Happy Birthday to the T-Shirt

 

 

 

The t-shirt turns 100 this year

That’s worth celebrating, as a red-blooded American.  I didn’t have to think about it, didn’t have to look it up, I just knew the t-shirt was invented in the U.S. There’s nothing more American than the t-shirt. And we love our t-shirts don’t we?

I did some research and found out that the t-shirt was first used by the U.S. Navy, 100 years ago this year.  Our little undergarment was first called a t-shirt because of the shape. As you might assume, T-shirts started out as utilitarian, they did a job, they are workers, like us. And we Americans took to these shirts by the thousands, eventually by the millions.

My thoughts about t-shirts and how much they apparently mean to me, had me germinating this piece for a while. Then I saw on Good Morning America recently that the t-shirt was turning 100 and that was my cue. I don’t know why I like t-shirts so much. Maybe it’s my working class upbringing? Possibly I’m immature? Maybe I just have something to say? You think? Apparently a lot of us have things to say. I know that a lot of my friends, in talking about tee shirts over the years, have the same affinity.

There’s a part of me, as I am getting dressed that feels like, I really should grow up. I have this feeling that, as a 50 year old father of 3, it might be time to move beyond the t-shirt as a major component of my wardrobe. Maybe I should at least move on to golf shirts? They seem a little more grown up anyway.

According to “A History of the T-Shirt” on T-Shirt Spotlight, an industry website, our beloved t-shirt, after starting off as an ensign in the Navy, was coopted by other branches of the armed forces. It didn’t take long for the working man like: dockworkers, farmers, construction workers and the like to see the benefits of the comfortable and reasonably priced t-shirt in the early decades of the 20^th century.

By the 1930’s, USC football managers saw the tee as a tool to prevent chafing under football equipment. Of course if guys on the football team were wearing these shirts, they garnered a little cache. T-shirts became a prized possession on campus.  I would imagine girlfriends were the first to don the shirts, then other students started pilfering them. The t-shirt became cool. Apparently, to prevent the widespread theft that was going on, the school printed Property of USC Football on the shirts. As you might figure, that only encouraged more theft.

According to multiple sources, it was Brando’s 1947 appearance in “A Streetcar Named Desire” that caused an upswing in t-shirt sales.  Brando, in a thin t-shirt that barely hid his animal magnetism (I’m quoting here) drove women crazy. This in turn drove men to go out and buy t-shirts to be like Brando. Isn’t that the picture of the 50’s? Greased back hair, leather jacket and white t-shirt underneath? Who can forget James Dean, cool in a tee under his jacket in Rebel Without a Cause? The tee shirt, maybe with a rolled up pack of stogies in the sleeve, meant toughness, coolness, one of the defining images of the 50’s.  Some time during that decade, Walt Disney had the idea to put Mickey Mouse on a t-shirt and a HUGE industry, the vacation t-shirt, was born. In the 60’s, the t-shirt takes off as a means of self-expression, t-shirts with yellow smiley faces, groovy tie-dye t-shirts with sayings for protest make an appearance in head shops from Greenwich Village to Haight-Ashbury.

 

 

We Americans took this work shirt, something that is designed to do a task and morphed it into a vehicle for self-expression. Your t-shirt says something about you, Christ it says something FOR you. Your shirt can tell us about where you went to high school or college, or at least visited. We can learn, as we pass you on the street, where you like to vacation. In a split second encounter I will know what kind of music you listen to or what teams you root for. During an election year, I can find out what candidate you are supporting. Based on the shirts you wear, I can see what industry you work in or the company you work for. Often times I can find out about your hobbies. Maybe you like to run? Or ride a bike? You can show me that you are quirky, funny, odd, angry, cynical….Maybe you will share with me your personal mantra, on a t-shirt?

 

 

Maybe you’re like me but I love this stuff. I read people’s shirts, I assume they took the time to choose that shirt because they wanted a response. T-shirts keep us human, they are a conversation starter, an introduction, an attempt to connect. I love making conversation with strangers, “So you’re a Cardinals fan? How did that happen?”  “Did you go to Stanford?” “Elvis Costello, gotta love Elvis, he’s in my top 5.”  “I’ve never been to Yosemite but it’s on my list of places to go.”  “I love NY too!” I know that often times, some thought goes into the shirts that I wear, so I’m assuming others do the same. Sometimes we just grab what’s on top but it’s always fun to ask.

 

 

I was so happy to hear that other guys my age care about their t-shirt collections. I have friends whose wives complain about their husband's attachments to their t-shirts. A lot of us have our own t-shirt idiosyncrasies: patterns for folding, methods of storage, sequences for wearing our t-shirts. Initially, when a shirt is new, it will be in the “dressy t-shirt” category. I know that’s an oxymoron but guys know what I’m talking about. When a shirt is brand new, if it’s not too loud and doesn’t have something obnoxious printed on it, you can wear it out for a decent meal. Not to a nice restaurant but out for burgers or pizza. Once the shirt gets a little older it moves into the sports category, for working out, hoops, bike rides, running and stuff. After doing yeoman’s work, t-shirts get beat up, usually the collar is the first to go, and then it winds up in the yard-work category which is the last stop before the rag pile. That’s a really tough decision to make, to actually euthanize a shirt. The shirt has done so much work for us, 10-12 years depending on the quality and frequency of wear; so you can’t just throw it away. How can you toss it under the sink, waiting to be used to clean up dog puke or wipe grease off your handlebars? That does not seem fair. There are memories connected to these tees. I do buy them on vacation, at say Lake Placid or Montauk and then every time I put the shirt on, those memories come flooding back. I think of boogie boarding with my boys, or hiking in the Adirondacks. There is an inherent sadness with each retired t-shirt as we are confronting our own mortality.

 

Some shirts I hardly ever wear. We won some intramural championships at SUNY Buffalo, the pinnacle of athletic achievement I know, and I prized those t-shirts, wore them sparingly until they “shrunk” somehow since I was in college. I’m sure they are still around somewhere, deep in the recesses of a closet. My 9/11 memorial t-shirts are now in this sacrosanct category as well, for other reasons. They are too frayed to wear in public but I can’t just throw away a Captain Vinny Brunton memorial t-shirt. That would be sacrilege. Those guys deserve better. Maybe there should be a ceremony for burning tees like that? Kind of like the U.S. flag.

 

 

 

Every once in a while I will remember a shirt I have lost, Hey, whatever happened to that….Maybe I left it at the gym on the change-over? Lost at the beach? Laundry catastrophe? Sometimes they get stolen. Kind of cool to think that a girlfriend would keep a t-shirt just to be close to you but what happens when you break up? They don’t still wear the shirt do they? Do they burn it? Throw it out? Use it as a rag?

 

I have tee shirt envy sometimes. Knowing when I see a shirt that I might never be able to find it. One of my buddies has a Life is Good shirt that has a picture of a stack of books and it says, “Read ‘em and Reap.” I love that, but no amount of searching on the internet helped me to find it.
In closing, besides the ones we've already seen, let’s take a look at some of the more notable t-shirts we’ve seen throughout the past decades:

 

 

 

 

 

In reading up on the history of the t-shirt and contemplating this for a while, I have decided that No, I don’t have to grow up. Like a lot of guys my age, I am going to continue to celebrate the t-shirt. And I am sure you will too.

The One Uppers

 

It’s Fourth of July 2013, sunny and hot in Middlebury Connecticut. The Spinners  are at our local town beach, The Middlebury Recreation Area (MRA)  on Lake Quassapaug with hundreds of other Middlebury families and their friends. Like it is in your town, whether it’s Northampton, Massachusetts,  Kendall Park, New Jersey or Charlotte, North Carolina you can’t miss this day in your town.  In Middlebury, everyone is there. The best part is, most people, give or take the stress to get a table and a spot on the beach, are in a great mood. We are celebrating our nation’s birth!  Joe Laporta, in charge of the MRA, is on the PA announcing the next teams up for horseshoes or hoops. Jack Worgan is walking around busting someone’s balls. Pat Lewis is bumming a free beer off of a new friend and the smell of barbequing is in the air.

Sitting in the picnic grove around lunch time with some of our closest Middlebury friends, biting into some Cape Cod Chips and sipping our beverages of choice (for me it’s water or Snapple until at least 6 0’clock) passing around condiments and hot dogs we are talking about the food. The Jorgensens brought a full watermelon and we are cutting that baby up and it looks great. This watermelon is just the right amount of red, juicy…we pass it around. I realize in the middle of my first bite, I’m going for seconds. Carrie Jorgensens says, “There’s nothing better than cold watermelon on a summer day.”

Oh no she didn’t! She dropped that gauntlet, just like that? NOTHING better than…cold watermelon on a summer day…Nothing? My verbal wise ass goes into overdrive….nothing? Sure, watermelon on a hot summer day is good but does it top the list? Is it at the pinnacle? The apex of all existence? To be put up on that oh so lofty perch of…there as nothing better than…Well we started riffing right away…my first comment is, “Nothing? How about a cold beer taken from a cooler full of ice and water?”  Joel Jorgensen, always quick on the uptake even though he’s from Iowa, goes to the opposite end of the spectrum, “How about hot chocolate after a cold day of skiing or sledding?” 

The writer in me goes into action, “Hold on, this is perfect for a blog, we have to write this down.” We had a great time, thinking of all of these life affirming things, simple things that make life good, events that make life fun and exciting and full of taste and zest and well, LIFE.” So in no particular order, this is what we came up with sitting around that picnic table on the Fourth of July…

There’s nothing better than… 

A hug from your children, a REAL hug with hearty squeezing.

A Belly laugh. Preferably a group belly laugh. Belly laughing so it hurts, so you have tears in your eyes.

Hearing a great song on the radio while you are driving…singing at the top of your longs.

Hitting a line drive on the sweet spot, knowing it’s over the shortstop’s head as soon as it leaves your bat, thinking two as you round first base because it might be in the gap…even better if there are men on base.

Ice cream in the summer, here in Middlebury, we go to Rich’s Farm in Oxford, or Charlie’s in Woodbury…whatever your flavor from soft serve vanilla or chocolate to Razmanian Devil…is there anything better than ice cream on a summer day?

Sticking a jumper from 20 feet. In my case it’s a set shot but you get the idea. Knowing you let it go with the right amount of arc and rotation, that it’s good on the release…even better if it’s point game and cherry on top if the game is hard fought and you know the guys on the other team.

New book smell.

Finding a book to really lose yourself in; one that you don’t even realize you are reading, just escape into this other world the author has created just for you, the reader.

Endorphin rush after a bike ride, run, a workout.

Coming home to a clean house. (this was Kira’s)

Crafting the witty comeback, the one that vanquishes your opponent or makes everyone laugh.

Reminiscing with old friends, Facebook has been pretty good for this.

 

Thin crust NY style pizza (Totonno’s in Coney Island, Grimaldis at the Brooklyn Bridge, Pepe’s in New Haven, Anthony’s in Oakville…

Thank You Notes. Giving or receiving.

New York City in the spring time.

A really good movie. Movie pop corn.

My mom’s lasagna.

Diving into a pool on a really hot day.

That light bulb moment when you teach someone something and they get it. Like teaching your kid to ride a bike, or to swim…there’s nothing better than that smile…when your pupil realizes…I can read, I can dive off the dock, I can swim!

 

Working together as a team to get something done: a family garden, a home improvement project, a community clean-up…

Sleeping in your own bed after being away for a long time (especially if you’ve been camping!).

Smell of coffee in the morning, tied with bacon apparently. 

Steak.

Mashed potatoes.

Lemon Italian Ice.

 

The smell of fresh cut grass.

That first t-shirt day of spring after a long winter.

Or that first sweatshirt night after a brutally hot summer.
 

This was a lot of fun to brainstorm and to craft the list. So what’s on your, “Nothing Better Than” List?