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Clothes. Oh, my.

There have been times, many times, over the years, when our girls have just about despaired over my lack of interest in dressing “appropriately,” of being at least a bit up to date in fashion.

Our New England daughter we really have been with so little over the years, so she hasn’t had to endure my standard mode of daily attire.

Daughter number #2, who has lived in Texas, California; then Florida for 17 years, we now see more often since she relocated back home to North Carolina. She evinces great interest-concern over what I may wear if she, her mother and I, go out for a meal. Oh, yes.

My disinterest in what I wear, insofar as how it looks to others, goes back a long way. Even as a lad I tried to avoid wearing the very “latest,” and absolutely drew the line at wearing such things as a knit shirt with a little alligator on the front. Wouldn’t do it. Loafers without socks? Forget it.

My aversion to following fashion trends is a bit ironic, in that I grew up in a family where my father spent, invested, forty-six years of his life in retail, department stores specifically, on clothing, of course, but not exclusively so.

I guess I have always thought of wearing the “latest,” following fashion trends, as a superficiality at best.

It’s a good thing, I guess, that more consumers don’t share my values in this regard. If they did, the American economy would be in deep, well, you know.

More simply, and somewhat euphemistically put, I just don’t give a rat’s rump about fashion. That is, as it may relate to me. What others may choose to do, to wear, is not for me to say. Their “business,” not mine.

Same thing applies to keeping up with, using, each new words or phrases that inevitably evolve in this language that some of us try to use correctly.

Then especially attention-getting for me are words used incorrectly long enough to eventually become so commonplace as to be accepted. I’ll leave that alone. That’s a whole ‘nother kind of fashion.

Such is not like math. Two plus two equals four, and always will. One hopes.

So, friends, if you have managed to stay with this week’s endeavor, know that I appreciate it. Appreciate you.

May we all maintain, health-wise, as best we can, and meet here next week.

Take care, now. You hear?
APROPOS – “Every generation laughs at the old, but follows religiously the
new.”-Thoreau (“Walden” 1854)