Leo’s Lance: Dress Up, Old Man...

He was a country boy. He might even have been called a hillbilly. Raised in the sticks of Oklahoma and Arkansas, he did not inherit all the art and elegance and cultural appeal of the sophisticated big city world. He wasn’t ignorant by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, he was well read in history and had a collection of old western song ballads which he could sing like a pro. He had memorized lots of poetry. He just lacked in formal education. He only went to the fifth grade in school because he was needed at home to work on the farm, but he was an intelligent man. A problem came between us when I decided it was my place to educate him on the proper style of clothing. Growing up in the country as he did, there was little need for fancy dress clothes. Work clothes were the choice of the day. His idea of dress clothes was a clean pair of bib overalls and a work shirt. It mattered not if the overalls were a little tattered and torn and a size or so too big, as long as they covered his body, they were too good to discard. He did like for them to be clean. I never knew why he preferred the blue and white stripped overalls of a carpenter instead of the solid blue-jean type. He was never a carpenter. He was my daddy, and I was proud of him. After mom died, he took turns living with his kids. This was when he began wearing worn out overalls to church. Because I was proud of him, I wanted my friends and associates to have a high opinion of him. I feared by him dressing like a bum, people would think poorly of him. So, I asked him to set aside his worn-out overalls for church wear in favor of the nice slacks and shirts he had in his closet. I might mention dad was about 85 years old at this time. I may have asked too many times and too intently. I didn’t realize I was nagging, and I sure hadn’t intended to offend him. But he let me know it was none of my business how he dressed, and I should just as well hush about it because he was going to wear what he wanted to wear. Well, I apologized to him and never brought up the subject again. But it set me to thinking about the styles which are popular today. When I walk down the street or go into a place of business. I see people, even grown people, wearing very ragged jeans with rips up and down the legs, and most of these people are well enough off financially they could be wearing fancy suits and French shoes. I go into a clothing store and see brand new jeans for sale with rips and tears all over them or which have been bleached, (stone washed they call it), to the point they are thread bare. It blows me over that people would deliberate spend their money for clothing which looks worn out. Yes, I wore jeans with holes in the knees when I was a kid. But it was because they were old handme-downs and because I spent so much time on my hands and knees in the dirt, playing marbles. I kept them worn out. At least momma tried to keep the holes patched, but some-times I had patches on top of patches. When I feel like griping about these new styles of clothing, I remember what my daddy told me. “It is none of my business what they wear, so I just as well hush about it. Up until I was a teenager the businessmen who were leaders in our communities had a strict dress code. They all wore suits to their offices. It was a kind-of a shock when in the 1950’s the “fathers” of our hometown voted to discard the suit coats and ties and wear short sleeved shirts and slacks as official business attire. The reason they gave was because it was too hot to wear coats in Phoenix and Scottsdale, Arizona in the summertime. But would you believe, a lot of folks including some businesspeople fussed about it as if wearing short sleeves and slacks to the office was almost like going naked. While attending a Bible Training workshop in preparation for the ministry, one of my instructors insisted that preachers should dress like preachers. His idea of what that constituted was to wear a suit and tie every day and have it laundered once a week. He reasoned because we represent our Lord and His church to the people we should present our very best. This included keeping our fingernails clean. I know that styles of attire are going to change from time to time. I am also aware there is not so much I can do about it, but I do think it has gotten a little out of control when I see the revealing garments some people, mostly women, wear in public. My wife found a picture of an 18-year-old girl who was intending to wear a “dress” for graduation which left more of her body uncovered than it covered. As my mother would say, “You can’t tell if they are out getting in or in getting out. An old preacher I once knew made a statement about this situation which makes sense to me. He said, “I don’t know what kind of fruit Adam and Eve ate in the Garden of Eden that made them aware of their nakedness, but I think (some folks) could use a basketful of it today. Do I hear an amen?