What to Wear
When I was a kid I didn’t have to make the decision of what I was to wear. My Mom Sybil Miner Beck made those decisions for me. I was the oldest of three kids, so I didn’t get to many hand-me-downs. The only hand-me-down I can remember was a winter coat. I didn’t hate it, but I managed to burn a hole in it trying to get warm on the potbelly coal stove in fifth grade. I went to a two room schoolhouse in my youth. I missed going to a one room school house by one year.
As young kids when we woke we’d run around in our underwear until after breakfast. Mom would put out the clothes we were to wear and that was that. Just like Mom preparing food for a meal. There was no argument. Eat it or go hungry.
Now I have to make these decisions on my own although I usually still run around in my underwear until after breakfast. First and foremost directing my choice is the weather. Will I be too hot or will I freeze exposed skin? Next I must decide where I’m going. Is it a place where grungy clothing is permitted or is it a place where a button-down shirt and tie is required? One of the final and most important decision is considered, will my friends who are there going to really care.
A sidebar here, often my kids will say, “You’re not really going to wear that out where someone can see you, are you?” Yes…I have outdated clothing still hanging in my closet. Who knows, they may come back in style and I can retro fit a generation.
Sometimes I think I’m too old to care about what covers my body, as long as it’s covered. I’m no longer looking to find a date. I’m not planning to impress the checkout people at Wal-mart and do I really care who I bump into at Ollie’s or Big Lots? I do miss the Save-a-Lot store though.
I quite often meet a fellow worker from Frick Hospital in Mt. Pleasant, Pennsylvania at Wal-Mart and I’m glad to see that they didn’t dress-up to meet me either. Our trials and troubles at work created a friendship like that. We survived the years of toil and now we are what we are.