Hand-me-downs

2006-05-09 - 3:52 p.m.

As child 2 of 2, I spent much of my childhood in hand-me-down clothes. Most of the time this wasn't a big deal. I was a geek enough that wearing some clothes that weren't the very latest of fashion wasn't a big deal anyway. And back then young kids weren't quite so trendy. We would've gotten the, "Are you out of your mind?" look from Mom if we'd asked for something designer or trendy.

Well, ok, we got that look plenty, but usually for other reasons.

I wore high-fashion items like the sweater vest with the little acorns around the neck and lots of turtlenecks. Itchy, strangly turtlenecks.

At least hand-me-downs meant fewer afternoons stuck in a store dressing room with Mom telling me I was taking too long. I'm sure I was. I was a slowpoke at most everything, from eating dinner to wiggling into a pair of jeans.

Hand-me-downs also sometimes came from our uncles. We had two uncles just a few years older than us and sometimes we'd get pants, flannel shirts or once as I recall, a wonderful ivory sweater I wore religiously. The flannel shirts were already soft and cozy by the time they were done with them. But the best, most coveted items from the uncles were their powder blue corduroys. It was the late 70s/early 80s, after all. Powder blue like the color of cheap eyeshadow, soft and wonderfully...tomboy.

It felt like they passed on just a little bit of their cool in those soft-worn threads.

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