Behind The Awkwardness: White Alert
October 4th, 2011
“So my father was a police officer and was generally very up-to-date on techniques for ensuring child safety. That meant that anytime we went on vacation as a family to a place with the slightest crowd, all four of us had to wear the same t-shirts so that we could easily be spotted in a crowd. I’m the cool kid on the right with the Flock of Seagulls haircut, wearing my shirt as a dress apparently. I guess these shirts weren’t nearly effective enough either since they were later replaced with bright purple t-shirts with various dinosaurs on each”
(submitted by Matt)
Neither of my parents were cops but I had to do that same thing! We even had purple shirts but they were customized with names. Ugh!
This doesn’t look like a fun picture. I think safety conscious dad was taking photo evidence, in case someone was kidnapped.
My dad was a cop too, and there were 7 kids in our family…So my parents did stuff like this too, the best was when he actually put luggage tags with our hotel info on the tennis shoes of the younger kids who wouldn’t be able to tell any one where we staying if they got separated.
If your dad was all into child safety….er, why are all four of you standing in the middle of what appears to be a street?
EXACTLY!!!! I can’t believe it took this long for someone to notice that they’re all standing on the white line in the middle of the road. Yeah, Cop-Dad… here’s to being safety-conscious!!
Parking lot. Street. Same difference, right? I’m sure you’ve never stood in a parking lot before. That’s just crazy talk.
hehehe *like*
You guys are cute..but I laughed out loud at the “Policeman Dad” and your “The Usual Suspects” formation. “All right ma’m….please look carefully and tell us if you see the child that put the empty milk carton in the fridge. Take your time.”
My son’s Cub Scout pack did this for camporees. Our color was hunter orange, and it worked great! We could immediately see if one of “our” boys was mixed in with another pack. Having said that, I have to agree with the comment that white doesn’t seem distinctive enough, so maybe the Fruit of the Loom 4-pack is right!
I think you kids got the Dad-scam. He didn’t want to pay for new clothes for the trip, so he grabbed a Fruit of the Loom 4 pack and hatched a plan.
My aunt always did this to us! I especially remember a particularly attractive poopish yellow and another time it was a strange aqua color. We were always the coolest kids at Disneyland/Knott’s Berry Farm/the park (yes, even the park) etc.
Did you guys live in Ventura?? The Tall kid looks familiar
Close enough. Oxnard.
Do they also play funky music?
Yeah, good thing the kids stand out amongst the huge crowd surrounding them…lol!
Im sure they were on their way to somewhere, but it is pretty funny how deserted the area looks when they have been dressed with glowingly bright shirts to keep from blending in. Cute kids!
They are their own rays of sunshine …. er … blinding light!
Methinks we need to see the purple dinosaur shirts ASAP.
I agree – purple dinosaur shirts please!
Such a cute family. Specially the little boy in the long t-shirt. Adoreable.
I love how the parents seemed to have bought 4 t-shirts in the same size despite the fact that the size they chose really only fit the biggest kid. That way the ‘shirtdress’ effect comes into play with the younger ones.. except the girl, who was innovative enough to make this look work for her in a good way.
I did that with my kids once at a huge children’s museum. Red was my color of choice. Red was also the color of choice of about 98 different day cares that brought the kids there. Most stressful day of my life!
My mom would braid neon shoe laces into our hair and form huge bows with them (it was the 80s). No chance of blending in with the other normal kids!
Whoa! My parents did that when I was a kid too. Usually in red though, not white.
They later formed a singing group and wrote a song called “Hey, there Delilah”
Too funny!
LOL!
I keep singing “Come on Eileen, oh i swear…..” after seeing this pic!
I do love the haircut.
Was that picture taken in Solvang, Ca. I grew up there and we had those trash cans all over town.
Love the photo but i don’t think white was the best choice.
I think it was Solvang actually. We lived just South and went to Solvang pretty regularly.
Looks like a Clorox® “which is whiter” ad.
Not to be ‘awkward’ but I have heard it’s actually not the safest to dress kids in all the Exact same shirt for safety, because they “blend in with” each other and might cause you to think all 4 are there when there’s only 3, etc. It is better to dress each one in separate, ‘bright,’ clothing. Just an awkward PSA
.
Not to mention that white is hardly an unusual color. Surely, in a crowd, there would be other kids wearing white T-shirts.
Even though Sally didn’t have a pair of black tennies, the boys let her join the “White Shirt Society” as a pledge with a 30 day probation.
is flock of seagulls also wearing jazz shoes with shorts?
who said he’s wearing shorts?
I don’t know but I’m digging the hiked up socks!