Then I realized the boy is about an inch taller than his dad and about 15 lbs lighter. His dad owns exactly one suit, which I required him to purchase 16 years ago when I was great with child (Isaac, in fact, you may all start humming The Circle of Life now as you consider the then unborn child now wearing his dad's suit) and we were invited to a bar mitzvah for the first time. The invite said "Semi-formal." I dragged Mr. Lime off to the menswear department to purchase a suit. Mr. Lime was perhaps 10 lbs lighter then than he is now so I had hope that Isaac would be able to wear his dad's suit and save me the expense of purchasing one.
Of course, I also envisioned the suit being just short enough to make the kid look like a very tall Pee Wee Herman, in which case my contingency plan involved merely buying a red bow-tie to complete the look and coaching Isaac on the mannerisms and giggle of the aforementioned character. Alternately, I envisioned my son resembling David Byrne of the Talking Heads in an over-sized suit, and then I'd have to teach him the lyrics to Burning Down the House or And She Was or both, and frankly, I didn't have that kind of time. So it was his dad's suit. I'll put up the pictures and let you draw your own conclusions about the fit
Oh yeah, dream date right here. Nice hat.
Choosing the tie was the one bit of choice he had, not that he much cared. He did opt for the Gary Larsen Far Side cow tie, which is all the rage this season. I thought it was a fun choice and far better than his dad's suggestion of going with the Star Trek Mr. Spock tie simply because it was blue and theoretically coordinated with the date's dress. I'm sorry, no girl wants to dance with her very tall date and stare into the eyes of Leonard Nimoy...unless of course she happens to be dancing with Mr. Nimoy himself.
We had a brief tutorial on corsage application at home. That was after we defined the term and explained the social custom.
And here is the adorable couple all ready to step out.
