I was at Cunningham Optical this afternoon getting a new lens (just the right eye–again). As I waited, I noticed how many customers were wearing bluejeans. Every single person who passed by me was wearing bluejeans. It’s something I had mused over previously.

Bluejeans, it seems, is the Great American Uniform. It’s what we wear when we’re not working (and for some lucky folks, it’s what they wear when they are working). In a society that worships  individualism, we all prefer denim.

I came late to the bluejeans world. I didn’t get my first pair of bluejeans, I believe, in 9th grade. I remember feeling like a whole different person, that person being “not a square.” Back then, if I remember right, we just called them Levis. There were basically two brands: Levi Strauss and Lee, but the generic “Levis” got attached to both.

Now, of course, everybody makes denim pants, so the even more generic “bluejeans” is needed. I own denim by Levi Strauss, Sonoma, Eddie Bauer, and Lee. As I type, I’m wearing my Eddie Bauers.

When I went to Honduras last week, I didn’t take bluejeans. They can be stiff. Instead, I wore casual pants, Dockers. Much more comfortable on an airplane, and they can double as dress-up pants. I remember when Dockers came out, and for a while you wondered if they would supplant bluejeans as the Pants of Choice. But after this flirtation, we reverted to our tried-and-true denim, and let Dockers reign on Casual Friday.

Denim, clearly, has a death-grip on Americans.

And, from the look of it, the rest of the world.