Smeltings' sticks

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 168938

---  "justcarol67" <justcarol67 at ...> wrote:
>
> Dudley and his fellow Smeltings students wear uniforms
> that seem to be a parody of British public school 
> uniforms ..., but they also carry "knobbly sticks ... 
> What do the Smeltings' sticks suggest or correspond 
> to?
> 
> ...
> 
> Carol, ...

bboyminn:

One thing to consider is that there are a lot of 
primary and secondary schools in Britain, but there
are only a limited number of colors. Each school
wants to have a uniform that is unique and distinctive,
and therein lies the problem. 

In the US, any private prep-school requiring a uniform
is most likely going to stick with the basic Blue
Blazer and gray slacks. The only distinctive feature
being a different school crest on the blazers. Though
occasionally, you might find a school with the daring
maroon blazer. Still we keep in basic here.

But, British schools would want each uniform to be,
as I said, unique and distinctive. I used to have a
link to a site about British school uniforms, I'm 
sure I referenced in in our previous discussions of 
the subject, but those discussions were long ago and
would take forever to search out in the archives. So,
back to the point, limited number of colors and limited
number of ways to make the uniforms unique.

Actually, I found the link -

http://www.archivist.f2s.com/bsu/Bsu.html

Note the Blue Coat Schools.

and -
http://www.archivist.f2s.com/bsu/TradBoy.htm

More photos-
http://www.archivist.f2s.com/bsu/tradgall/tradgall.htm

Another look at the Blue Coats (with yellow socks)-
http://www.neatorama.com/2007/05/07/british-schoolboy-uniforms/

Some schools require 'boater' or straw hats, others 
use hats that somewhat resemble an American baseball
caps (see photos at the above link). In some cases,
it is the knee-high socks that make the uniform
distinctive, other times the hat, other times the colors,
but each uniform is distinctive and likely can be 
clearly identified from 4 blocks away.

So, my point is there are only so many combinations
to create unique uniforms. Once those basic combinations
are used up, they need to resort to other things, like
canes and Smelting Sticks. Also, I think there is the
additional element of want to create traditions that
are unique and distinctive for the school.

So, I think the parody of the Smelting Sticks is just
JKR making fun of how far some schools will go to try
and stand out as distinctive from the many many other
schools. 

Not sure if that helps, but if nothing else there are
a couple of interesting links to follow.

As a really really really side note: Smelt are a small
fish that run in very great numbers in the spring in
Lake Superior, Minnnesota. Each year they have big
festivals where they net and eat tons of deep fried 
smelt and drink lots of beer. Additional note: even
thought the name of the fish is spelled 'smelt', 
people around here uniformly say 'schmelt'. Though, I
don't know why.

Steve/bboyminn