Ever wonder who owned your thrifted clothes before you? Years ago, I thrifted a pale blue cashmere sweater, short sleeves with little ties on the sleeves knit right in. I know she was a stylish woman, but the sweater felt like 1950s/60s. Sadly, got rid of it when I cleaned out my closets years ago (honestly, I have strong opinions now on why you should never do that!) This past weekend, I thrfited the perfect denim jacket.
The woman that owned my most recent purchase “thrifting the perfect denim jacket” – she could have been that same woman with the pale blue cashmere sweater (although situation and circumstance not likely). She’s likely the same age though. The sweater she wore in high school, the jacket she wore in her casual and retirement life.
In the pocket of that denim jacket were two Werther’s Original hard candies, in butterscotch. I love these, but they are candies of older women – in their 60s, 70s and 80s typically. And so, I expect that this woman who owned this jacket was older. She probably had this jacket from the 1990s – it’s a Lee brand and it has some lycra in it (in the 80s mostly it was “hard denim” without lycra). I’ll call her….Barbara.
Barbara, though she went by Barb, had a summer house up north, near where I bought this jacket. She worked some of her adult life, an admin job for an auto supplier in the Metro Detroit area. (Remember, I am making this up!) She retired 25 years ago, and moved up to her cottage on a lake in northern Michigan. She loves knitting (like me!) and her grandchldren. She recently had to downsize after her hubs passed away and her daughter helped her clean out her closets. Maybe she had more than one of these jackets, a white one (I thrifted a white one too!)
Well, Barb, here’s what adventures your jacket will now have. I’m in my mid 50s and my kids are not yet out of the house (I do have a college student and a HS student.) Your jacket will be layered over sundresses and will visit islands and beach towns. It will cozy up over corduroys and a cashmere turtleneck and under a big scarf in the fall, probably on some dog walk under the trees of crimson and gold. It will visit a winery in the fall and go pumpkin picking at the patch. It’ll be layered over wide leg pants and a big scarf on that first spring morning where winter has retreated for a moment. It’ll hang out on the back of a lawn chair, to be slipped on over shorts by the bonfire.
Your jacket will have many more adventures, Barb, I promise. I expect it will be tossed over the shoulders of my daughter, when she and I visit a lake town up north for a late summer weekend and she’s forgotten a jacket, her long hair spilling down over the jacket to her waist. It might be tied around my waist on a warmer-than-expected bike ride as I zoom around town, taking library books back and dropping my business orders at the post office and UPS store. I promise many everyday adventures in your jacket.
Thanks for the candies, Barb! They’re my favorite, too.