My Old Comfortable Shirt

I bought this shirt forty years ago. I wore it at my wedding. At the time it was still crisp and creased. The day was probably too warm to wear the shirt but I liked the look and feel of it.

I wore it for many years.

I could look at it in a wedding picture that hung on our bedroom wall. She in her sleeveless dress and me in my smart white slacks and bright blue shirt.

Captioned under the picture was the phrase "Always kiss me when we say 'good-night'."

With many wearing's and washings the shirt, like our marriage, took on a new feel.

Both became softer and more comfortable.

One early fall cold morning I took it out of the dryer and noticed that the collar and cuffs had frayed a bit but when I put it on it still felt warm and comfortable. I wore it to do some yard work.

In the early spring we had a surprise snowstorm. I was called upon to shovel the drive so my wife could get out and go shopping with a friend. I donned my old warm shirt and did her bidding.

She left, and as I was taking my old shirt off I notices a few holes in the soft fabric. I thought they might be from moths but checked all the other clothes in my closet and found none so I just assumed it was a sign of age or wear.

The summer passed and my old comfortable shirt hung lonely in the closet until fall when one crisp day I decided it was time to rake leaves. I took my trusty warm shirt from the closet and noticed that the holes were more numerous and a little bigger. I checked the other clothes again and found them all to be intact.

I did my chore as the day warmed and when I came in I went to put the shirt into the laundry hamper. I changed my mind and washed it by itself on the extra gentle cycle. At the age of forty years a shirt deserved a little TLC.

A couple of months later it snowed again. My wife harangued me to shovel her out so she could go to the store. I reluctantly got dressed in my old shirt, a jacket, boots, and gloves; cleared and salted a path to her car and proceeded to shovel the snow. I started her car to let it warm up and went in to sit in front of the fireplace to warm up.

She left without saying a word of gratitude. I turned on the TV and between the boring news and the pleasant warmth of the fire I dozed off. When I woke I realized that I was too warm and somewhat sweaty. I went to take a quick shower, and when I took off my shirt I realized that it was pretty stinky.

I decided to hand wash my old shirt in the sink and after taking my shower I put it on a hanger and hung it from the shower curtain rod to dry.

When my wife came home she again said nothing. I went back to my news as the snow all melted away. We ordered Chinese food in. I tried a new Szechuan dish while she ordered her same old boring sweet and sour chicken.

After dinner we watched some inane variety show that she thought was entertaining. I fell asleep. When I woke she had gone to bed. I peed and brushed and joined her in the bed. Out of years of habit my hand rested on her hip. She brushed it away. I slept fitfully and finally got up to take a pill.

I woke late for me and went to do my normal morning routine (the regular S S S). When I got to the shower I noticed that my old shirt was not hanging where I had hung it. I figured that my wife had moved it so she could take her morning shower.

After I was clean and dressed I searched the house for my shirt, finding it nowhere. I called my wife to ask where she had moved it. She told me that she looked at it and saw it was full of holes and coming apart at the seams so she threw it away. I was shocked but said nothing before hanging up the phone.

I went into the garage and in the trash bin, covered by the remnants of last nights dinner, was my worn but comfortable old shirt. I thought about fishing it out but realized I'd never get it clean again.

I made a cup of coffee and sat on the deck to drink it while I thought about my life and shirt. I realized that there were parallels. Just like my shirt, my marriage had started out fresh and crisp. In time both just became comfortable but still warm. As the years passed the holes became more noticeable and eventually both had just come apart at the seams.

I called my lawyer to set up an appointment and decided to go find a new shirt.