School Clothes

When I was a kid school clothes shopping meant hitting all the garage sales in the closest big town. Our town was too small to "garage sale" in (garage sale can also be a verb in case you were not aware). I remember it well. We would load up in the Chrysler, drive to my grandmother's house 65 miles away, spend the night and be ready for the sales by 7:00 a.m. on Friday. If you waited until Saturday, all the good stuff was gone.

At a garage sale, we were used to getting the things that fit, and did not have holes or rips in them, and likely under $2.00 ($5.00 for a single piece was cutting into the budget and considered somewhat extravagant). The ideal find was a $1.00 or less. The most embarassing part of "garage saling" was when my mother would ask the homeowner if we could use their bathroom to try the clothes on.

I'm not sure if my stepfather got a raise one year or not, but for whatever reason I was able to buy some clothes brand new. I went to the mall, Sears. I will never forget it. The experience was so foreign to me. I felt out of place and overwhelmed by all of the options in my size. I was in the 4th grade and to this day I know exactly what I chose.

I chose a brown pair of corduroy pants (I ripped them within the first 6 weeks of school, but continued to wear them. The rip allowed some air in, that hot Texas weather is brutal in corduroy anything!). A pair of forest green polyester slacks (why my mother allowed this choice is beyond me, polyester in Texas and in the 4th grade! I looked like a substitute teacher in those pants.) and finally 2 pair of purple Sears brand jeans. I am not sure why I wanted 2 pair of the same color, or again, why my mother allowed that (the kids teased me constantly about wearing the same pants everyday).

I don't recall ever going to the mall again for school clothes. And to this day, I have never purchased one single item of clothing at Sears.