I know you’re dying to know the end of ‘My old purple jacket…’ story. Sean, the young man who was willing to buy it called. Originally I wasn’t ready to let it go because I don’t go to stores during this pandemic. He’d found a jacket of his own to trade with me so I agreed to let him have mine.
You can’t give a DIRTY jacket to someone, so I decided to wash it. I’d carelessly tossed it into the washing machine again and again through the years where it was mercilessly tossed about without mercy. After serving me so well, the poor thing deserved a proper goodbye.
I felt guilty about that mistreatment so I soaked it in soapy water. It gurgled with pleasure as I gently massaged its sleeves and neck, careful not to remove any more of its words printed in white. When it had had enough of a relaxing bath, I transferred it to my tub filled with almost enough lukewarm water to bathe in. Then I hung it carefully above to drip-dry. Only after drying was it ready to go on to explore a new world.
We were meeting at 10 a.m. on Sunday. I carefully folded my old friend with tissue paper and slipped it into a sleek-looking blue bag to pass it on to its third owner. Yes, that’s true. I never bought the old jacket. A friend in L.A. purchased it, decided she didn’t like it, and gave it to me. I have a feeling my old purple jacket will be treated with more respect with its new owner than I ever gave it.
Not only did Sean give me a jacket of his own, (Frankly in much better shape than my old purple one.) he also brought another gift — a lovely round loaf of bread he’d made himself! (Forget it. I’m not sharing.)
Sean is a well-known, respected athlete and Volleyball coach who has some teams playing at a beach right near where I live. Perhaps my friend Garth is right and I WILL show up to watch some games in the future. He is also a nice enough guy to have gone along with my wanting all these silly photos about our meeting so I could share them with you on this post.
Will we get together again? I hope so!
View from Over the Hill 