T-Shirt History
WORDS FROM W.W. April 25, 2016
My wife Carol had a “Come to Jesus” moment with me on Saturday. She took on the task of cleaning out my clothes cabinet and then had me come up to our bedroom with “The News!”
“Bill, you have 110 t-shirts!”
“Awesome!”
That was not the response she was looking for!
“You need to figure out which ones you want to keep and which ones you are going to get rid of.”
“But-“
“No buts!”
I scanned the stacks of reds, blues, greens, blacks, and whites. The shirt on top of the red stack was from July 4, 1989. It was one that I wore for our church, First Baptist Church of Mason, in the Fourth of July parade. I was looking at history!
Another stack had the white t-shirt that I wore in the Judson College Alumni basketball game in 1991. I scored two points! Memories of the shot came back to me as I gazed at the shirt that only had a couple of holes in it after all these years.
There was the long sleeve shirt I bought at Monterey during our Spring Break vacation to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2009. Only been worn once! Mint condition! Plus, from the same trip I had the UC-Santa Cruz Banana Slugs shirt! How many people have one of those?
Further down the stack I found my “Vote for Pedro” black t-shirt from Napoleon Dynamite days. Several camp t-shirts were clumped together, as were YMCA shirts.
So much of my life history was tied up in these bundles of garment. How could I sort through my history and discard “years?”
Carol left me alone to deal with my grief. I stayed in the room, like the surviving spouse of the deceased, spending time with the dearly garment departed.
By the end of the afternoon a group of my shirts had been moved into hospice care for their last days before heading to Goodwill. The shirts that survived the cut cheered as they were restocked into my cabinet. The doors were able to be closed…all the way!
I love history. It’s very difficult for me to let it go, but all things are possible through Christ!
I’ve noticed, however, that Carol is now looking at my stacks of books. Books…with minimal pictures and a wealth of information and stories to tell! She has forewarned me that “a summer purge” will be happening.
I’m hiding my Doris Kearns Goodwin books and seminary theology volumes. How could I cast off Jurgen Moltmann? Like Corrie Ten Boom, I’m finding hiding places for them.
They will be able to share space with the t-shirts that are already hiding there.
Explore posts in the same categories: children, Christianity, Death, Freedom, Humor, Jesus, love, marriage, Story, UncategorizedTags: Doris Kearns Goodwin, history, hoarding, Judson College, letting go, memories, saving things, t-shirts, Vote For Pedro
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