#5: Dressing up to go to dive bars

Notre Dame Students cannot help themselves when it comes to their attire at local drinking establishments.  For three years they hide from this mecca of drinking establishments within the Notre Dame bubble and then all of a sudden a world of possibilities opens to them when they turn 21 (unless of course they had a fake ID).  Places like Finnegan’s, The Linebacker Lounge, Tailgaters, Club 23, Corby’s, and Club Fever become realities as the law turns in their favor.  Each year students learn to love these bars while wearing the most fashionable clothing that middle to upper class money can buy.

If Notre Dame were in any big city or college town, nobody would bat an eye if the students stepped into a bar like the Backer wearing torn up jeans and a t-shirt, but for whatever reason Notre Dame Students feel an inherent need to dress up at the dive bars they frequent the most.  Notre Dame Students will only enter a bar if they are at least wearing a couple articles of designer clothing.  Since logos are of the utmost importance many Notre Dame Men wear polo shirts that prominently display men on horses or crocodiles.  Notre Dame Students are also always certain to wear blue jeans that come from top notch designers.

Notre Dame Students don’t worry about the fact that these bars usually appear somewhere on the cleanliness scale between dirty and “on the verge of being condemned” because they need to look good when frequenting them.  Notre Dame Students do worry about their shoes at these bars though; everybody knows that there will probably be a good half-inch of standing beer on the dance floor at the Backer and that the toilets at Finnys are usually overflowing out of the bathroom.  Notre Dame Students make sure that they have an old pair of designer shoes that they can wear for those troublesome times when their shoes might be soiled by an unknown liquid. 

Notre Dame Students dress up to go to dive bars with the intent of differentiating themselves from the local residents of South Bend.  If they see a person in jeans and a t-shirt, a Notre Dame Student can usually assume that this person is not one of them (unless they are coming from a game or broomball).  But when Notre Dame Students see a person sporting the flashiest trends like they are going to a high priced New York City club, then they know that the person is a fellow student and an ample target for making out with on the dance floor.