I was doing some household chores this week and trying to catch up on laundry. After drying the clothes and folding them to put everything back in the closet and shelves, I realized that there are a couple of articles of clothing that seem to stand out. The two articles of clothing that every man, and most women, find in their wardrobe are T-shirts and ball caps. T-shirts are comfortable, cool in warm weather, easy to care for, and often make a statement. T-shirts come from a variety of sources and tend to accumulate over the years. If you travel to another state or another country, a ball game, or a special event the one item that is something to buy is a T-shirt. Buying a T-shirt for yourself is a reminder of the visit or event that you can wear to show others or to reminisce about. If you need to buy a gift for a friend or relative while traveling a T-shirt is not very expensive, will pack easily into the suitcase, and in most cases the person will appreciate the gift.
T-shirts make it easy to advertise a business, a race, a special event, a favorite sports team, or simply have a phrase that you think is either funny or important to you. They come in a large array of colors and styles. Some are very special and are worn only on special occasions. I have a T-shirt with Bill Roger’s signature on it that states, “Moe, See you in Boston, Bill Rogers”. I might as well frame that shirt as I have only worn it about three times.
For runners a T-shirt is a reminder of a race they ran. I don’t know what race started the idea of giving a runner a T-shirt but it is an established routine that almost every race follows. I started to accumulate a stack of T-shirts during my running days and thought it would be good to give runners a different item. I had some cotton towels printed that said, “I (a big red heart) Love to Run 10K’s” and gave it instead of a T-shirt. The long time runners appreciated something different, but the first time runners felt cheated out of the T-shirt. Years later that towel became something special for the runners that ran the race.
