The Drapes

At Derr's confectionery store on Baltimore's Milton Avenue, the Hucklebuckers gathered in indignation. As self-respecting drapes, they were fed up with persecution. "A drape is a human, like anybody else," said 18-year-old John Michael defiantly.

The trouble was the dances at the city's Cahill Recreation Center, where the doorman was refusing admittance to anyone whose pants cuffs measured less than 17 inches. What was a drape without his narrow cuffs? Nothing at all. Complained Roy Fosler: "There's too much discrimination against guys with pegs on." Added Tom Fales: "The squares are afraid we'll take their girls away from them."

In Baltimore last week, the true drape wore his hair seaweed-long. His shirt was pastel pink and buttoned at the throat (no tie); the jacket was loose, wraparound and without lapels. But the distinctive mark was the black zaks--slacks, that is, that are sharply nipped at the bottom to a narrow cuff. The effect was something between a sagging pair of plus fours and badly fitting jodhpurs.

Drapes resented any comparison with zoot-suiters. "Everybody knew what zoot-suiters were--draft dodgers, guys that hung around street corners," explained Roy. "But guys that wear pegs nowadays aren't bums. It's just a mode of dress." "Cut out that mode of dress stuff," yelled another. "It's just sharp dressing." The city of Baltimore saw it differently. Said one official, explaining the ban: "Extreme dress leads to poor behavior."

Outside Derr's, a girl stopped and peered in at the Hucklebuckers. "Do I like those drapes," she said. "Gee, they're like real dads."

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