Get Your Suit On

I was in Penney's today looking for a nice dress shirt and tie for a certain someone for Christmas.  As I was searching stack after stack, and I noticed the shirts on the shelves against the wall, all neat and orderly.  These shirts were placed on the shelves with the collars visible.  I had one of my moments, my moment in time.  I was right back in Shepherds Men's Wear in Shawnee, OK. 

Back in the day, Shepherd's was the place for the best men's clothes in Shawnee.  Christmas was always a good excuse to go in the store and "look around" and occasionally mom would buy a present for Grandpa Thompson or daddy....a nice shirt or a tie.  As a child I was in awe of this store.  I don't remember if they had music playing or not, but it was definitely quiet and we kids were on our best behavior.  The smell was wonderful.......all the nice silk ties, the wool suits, the leather shoes and belts.....the smell of luxury.  The salesmen.....oh the men that worked there..........wow, in the eyes of a preteen, the men were the most handsome men...in their suits and ties and starched white shirts.  I was sure that someday, my husband would either be working there or wearing one of those suits.  (And I would be working at Hamburger King or maybe I would be more "uptown" and work at Anthony's.) 

I remember rows and rows of shelves stacked high as I could see with beautiful shirts, whites, pastels, and plaids, a veritable palette of color.  All neatly stacked with only the collars visible............sense of order and neatness.  Colors stacked together, shelf after shelf.  There was no need to search to find the size for each little divided shelf held the same size.  Same size, same color on the same shelf. 

The rows of suites, the piles of neatly folded sweaters, the leather belts hung neatly, brown in this rack, black in this one; even pajamas.  They had it all.  It is no wonder I that wanted to buy my men's gifts there and that is exactly what I did, and the years I had a boyfriend, he got a sweater.  That is what we bought our boyfriends back then, a sweater. 

Stand alone men stores are few and far between now days, and when I do run across one, they are so expensive they fall off my financial radar.  I long for the days when men tucked in their shirts.  I long for those days when men wore suits.  I long for the days when men dressed up, period!  No tattoos, no piercings, no grungy baggy clothes, no stringy hair!  I long for those simpler times when visiting a men's store was an experience.  It was a place where dreams were made and aspirations began.  Our life was ahead of us. 

Let's go somewhere.  Get your suit on.

I love you.
By the way, Shepherd's Men Wear is still in Shawnee. 116 E. Main Street.  I may have to go there when we make our annual visit to Hamburger King's.  My husband could write this same blog about Camp's Men's Wear in Conway, AR.  Even though he was a city boy and I was a country girl, we seem to have lot of similar experiences.