A t-shirt and ripped jeans

I walked in the front door of our house and knew what was coming. My mom took one look at me and yelled out my name. She wanted to know what I had done to my jeans. I went to school with two fresh iron-on patches on the knees. My mom had fixed them the night before and, of course, I ripped them again five minutes into recess when one of my friends tackled me when were playing around with the football.

My mom shook her head at my foolishness and helped clean up the bruise on my knee. She told me she’d fix them later with a stronger patch and told me to go play in my room. If that scene played out once in my house, it played out a thousand times. I constantly created rips and grass stains on my jeans, the same ones that I seemed to outgrow faster than a baby cheetah running from its mother. (For the record, cheetahs are the fastest animals in the world, reaching speeds of up to 120kph or 75mph.)

A style all our own

I’ve been thinking about the style and clothes we wear at various stages of our lives from the onesies our parents outfit us as newborns to the outfits we choose in high school and then later as we build a life. I find that it’s like a hermit crab moving from one shell to another.

When I was a kid, my wardrobe was pretty limited, patched jeans and t-shirts. My dresser drawers were full, but I probably wore the same basic jeans and five or six t-shirts every day. They were stripped or mesh t-shirts made to look like it football jerseys with phrases like All-American or Slugger on them.

When I got older and went off to middle school and then high school and changed from t-shirts to collared shirts aimed at having the right look and catching the eye of the pretty girl in my classes. They didn’t work too well. In the end, they usually just showed what a putz I was.

Going professional

My wardrobe changed much over time. Through much of my 30s and 40s, I wore suits and ties to work. I had a tie for every day of the week and then some, paisley and flowered ones, college rep ties, I had crazy designed ones from rocks stars and pop culture celebrities. I had basic blue and red ones. I tended to favor power-tie red ones that seemed to pop and get the attention of the people in power.

Mostly my suits were my uniform. Basic blue suit, white or blue shirt, white t-shirt underneath, black socks, and black loafers or wing tips. I dressed for ease, meaning I wore the same uniform day in and day out, with only some slight variation, all to make sure that I got out of the house by 6 a.m. before the traffic really started to get crazy.

Of course, since the pandemic, I’m back to wearing t-shirts and shorts. With one big exception, I keep a sweater or button-down shirt handy for when I need to appear on Zoom or Microsoft Team or on video conference. Fortunately, that’s a rarity and I get to be myself.

T-shirts for me baby!