July 23, 2014 at 2:10 p.m.
Clothes become a commitment
Back in the Saddle
It was another hot, sticky day.
I’d started out on a relatively simple project: Rearranging some furniture in the room that doubles as my home office and a guest room to make space for a chair I’d acquired.
Trouble was, the furniture that needed to be re-arranged was pretty much all bookcases. Full bookcases.
So each one had to be emptied. Dusted. Vacuumed behind. Moved.
Then re-loaded, dusting as I went.
By the end, I’d soaked through a T-shirt. No problem, I thought. I’ll just toss one in the hamper and grab another.
But as I put on the clean T-shirt, it hit me: The shirt was 22 years old.
If it were a person, it could buy a beer.
If it were a person, it might have been able to vote in the last election, let alone this one.
I knew because it was from a Stratford Festival performance of Othello, and I instantly recalled that I’d seen the performance in 1990.
The late Ron O’Neal at the Avon Theatre. Twenty-two years ago.
What’s remarkable about that is that it’s not at all unusual.
Guys tend to hang onto their clothes for a long, long time. Their wives would probably say, “Too long.”
It’s safe to say I’m not the only guy in the county with a 22-year-old T-shirt. I’m guessing there are T-shirts still in service that might qualify for Social Security.
And I’m pretty sure the Othello T-shirt isn’t the oldest piece in my wardrobe.
I just remembered a 1988 T-shirt from the Great American Race, and I know there are a couple of cold weather pieces I bought in the wake of the blizzard of 1978 when it seemed we’d never get warm again.
Have I worn them?
Not very often.
But I haven’t let go of them, and this comes from someone who drops off stuff at Goodwill pretty regularly.
With guys, it’s like we marry our clothes.
We make the commitment to buy them and feel an obligation to hang onto them.
That’s true even if they end up being used to wash the car or clean tools.
So I’ll wear my Othello T-shirt with pride now and then — about once every five or six years — and I’ll continue to get some use out of it.
But the best thing is, it still fits.[[In-content Ad]]
I’d started out on a relatively simple project: Rearranging some furniture in the room that doubles as my home office and a guest room to make space for a chair I’d acquired.
Trouble was, the furniture that needed to be re-arranged was pretty much all bookcases. Full bookcases.
So each one had to be emptied. Dusted. Vacuumed behind. Moved.
Then re-loaded, dusting as I went.
By the end, I’d soaked through a T-shirt. No problem, I thought. I’ll just toss one in the hamper and grab another.
But as I put on the clean T-shirt, it hit me: The shirt was 22 years old.
If it were a person, it could buy a beer.
If it were a person, it might have been able to vote in the last election, let alone this one.
I knew because it was from a Stratford Festival performance of Othello, and I instantly recalled that I’d seen the performance in 1990.
The late Ron O’Neal at the Avon Theatre. Twenty-two years ago.
What’s remarkable about that is that it’s not at all unusual.
Guys tend to hang onto their clothes for a long, long time. Their wives would probably say, “Too long.”
It’s safe to say I’m not the only guy in the county with a 22-year-old T-shirt. I’m guessing there are T-shirts still in service that might qualify for Social Security.
And I’m pretty sure the Othello T-shirt isn’t the oldest piece in my wardrobe.
I just remembered a 1988 T-shirt from the Great American Race, and I know there are a couple of cold weather pieces I bought in the wake of the blizzard of 1978 when it seemed we’d never get warm again.
Have I worn them?
Not very often.
But I haven’t let go of them, and this comes from someone who drops off stuff at Goodwill pretty regularly.
With guys, it’s like we marry our clothes.
We make the commitment to buy them and feel an obligation to hang onto them.
That’s true even if they end up being used to wash the car or clean tools.
So I’ll wear my Othello T-shirt with pride now and then — about once every five or six years — and I’ll continue to get some use out of it.
But the best thing is, it still fits.[[In-content Ad]]
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