The teenager deep within me is reeling from the injustice.
WalMart is now selling Op. Can you believe it?
I grew up on the Eastern Shore of Maryland in a rinky-dink town not quite thirty minutes from the beach. I grew up in a loving family where dad provided and mom did neat things for me, like sewing some of my clothes. I even had a cute bikini wayyyyy back when I was 8 or 9 that mom made. Powder blue and white seersucker material. I loved it. The very last time I wore one.
I've digressed, of course. When I became a teenager, even in that rinky-dink town we had a fashion hierarchy. And anyone who was anyone wore Op.
I loved Op. Op T-shirts, Op shorts, Op bathing suits. And oh, how I envied the "other" kids who wore Op. But could I buy Op? Ha!
The one "boutique" store in town, Scher's, mocked me every time we drove by. The Op mecca taunted me with what I could not buy. One day, I had enough to buy an Op wallet. But who'd see a wallet of tan corduroy with brown trim? I just knew when I took it out of my purse to pay for something, everyone would know I couldn't afford the clothes.
Then finally, somehow, I saved up enough money to buy my own pair of Op shorts.
I still remember them. A cobalt blue corduroy, short-shorts (no, not too short or I'd never be let out of the house). They had front cargo pockets and the embroidered white "Op" logo on one of the pockets. And they were mine, on sale for less than twenty bucks.
I wore them until they wore out.
Fast forward over twenty-five years later, and here comes WAL MART selling Op. In my town back then, that would have been like Ames or KMart selling Op. It wouldn't have happened. So this is why WalMart selling Op is such a coup.
Sigh. Now I have the budget where I could buy myself Op. But the body I had back then is gone, or at least hidden. Sigh.
And I'm about five hours from the nearest REAL beach.
I console myself with the thought of: Corduroy at the beach being cool? What were we thinking??
1 comment:
Hi Lynette,
Thought I'd pop in to see what your blog is about. I'm kinda new to this blogging thing, even though I've written alot on mine.
Op clothing? Where was I? I don't have a clue what that is. Now, if this was popular in the '80s, it's possible I was overseas at the time. Air Force hubby and I were in Frankfurt for most of that decade. Now, you want to talk chic, how about my era. Twiggy, the skinny model, had a make-up line that was frosted, frosted, and more frosted. You weren't in style unless you wore white lip frosting and blue cream eyeshadow. YIKES! A couple of years after that we all went au natural. We burned our bras, (or hid them since our mothers wouldn't let us play with fire,) and went the hippie route. No make-up, long stringy hair, and bell-bottom jeans that weren't fashionable unless they were frayed on the bottom from stepping on them in ouor bare feet. You're right. What were we thinking?
Anyway, I want to thank you again for your enthusiasm for my Craft Cinema blog at www.CraftCinema.blogspot.com where we discuss movies through the craft of writing, (brief commercial - it's all about marketing!) and to let you know that I'm including your blog along with all participants in a blog roll on the Craft Cinema site. If you'd rather your blog not be included, let me know.
I can't wait to get started with Galaxy Quest! Yea!
Post a Comment