Clothes: Old Timers Discuss Fashion

I drove over to Charlie’s Truck Stop this past week to pick up a few things and to see how the local philosophers are getting on. I parked off to the side of the store away from the gas pumps so Jake would not come bubbling out the front to ask if I needed gas. I had filled up in East View the day before as I ran low coming back from a business trip to Jackson TN. I climbed out of the car and pocketed the key. A good many places I park for a few moments I lock the car, but at Charlie’s I just close the door and go into the store. Most of Jake’s customers don’t even bother to take the key out of the ignition when they park. I have never heard of anything going amiss from an unlocked car left in Charlie’s parking lot. One of these days I expect someone will come up in Charlie’s lot and take one of the unlocked cars for a joy ride. That will be a sad day because it will mean we will have to start locking our cars when we go inside and that the outside is invading our little corner of the world. I hope that unwanted day remains far in the future. In the meantime, I still leave my car unlocked like everyone else who comes to Charlie’s.

Jake looked up from stocking the shelves when I walked in. He waved and we passed a few pleasantries. Jake was just going back to his task when a man about my age walked into the store. The man was sort of heavy set with a belly on him he pushed around in front as though it were part of the family. He was wearing a faded t-shirt with the word “Wurksucks” across the front. He had on denim shorts that were ragged at the bottom where his flabby legs stuck through. He wore fancy sneakers on his feet and a cap turned wrong side front on his head. Hermann Spencer was over by the pot belly stove with Ronnie Clayton and Willard Smith. We all just stopped dead in our tracks and looked at the man. Jake was the first to regain his composure and rush over to the stranger to see if he could be of help. As for the man, he did not appear to be aware he was the center of our attention

Let me explain here I have seen any number of people out on the street dressed similar to this man. I held a business discussion with a client in similar attire the previous day when I was in Jackson. The man’s choice of fashion was no cause for remark anywhere in the area, except at Charlie’s. Most of the men who come into Charlie’s wear overalls and work shoes. Jake himself is generally decked out on dress slacks and sport shirt. In the winter it is not unusual for him to be in a white shirt and tie. As for myself, I mostly wear what I find handy, but I have never been comfortable in short pants. I just don’t like having my legs exposed to the world. While the view of a man’s legs does nothing to inspire me, I can stand to look at a woman’s legs all day long. I expect that qualifies me as sexist and out of step in today’s world, but I am not likely to progress in my evaluation of bare legs. Women I like and men I do not care for. I expect professional therapy could cure my more grievous shortcomings, but I am not likely to pay some shrink to attempt to change a condition with which I am comfortable. The man bought some snack food and a half gallon of milk and went his way. Jake was over to us and on our case in a minute. He scolded us for making a spectacle of ourselves and gawking at the poor man as though he had been a green thing from Mars. Jake had never been so embarrassed in his life. Hermann reminded Jake he had engaged in some gawking for his own part. Jake just recovered more quickly than the rest of us. Jake grinned. It had been just a little unusual to have someone come into the store dressed that way, but there was nothing wrong with it.

“I dunno,” Willard Smith piped up. “Ya know what that fella reminded me of? He was dressed pretty much like a high school student on summer break. That man was not wearing grown-up clothes, he was dressed like a big kid. I see a lot of men like that these days. It’s as though oversized kid wear is the uniform of our civilization. I don’t mean you need to dress up like you are going to a funeral every time you step out the front door. There are appropriate clothes to wear for whatever you plan to do. If you are going to be working out in the yard on a hot summer day, a business suit is not what you would want to wear. Maybe the getup our recent customer had on would be something that would be right for mowing the yard. But I see a good many middle age men wearing that sort of outfit and they are not working around the house. You see them in restaurants and banks and movie theatres. I think the way you dress says something about how you think of yourself. It appears that a good many men of my generation still want to be kids. They dress like kids and try to be playmates with kids and even try to act like kids. They just are not ready to become adults. I believe there comes a time when you really need to grow up and you need to act grown up. I work at this place where the atmosphere is mostly casual. We don’t expect employees out in the plant to dress up in pressed slacks and a tie. On the other hand, we expect them not to show up for work in cutoffs and bare foot. When people come to do a job, you expect them to dress to do the job. The same thing is true for the guy in the front office who owns the business. You expect him to come to work dressed to do the job. Trouble is that a good deal of the time, that is not the case. It is not unusual to see the boss man show up in sweat pants and a baseball cap. My father always taught me wearing a hat inside a building is not polite. I think this guy should have more respect for his business than to come to work looking like he is going out to work in his yard at home. People used to say clothes make the man. That may not be absolutely the case, but I believe clothes do tell you how a man feels about himself. If you are going to run a business, you should come to the office dressed as though you know what you are about. The people who work in your business will have more respect for you if you dress like you have respect for yourself”

Willard had about run down and I thought it was time to pick up what I came for and leave before he decided to voice his opinion about the clothes I was wearing.

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