I’ve been wearing and loving blue jeans most of my life. I have noticed in more recent years that some of the jeans I’m wearing are different from the ones I wore when I was younger. For years, I have promised I would never wear a pair of those “old-man jeans.”
My first recollection of wearing denim was not actually wearing jeans but overalls. I hated those things. For one thing, I don’t seem to recall too many first graders wearing overalls to school. Fashion is important when you are six, and trying to win over that first girlfriend. If your buddy Fred is sporting a new pair of Wranglers, turned up a couple of rounds, so his white Keds sneakers really showed, you may quickly see him walking off hand-in-hand with the one you thought you were going to marry…in about 15 years.
Then, there was the fact that I was never skilled at unbuttoning those overall straps…especially in a hurry. You know, that metal button-and-hook that is way up high, almost under your armpits. I don’t think my neck was long enough at that age to twist around enough to see what I was doing, and I wasn’t tall enough to see well in the mirror. When you’ve asked your teacher for permission to go, and you aren’t just wanting to go out in the hallway to find somebody to shoot marbles with, or to do something else more fun than seeing Dick and Jane run. When you really do need to go, and quickly, you need to be adroit at unfastening those straps in a timely manner. If not, the end result can be quite embarrassing, even for a first grader! I still have nightmares! Such an episode could cause you to not get that first girlfriend until the eighth or ninth grade.
Finally, Mama and I went to Floyd Williams Grocery and she bought me a pair of Tuf Nut jeans. They weren’t Wranglers, but at least they weren’t overalls. I think we settled on those for two reasons. One, they were cheap, and two they were tough. I had not been able to build one dirt road in my front yard, without wearing a hole in the knees of my pants before I could drive my toy trucks down my new road. Mama hoped for longer wear with the tougher jeans.
I finally graduated to Wranglers, Lee’s, and Levi’s. By the time high school came around, we were wearing bell-bottom jeans. My favorite pair was one I had fashioned to my own liking. I cut the hem out of the legs and let them fray. I dragged them through the yard and washed them 678 times so they didn’t look so new. I ironed on a Woodstock patch on one hip pocket and a peace sign on one bell bottom. Mama hated them, but at least I wasn’t still playing in the dirt and wearing out the knees!
I’ve reached the age now where what I’m wearing is not nearly as important to me as, well, what is really important. These days I’m not afraid, or ashamed, to go out in public wearing my overalls. They are so comfortable, and much easier to unfasten now. A few years ago, I noticed older guys wearing dress jeans. They are light weight denim and have a permanent crease down the center of each leg. You know, the ones I promised you would never catch me wearing! But you know, they are quite comfortable. They aren’t as stiff and scratchy as a good pair of Levi’s. At least I’m not wearing one-piece old-man coveralls…yet!
Bill King, a Rainsville native, is a columnist in the Mountain Valley News and North Jackson Press newspapers. He is a writer, musician, and author. King can be reached at [email protected].
