Fun Monday - The Shirt Off My Back

This week's Fun Monday is being hosted by WT, he wants to see some clothing art. That's tee shirts, baseball caps, hoodies, sports uniforms or any bit of clothing that you or your kids own that has interesting, funny or artistic graphics. (Go visit WT for a list of participants)

In looking through our clothes, I realized that our favorite T-shirts reflect on good times during our marriage - events of note, things we were into. Having now been married for over 12 years, there are very few T-Shirts that have survived from pre-marriage times, but there is still one relic from the courtship days.


Before we were married, we went to Hueco Tanks (outside El Paso, TX) for vacation with our friend Larry. We were all into the climbing thing. Larry had a wall in his back yard, the first venue for that sort of thing, and every Tuesday was "climbing night", which was open to all wanna-be climbers in our area. Once we became somewhat proficient, the wall just wasn't enough. So the vacation. Absolutely wonderful!!!! Camping, stampeding javalinas, warm walls and cold nights. We shared our campsite with some guy named Adam and it was almost like a throwback to the 60-70s - we shared food and space with someone we'd never met before, who lived in his little station wagon and gypsied around to the various climbing destinations around the country. You can't climb at Hueco Tanks anymore. Too many people and the rocks were starting to disintegrate - rocks that had been there since the Asteroid hit.


After we got married, we moved to Wakulla. Our little piece of heaven in the woods and the sand. Mountain biking (without the mountains) became our thing. And kayaking. My husband still goes fishing in his kayak! As you can see, we'd led a very active life - always on the leading edge of the next craze. Once everyone was doing it, it wasn't quite as interesting anymore. One Christmas, I visited our local outfitter and discovered the "Life is Good" t-shirts. This one was perfect for Darling Man.

About three years ago, my grandfather's wife was dying of cancer. After 24 years, I finally returned to England and North Wales to say goodbye to her. And as long as I was there, I visited as much family as possible within a 10 day span. While visiting my grandmother in Wales, she took me to Merionith Mills (a tourist trap according to her), which had some wonderful T-shirts, tea towels and lovely stuffed lambs. I brought home some of each, but my favorite shirt was one I brought for my son. He's too big for it now, so I'm thinking about making it into a pillow. I love the graphics on the front and no one else from around here would get it anyway, should I donate this to Goodwill.


And now... we are into martial arts. The "Evolve" t-shirt was mine. It really spoke to me, not only regarding my progress in KenPo, but also my progress in my life. Darling Man coveted this shirt, so I finally gave in and let him have it. But he swapped me the Body/Mind Yin/Yan shirt, which is equally meaningful to me because it portrays balance and the forces of nature and spirit - which is what I am striving for these days.

So what could have been a very cut and dried assignment turned into an avenue of self-exploration - AGAIN! Am I reading too much into these Fun Mondays?????