New Southern Dad: Easter clothes

In a conversation with Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein said: “Pay no attention to your clothes and no attention at all to the mode, and buy your clothes for comfort and durability …” 

The two literary giants were discussing saving money to buy art, but the point remains the same. A utilitarian mindset when it comes to your wardrobe will serve you well. 

My first newspaper job had a dress code for reporters. Each day we had to don slacks, a buttoned shirt and a tie. Shirt tails should remain neatly tucked in throughout the day. It is worth noting that the policy only affected the news staff. Sports writers and photographers could dress like, well, sports writers and photographers. 

It was a new experience for me. My previous workplaces were warehouses and the great outdoors digging ditches, where the wardrobe was the dirt and dust you picked up on your boots throughout the day. Young me could be quite the rebel and I violated the dress code, which I was forced to sign on my first day of employment, many times. 

Some of those times I was caught. I was disciplined and even sent home as punishment. Yet I was defiant the whole time of my employment. After about five years I left for greener pastures and vowed to never work somewhere with a strict dress code again. So far so good on that vow. 

I still maintain a small collection of suits and ties for when the need arises, but those are few and far between. 

I partially blame my disdain for the more elegant style of dress on Easter Sunday. For Easter, above any other day on the calendar, people dress in the finest, generally new, brightly colored clothes. Pastel ties and shirts and dresses of vivid color cover the people filling church pews and attending Easter brunches across the country, many of the faces you’ve never seen before or at least not since last Easter. 

As a kid, my mother always supplied a new suit of clothes for Easter Sunday. All children hate new clothes, especially church clothes. They are stiff, limit mobility and always come with the threat to “not get them dirty.” They are the exact opposite of utilitarian. 

Though I look back on those days fondly (wearing the new, albeit uncomfortable clothes did make my parents happy) the new Easter suit is not a tradition I follow now. There’s no sense in putting on a show for one day a year, and as Stein suggested to Hemingway, I’ll have a little extra money for something else in my pocket.

Happy Easter to you and your family.