‘Tis the season: time to go uniform-shopping. Those of us who went through Catholic school remember it well — and remember the dreaded, terrible same-ness of what everyone wore. Which, of course, is part of the point of having school uniforms: they focus the mind and the eye on physics or Faulkner, not fashion.

The uniform phenomenon — which is increasingly spreading to non-Catholic and public schools — cropped up this week in a newspaper in suburban St. Louis:

When Our Lady of Sorrows and St. Mary Magdelan schools were combined two years ago to create St. Katharine Drexel School, parish families knew something had to be done to unify them.

A new school uniform was part of the change and one thing was certain: There would be plaid. Regardless of the color, uniforms are a fact of life in Catholic schools.

“There was no question whether there would be a uniform. That was a given,” said Becky Finnegan, principal of St. Katharine Drexel School at 5831 S. Kingshighway Blvd.

Celeste Engel, whose youngest daughter, Laura, is entering seventh grade at the school, said her girls have never questioned wearing uniforms.

“They’ve always gone to the Catholic schools. I don’t think they mind it one bit,” she said. “I think it’s great. You don’t have to make any decisions at night of what to wear. It has an overall good look about the school when everybody is dressed in a uniform

Karen Battaglia, principal of St. James the Greater School, 1360 Tamm Ave. in Dogtown, said parents there are glad to have uniforms for their children.

“There isn’t an issue of what am I going to put on my child (or) what does my child want to wear today,” Battaglia said. “I never hear any bad reviews about wearing uniforms. It’s always positive.”

Lisa Laird sends her daughters, Audra, 9, Meredith, 7, and Caroline, 6, to St. James the Greater. The younger girls have gotten their older sister’s hand-me-down uniforms.

“I thank God every day that they have to wear a uniform. On the (special) days when they get to wear jeans, there’s a lot of crying and headaches about what jeans to wear and what shirt to wear,” Laird said.

Ah, the good old days.

Photo: by Erica Burns, Southwest City Journal