Do Clothes Make the Man?

Two incidents that occurred over the last two weeks led me to the question “Do Clothes Make the Man”? My husband, the butt (sorry Chick) of lots of my writings and humor works 2 mornings a week. The rest of the week he sleeps late. Because he sleeps late 5 mornings of the week he sometimes oversleeps on the days he works. Suddenly his feet hit the floor and he is in a total frenzy getting dressed and getting out the door. Now, mind you, he is not the world’s best dresser so I’m sure for those that noticed on this particular Thursday they wondered why he honored them by wearing what he had on. He went to the Post Office and several other places during the day and when he finally walked in the door exhausted from his morning rounds of delivering interoffice mail he sat down across from me and rested. He looked down at what he had on. It had tartan plaid bows on each side of a black winter hoodie. He had grabbed my hoodie instead of his. I just wonder how many men are out there now looking for that new look.

Another incident happened to my dad. He is currently working hard to get his strength back after a difficult round of hospitalizations throughout the entire month of January. He is at a skilled nursing center working on further strengthening his capability to walk and breathe at the same time. This is a wonderful place to be to recover; however, I noticed this week when I went to visit and go over his Plan of Care with the staff that he was especially looking sharp. His clean, white hair was glossy and long. He looked like Papa Walton in the Walton’s looking very distinguished as he sat there in his lovely green t-shirt that had Grandpa Rocks written across the front and his tan pants, brown belt and shirt tucked in all ready to roll in his wheelchair. I said, “Dad you look nice, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen that shirt before”. He said, “They put it on me, maybe one of the kids (he still calls the grown ups kids) bought it for me." I said, “Ummm, maybe so, did anyone else bring you any clothes up here?” He couldn’t remember.

The next day my brother called me to find out how the plan of care went and when dad would be coming home. I told him the extent of the meeting and the outcome, also mentioning the shirt I didn’t recall seeing and he couldn’t tell for sure where it came from. Wes said Dad had on a shirt today he’d never seen before with golfing figures on it. Ummmm, I wonder! I got off the phone and called the “home” and asked if they could be putting dad’s roommate’s clothes on my dad instead of his own clothes. (His roommate has been in the hospital since arriving) The caseworker asked me which side of the closet I put dad’s clothes on and I told her. She began to laugh. The clothes for dad were on the opposite side and should be on the same side his bed is on. Now the mystery is solved. The room mate will be coming back to dirty clothes and dad will go back to being a pumpkin which is now incentive for us to shop and not in someone else’s closet…

Rabbi Ray

I love to hear stories from the past, especially really good stories I’ve never heard. I had mentioned perhaps buying myself a coke out of the vending machine when I got to school today and Chick said he remembered Rabbi Ray and the candy box. I said, “What is a candy box?” He said it was candy in a box with a glass over the top. He went on to say they bought the candy at school. I asked if it was like a vending machine or was it an honor system box. “No, Rabbi Ray sold the candy in the hall at school. He also had a grocery store in town. Because of that store, I won the spelling bee in the 5th grade.”

Chick said he beat out Virginia Rothfus, the smartest girl in class, because of one word. I still couldn’t figure out how this grocery store helped him win the spelling bee. Chick laughed. He said, “There was a sign that was eye level when he went into the store and it advertised a product.” He was so used to seeing that sign every time he went into the store that when the word was called out he spelled it, S C I S S O R S, and that is the story of how he won the spelling contest. Rabbi Ray, you were remembered today and it was a sweet story to pass on to my children and my children’s children, and so on.