Where Did You Go To School? Part 1

Photo of the Princeton Tiger, sitting in the square now surrounded by J. Crew, Banana Republic, and their ilk....

While, were you me, you would not ask, "Where did YOU go to school? ",(somehow you just know not to ask because, you see, you might embarass someone) you will certainly say at some point, "Where did he go to school?" It's one of those questions High WASPs ask almost reflexively. As I think about the last time I asked that question, it was actually, "Oh, did he go to Stanford too?", since the wife had been identified as a Stanford alumna. It's the way I asked it that strikes me now. Under my emotional breath. Asking it without thinking, embarassed to be asking it, pretending I wasn't asking it, pretending I'm not the university snob that in fact, of course, I am.

In the old days, let's say the days of my grandfather, the question among High WASPs simply meant, "Did you go to Harvard, to Yale, or Princeton?" To be accepted to those places in those days all you needed was a diploma from Andover, St. Paul's, Exeter, or others of type. And to attend those boarding schools all you needed was a certain pedigree, a certain amount of money, and the capacity not to get arrested and actually thrown into jail, as it is hard to attend a boarding school when incarcerated. In my father's day I don't think the question was much different, except that in my father's day of course you could also have asked my mother the parallel question. In which case the question would have been, did you attend Smith, Vassar, or possibly Mt. Holyoke.

In my generation the question becomes more complex. Let me answer it therefore about myself. But I must first tell you where I didn't go. I didn't go to Harvard. My father went to Harvard. My uncle went to Harvard. My middle sister and younger brother went to Harvard. My grandfather went to Harvard. And then many other great-thises and great-thats went to Harvard. The family name is carved in various places. And no, to set expectations, it is not a name recognizable at all in general parlance.

I didn't go to Smith or Vassar either. My mother and aunt did, respectively.

I went to Princeton. That's what that tiger thingie is doing at the top of the page. I went to Princeton and my daughter is at Princeton and my son is at Princeton. I own a raw silk blazer printed all over with Tommy Bahamas-genre tigers peeking out of an archetypal yet imaginary palm frond jungle. Not discrete abstract high design tigers either. Not conceptual tigers. Big cheesy tigers. Stripes. Eyes. Teeth. Even whiskers. And, I own a straw fedora. More tigers running rampant round a band at the crown. Why do I, I who have trouble with all kinds of inappropriate attire issues, own these things? I wore said items to my 25th Reunion. Yes. Well.