When I was a kid, my dad used to wear a ratty gray t-shirt with a picture of a pig in a scarf and earmuffs that said, "Oh No! Not Another Midwest Winter!" It was just the right amount of worn, with a stretchy fabric that screams 1980 and faded lettering which proves how many times it's been washed. I'm pretty sure it was dad's favorite t-shirt. I have no idea how he got it. But I have a lot of memories of dad in his younger days (to be fair, I was much younger too) lounging around watching football on Sundays or helping us brush our teeth or trying for the fourth time that month to clean his office while wearing that well-loved t-shirt.
Several years later, I found it in a Goodwill pile that mom had started in the upstairs hallway. I pulled it out and it's traveled through many cities and lots of places in my life. Sometimes when I start to miss being home or need to remember the simplicity of being a kid, I'll pull it out and put it on. I'm wearing it now, in fact.
Rachel saw it once and asked why I always got the good stuff. (She's still bitter that I have that rocking chair...) Mom was here and seemed baffled that either of us wanted the old thing. But I guess she just didn't understand.
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