I had a woman get gas yesterday wearing her highschool lettermans jacket. Not uncommon because we have alot of “school spirit” in our town. But, what was peculiar was the wording on the back. “Class of '84”. This woman graduated 22 years ago and she still cant give up that school pride.
Is she a teacher? Maybe she’s wearing it for some sort of school pride event? In any event a letterman jacket at my school was a nice quality jacket and could be used for practical reasons having nothing to do with living in the past. Almost makes me wish I had bothered to get one.
A someone that grew up in a city, and have since moved to a fairly small town…I feel for you. Some folks just don’t know when to let go- I’ve been involved in conversations that centered around a particular football play made 15 years ago at a junior high school game.
Just remember- it’s all about tribalism. The jacket is her way of saying “I belong here.”
Hell, those jackets are expensive. May as well get all the wear you can out of them. My highschool jacket is wool and nylon with leather sleeves, and cost me $500 and 6 months of saving up to get it. Plus it’s really warm in the winter. It’s been 7 years since I graduated HS. What’s the problem with still wearing the jacket if it’s practical?
Here in the glorious Beaver Valley (go ahead and snicker) it is very common to see fat-ass ex-jocks cramming themselves into their letter jackets 20 or more years following graduation. Ditto on ex-cheerleaders. Same-same for ex-band geeks. School pride, in the context of sports, is a strong part of personal identity for the natives here. This area is going into its third decade of hard times, so for many of the natives, school pride at sporting events is one of too few postive memories. They want to cling to it. Many of them are also the children of people who went to the same school and played for the same team, so it has a family tradition aspect to it as well.
All that aside, an overweight 40+ guy stuffed into a HS letter jacket he can’t even button over his gut just looks ridiculous.
Surbey, did you ever consider that this woman might be stuck in a terrible marriage, have a dead-end job, health problems, no friends, or an utterly thankless family? Or several of these problems?
High school might have been the last golden moment she has had in her life, or ever will.
A little compassion, for a woman who has nothing left but memories?
I woe my HS letterman jacket for probably 5 years after I graduated whenever the need arose. It was a nice wool jacket and personally I saw no reason to not wear it.
My mom bought me a nicer wool jacket for Christmas one year and after that I never wore the varsity jacket again. I wasn’t particularly attached to the jacket or my high school, but nor did I feel any reason to stop wearing a perfectly good jacket.
I wear Army sports stuff all the time though, like half the t-shirts that I wear when I’m laying around the house have GO ARMY, or BEAT NAVY on them. And anytime I make it up to West Point for a sporting event I have an Army sports jacket I wear.
Good point, Bosda. Maybe she was going to a costume party. Maybe she was an actress who got a part in a movie playing an idiot and she was getting into character. Maybe her children were being held hostage and she had the ransom money and the kidnappers told her to identify herself by dressing as lamely as possible and she normally had great fashion sense so the only lame thing in her closet was a twenty year old jacket that she kept for sentimental reasons.
I still have my very pretty, expensive prom dress that I wore in highschool. I’m not going to be wearing it any time soon either. Why? Because I would look like a tool.
Like what, exactly?
Someone who was a popular cheerleader or athelete in high?
Someone who might of grabbed their son’s or daughter’s jacket from the coat closet school because they just running out for a 1/2 gallon of milk?
Someone who unintentionally reminded you of 4 years you’d wish you could just forget?Let it go. Save your hate for stuff that really matters, like why no one would check MTV2 and report back.