked this thing so much that I had to cut the tags off to wear it.

I really, really should have whipped up a fake sickness that day. I took loads of crap, but frankly the outfit was so ridiculous I couldn't even blame my tormentors.

hamilton

Carnivore wrote: Yeah, I used to always get teased about my "rejects" sneakers at P.S. 251. I think most of my sneakers at that time were total generic K-Mart type things with made up brand names. I distinctly remember a pair of "Pro-Specs".

My nephew was so proud of the air-jordons his father bought him for christmas.

The bad news was ,he was mugged for them.

The good news is, he became a cop

hamilton

Restless Native wrote: The way I remember it in the old Park Slope, if someone called you out for not having the 'in' something, you usually just told them to fuck off. If they kept it up, you slapped them in the mouth and that was the end of it. Of course, the fact that just about no one had any money, let alone owned brand name anything around here, probably helped simplify things. If anything, you got singled out for HAVING flashy stuff.
[/quote
].....................................
Tell me about it. When I was in elementary school, we all made fun of the one rich girl who wore a mink fur coat and fancy smelling perfume.

................................................
Thats odd, as one of my male teachers use to dress the same way.

drano

Carnivore wrote: Yeah, I used to always get teased about my "rejects" sneakers at P.S. 251. I think most of my sneakers at that time were total generic K-Mart type things with made up brand names. I distinctly remember a pair of "Pro-Specs".

I remember good ol' "Cal-stars" from Caldors when I was in grade school. They didn't fall under the category of cheap-but-servicable, either - these things were terrible. Kids would start with a brand new pair in September and by November they'd be falling apart.

I usually had pretty run-of-the-mill sneakers, but one year I had a sweet pair of Lou Brock 118's. I'll try to find a picture, they were something.

stacey

Drano wrote: [quote=Carnivore]Yeah, I used to always get teased about my "rejects" sneakers at P.S. 251. I think most of my sneakers at that time were total generic K-Mart type things with made up brand names. I distinctly remember a pair of "Pro-Specs".

I remember good ol' "Cal-stars" from Caldors when I was in grade school. They didn't fall under the category of cheap-but-servicable, either - these things were terrible. Kids would start with a brand new pair in September and by November they'd be falling apart.

I usually had pretty run-of-the-mill sneakers, but one year I had a sweet pair of Lou Brock 118's. I'll try to find a picture, they were something.

At least yours came from an actual clothing store, my mom always bought me the ones they used to sell in the grocery store (you know they were always next to the jelly shoes and chinese slippers). I had to draw the line at the slip on wanna be keds (which I think we called "skippies")