Yesterday comment-leaver “Billax” took the time to kindly correct one of my many typos. I wish you guys did that more often.
Billax has been a regular on the blogs and forums for some time, and while many amateur blogs are dimming the lights, Billax actually recently started one up with the name Wearing The Ivy League Look Since 1958.
Whippersnappers suffering from sartorial writer’s block, who can’t get beyond the opening sentence of blue oxford and khakis, should take note of Billax’s varied and eloquent outfits.
And of course he’s a stickler for traditional details. Note the collar roll in the photo above. True there’s also neck roll, but you’ll look that way too when you’ve been wearing the look for 56 years. — CC
The last time I corrected something (pointing out that “crossword” wasn’t one but actually a criss-cross) I had people jump down my throat for being pedantic :/
Yesterday comment-leaver “Billax” took the time to kindly correct one of my many typos. I wish you guys did that more often….., but you’ll look that way too when you’ve been wearing the look for 66 years.
Gentlemen,
Thank you for your most kind comments. I am humbled.
I was shocked Saturday when page views on my obscure backwater blog topped 1,500. Though I spent most of my life working in America’s biggest cities, I am, at heart, a small town guy. I was comfortable with 30 folks wandering by my little place every day. I liked the pace and I liked the lack of expectations folks had of me. I lived a long time responding to the expectations of others. I no longer have to be, or want to be, responsive to others to earn my keep. I earned more than I’ll ever need a long time ago. I am happy about that.
If you can live with irregular posts, the stories I want to tell are of the late fifties through 1964. Those years – oh, man – those years were the VERY best. Not merely for clothes, but for the expectations faculty had for their students. For the fervent belief that the faculty was preparing the 10 percent who went to college to manage the world. Such statistical certainty never turns out to be quite right, but it is often largely right. When, in late 1963 and in 1964, the world irrevocably changed for United States college students changed, apparel changed, manners changed, expectations changed, certainly and planning evanesced. For a while, planning died and all order went away. And what went away with it was manners and apparel. That story is really the tale I want to tell.
So, as my visitor count does back to insignificant, I can go back to telling the significant story of what happened to all of us after President Kennedy was assassinated , Viet Nam divided us, and birth control pills made us think we could be completely irresponsible.
It’s the only story I know first hand, and not too many of us are around to tell it any more.
Thanks for the publicity, Christian. I enjoyed my fifteen minutes of blogger fame! But I’m eager to tell this amazing story of how we Americans went from certainty to chaos – in nearly an instant – and how we stayed in chaos for more than a decade.
Thanks CC. I thought I had this site previously bookmarked as well as his lacrosse site. It must have been a similar name. I cull and delete sites now and then, usually for excessive Kennedy adulation. Clearly it was not him; this one is new to me.
I was in the class of 1961 at a lacrosse college so we started wearing Ivy near the same time.
‘Not’ (“not the collar roll”) should read ‘Note’.
Well, you did say you wanted more of us to correct you!
You can count me as a Billax fan.
The last time I corrected something (pointing out that “crossword” wasn’t one but actually a criss-cross) I had people jump down my throat for being pedantic :/
Since 1958 would be 56 years, not 66 years.
Very nice pictures on his blog. Well turned out gent, indeed.
Yesterday comment-leaver “Billax” took the time to kindly correct one of my many typos. I wish you guys did that more often….., but you’ll look that way too when you’ve been wearing the look for 66 years.
-Well played
Billax’s site is well worth a visit, informative and a class act.
Billax is cooler than any hipster.
Billax deserves a spread in Free & Easy. Time for him to be big in Japan.
A class act to be sure. Of Billax’s eloquence – sartorial and otherwise – all concerned should indeed take note.
And, in addition to him being very amiable, he does have the cool factor; Billax is the Chuck Norris of TNSIL.
The venerable Billax!! A model citizen in the society of natural shoulder style. A big “hello” from Worried Man, sir.
A true gentleman ,a great Blog thank you sir Billax..
Gentlemen,
Thank you for your most kind comments. I am humbled.
I was shocked Saturday when page views on my obscure backwater blog topped 1,500. Though I spent most of my life working in America’s biggest cities, I am, at heart, a small town guy. I was comfortable with 30 folks wandering by my little place every day. I liked the pace and I liked the lack of expectations folks had of me. I lived a long time responding to the expectations of others. I no longer have to be, or want to be, responsive to others to earn my keep. I earned more than I’ll ever need a long time ago. I am happy about that.
If you can live with irregular posts, the stories I want to tell are of the late fifties through 1964. Those years – oh, man – those years were the VERY best. Not merely for clothes, but for the expectations faculty had for their students. For the fervent belief that the faculty was preparing the 10 percent who went to college to manage the world. Such statistical certainty never turns out to be quite right, but it is often largely right. When, in late 1963 and in 1964, the world irrevocably changed for United States college students changed, apparel changed, manners changed, expectations changed, certainly and planning evanesced. For a while, planning died and all order went away. And what went away with it was manners and apparel. That story is really the tale I want to tell.
So, as my visitor count does back to insignificant, I can go back to telling the significant story of what happened to all of us after President Kennedy was assassinated , Viet Nam divided us, and birth control pills made us think we could be completely irresponsible.
It’s the only story I know first hand, and not too many of us are around to tell it any more.
Thanks for the publicity, Christian. I enjoyed my fifteen minutes of blogger fame! But I’m eager to tell this amazing story of how we Americans went from certainty to chaos – in nearly an instant – and how we stayed in chaos for more than a decade.
Billax
Thanks CC. I thought I had this site previously bookmarked as well as his lacrosse site. It must have been a similar name. I cull and delete sites now and then, usually for excessive Kennedy adulation. Clearly it was not him; this one is new to me.
I was in the class of 1961 at a lacrosse college so we started wearing Ivy near the same time.
Sir, that was uncalled for.
It was thanks to “Kennedy adulation” that many of us were drawn to Ivy style and continue to be Ivy adherents.