Long ago in the 80's, I adored Jane Fonda and dancing aerobics. Jane loved her leotards, tights, and leg warmers, and I followed suit with a few outfits of my own. My favorite wardrobe item was my silver tights. I wore them with everything and traveled everywhere with them. In the mid-90's, when my daughter was a teenager, I was still wearing those tights. I was no longer involved in aerobics, but no problem-I wore them to the grocery store, to the mall, and occasionally to dinner. My daughter referred to them as my "space alien tights". One night in December, we were decorating our Christmas tree, and, as usual, a bad string of lights caused the whole tree to go dark. I announced that we were going to Kroger Grocery to get some lights right then. I had on my silver tights, an old knit sweater, and a tacky Christmas scarf with my sneakers. Allison looked at me with a horrified look and said "you are not going to wear those tights, are you"? "Of course I am", I replied, "who could I possibly run into at this time of the night"? We were on the Christmas light aisle when a familiar face gave me a puzzled smile and said, "Hi, Sylvia". It was one of my favorite doctors that I worked with at the hospital. I looked at Allison, and she had that smug smile on her face that indicated that she knew she would never see me in those silver tights again!
I generally wore ordinary shorts and old pants when I walked or went hiking. I used to run, and saved my old running clothes to walk in. I finally broke down and bought a pair of hiking pants at REI in Atlanta. These pants were well-made, comfortable, and waterproof, and I lived in them for all of my walks and hikes. Fifteen years later, I was still wearing these, but decided that perhaps I should buy new ones when I started walking in a meet-up group last year. So my trusty old hiking pants were converted to garden wear.
Which brings me to my most embarrassing "what not to wear" fashion mishap: garden clothing. Anything that is old, worn, tattered, but still fits me goes to a shelf in my closet known as my "garden outfits". Included on this shelf are old overalls, zumba pants, running shorts, second hand overalls, and old sneakers. These various items often are worn at the same time - all colors mixed together. When I am digging or planting, I feel that comfort is the most important criteria of what to wear. And I am going to get dirty, right? So why is it that when I go to the garden center, I see people dressed in their adorable garden club pants, with matching shirts and little straw hats, while I have on my old overalls and baseball hat on a good day? I often head to the garden center when I realize I need something, and just go as is. I started out this spring trying to be a little more fashionable in my garden, which basically meant that I would only wear clean clothes to start with, and nothing that clashes. But I am not doing very well thus far. Last week, I needed to make a quick trip for potting soil, and wore my dirty overalls, only to run into one of my former students who works at the garden center. Reminded me of the silver tights incident - some of us never learn!
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