I certainly do. My old shirt--my "this shirt"--has witnessed more than any shirt ought to. It's been on the rifle range--a few ranges, actually--and it's been there on the farm for the birth of a calf, for many horseback rides on my horse, and the birth and death of kittens in the barn. It's been a blanket when I've couch-surfed, and it's been a pillow when kind friends supplied blankets. A girlfriend and I once ... ah, too much information.
It’s been lost, but always found, mostly because nobody else would want it, and everybody knows that it belongs to me. I’ve owned it for over thirty years (perhaps forty), and it has become … well, part of me, that I will never give up. It means that much.
Yes. I do.
My old blue flannel shirt was a hand me down. I wore it while pregnant with the lil’wrekker. She’s 20 now. But I had the shirt before her. It must have been in my possession 25 years. It’s faded and thin. I always have it when I’ve gone through medical/dental procedures. It’s my security blanket.
It’s taken a walk or two but I go searching and get it back. It’s laying on my chair back at this very moment.
Very nice thread topic!!
Snicker, my wife would say most of my wardrobe is “this shirts”. Not long ago we were looking through some pictures and one in particular caught my eye. it was of me, holding my infant first born. In the picture I was wearing the same shirt I currently had on. That infant is now 27 years old.
No. In fact I’m kind of anal about rotating my wardrobe to make sure I wear each shirt an equal number of times rather than continuing to wear the same one over and over. To facilitate this whenever I do laundry I put the freshly washed shirts at the back of the closet and move the rest forward, and when I get dressed I grab whatever shirt is at the front of the closet. I do the same with the stack of tshirts in my dresser drawer and other articles of clothing. I put the ones I just washed on the bottom of the stack and grab one off the top when getting dressed.
I wear all my shirts once, launder them all (overnight), then rinse/repeat. (Er, literally.)
However all my shirts for the past two decades look pretty much exactly the same (dark blue polos, the lot of them), so a casual observer might think that they’re all This Shirt. (Give or take that they’re all in decent condition, anyway.)
I have several T-shirts that I’ll probably never get rid of. The first that comes to mind is the one I got at the Gibson factory in Memphis with the American Made, World Played design. And I have a couple with the same basic message; “Work Sucks, I’m Going Biking” and “Work Sucks, I’m Going To The Mountains”. (of course now that I’m retired, they don’t have quite the same cachet)
The song in the OP is nice, but when it comes to shirt-love songs, I prefer this one by Donovan.
It’s more of a very light jacket, but it’s a pullover plaid shirt in bright happy colors. My wife got it when she was fifteen. When she was twenty or so and we were at college, I borrowed it one day. I’ve kept it ever since. She says the only reason I married here was so I’d not have to return it. Yes she was very tall for her age at fifteen.
No “This Shirt”, but definitely “This Jacket”. It’s a nondescript brown lightweight that seems to work well in 40-70F weather, wet or dry. Have had it at least 25 years, have no idea where I acquired it, and it just “fits”, not like ordinary clothes fit, but really a part-of-me fit. Probably keep wearing it as long as it lasts, and it shows no sign of wearing out.
I’m not a fan of that “Heartfelt Girls With Guitars” genre, but I’ve been listening to that song forever on my phone (and before that my iPod nano, iPod Mini, Walkman, and my turntable).
I had a That Shirt, and a That Pair o’ Pants (threadbare jeans, patched monthly by my mom during high school). Many adventures, but the last one was falling off a cliff, which did them in.
I have a theory that in heaven, you’ll be The Archetypal You, so look for me in a scruffy corduroy shirt and patched jeans.
Oh, and since those were 32/32 Levi’s 501s, I’ll be skinnier…
I have a batik shirt hand made by a woman on the island of Dominica. It is a very pretty design, although each button is a little bit off. Because it cannot be laundered and I do not use dry-cleaning, I have worn it very sparingly. I wore it when I officiated my favorite nephew’s wedding, then changed into another shirt for the reception.
I have a robe that I believe my mother bought me as a young teenager. It certainly predates my leaving home for college. I am 66.
There are a couple of pinholes that my wife hasn’t noticed yet. So it is in great shape.
Second place goes to a plaid shirt that I wore in college. Wife likes it, so I still have it.
I have a shirt that I like to wear that says “Leave me alone” on the front and back. Unfortunately, people come up to me and ask “Hey, I like that shirt, where did you get it?”
And I do get attached to things.