Labor Day Weekend Lawncare Style. . .

What to do with summer clothing when it starts looking long in the tooth?  Easy.  Relegate it to garden and lawncare wear.

I've lamented here and there before on this blog that most people in 2019 appear in public looking worse than if they had planned to clean out the basement, attic, garage, rake leaves all afternoon in the backyard, or do something really filthy like change the oil and filter in the car.  I've just returned home from a series of Saturday morning errands, and about the only clues that most people crossing my line of sight were not absolutely, completely, and utterly down and out were the large SUVs they climbed out of at the supermarket and latest iPhones on prominent display in everyone's hands.  

Not inexpensive items.  Yet these same people look as grubby or worse than residents of shelters for the abused and indigent.  It boggles the mind given the general level of affluence we're talking about.

The phenomenon of Slob Nation somehow surpasses the simple casualization of society during the last 30-odd years.  It is, after all, fairly easy I maintain to dress casually and be "comfortable" -- our national obsession, right up there with constant snacking -- without looking like something stuck to the bottom of your shoe.  

But that is precisely the impression that much of the rural, urban, and suburban United States leaves when it ventures out the door and appears for public consumption in the 21st century.  This troubling mass tendency transcends income brackets and zip/postal codes before anyone fires off a nasty comment or email.  My guess is that it is also due to a rapid erosion of plain old respect.  Respect for oneself, others, society, and the world around us.

I should point out that the area where we live and work is pretty diverse thanks to the proximity of a large university.  We have large contingents from East and South Asia as well as a smattering of people from African and South American countries plus African Americans and some Latinos.  And then we have the usual Wonder Bread types of Northern European descent like yours truly.  Boo!  Hiss!  Liberal guilt!  Liberal guilt!

When I spot a suburban family piling out of a large, recent model sports utility vehicle or massive four-door diesel pickup truck, with the father dressed essentially like a gang member, corner drug dealer, or homeless person, two things cross my mind.  First, what kind of example is that guy setting for the two-four children invariably in tow where self-presentation and what you say to the rest of the world via your attire are concerned?  Second, what is the wife/mother, who is often still kind of cute and reasonably pulled together for a Saturday, doing with that schlubb???!!  

The habit of dressing (and acting) like you are down and out with nothing better to do than hang around an empty shopping mall in the middle of the day, by and large, does not seem to be one in which foreign-born visitors to, or residents in this country indulge.  Not that I have noticed at least.  Rather, it seems to be the purview of people born here.  I have also observed the slide into overt sloppiness other places I've lived, studied, or worked.  There are also European and Russian variants of not bothering at all to present yourself reasonably well when it comes to attire (and conduct), sometimes straying into the realm of frumpy, sometimes veering into minor street thug territory.  

It is interesting that you don't usually see the sort of thing I describe in Mexico among the general population however, where even the poor make an effort to present themselves pretty well.  Young people there, if I might be so bold, generally look much more stylishly put together in line with what you might see in France, or Italy for example.  Even the oldsters like yours truly look pretty damn good.  And we're talking about a place with a tropical climate in many instances.  What is our problem? 

Does the very common scene I describe above result from incredibly low self-esteem?  Hopelessness?  Complacency?  Our collective dependency on mood leveling drugs?  Or something else?  More than Capitalism run amuck -- let's not automatically blame the ultra rich for this too, now -- I think there are other very unpleasant factors at play, often of our own doing, that contribute to the pervasive malaise in which we find ourselves.  Better minds than mine have wrestled with this issue, though, and no one has yet managed to explain it satisfactorily, or solve it.  

Why are we such an unpleasant hot mess when it comes to appearance and how we typically act in 2019?  There are no easy answers, which of course is what everyone wants.  No hardship, self-reflection, or change from within either.  Heaven forbid!

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On a much less vexing note, what about dressing for outdoor work in the garden or yard during the weekend?  It's ok to look like hell then, right?  Well. . .  No.  It's possible to be comfortable and somewhat protected from the elements, yet appear reasonably pulled together without looking like you've been kicked to the very gutter of society.  Consider today's photograph for example.

The items shown above, sans the cap and fraying edges, are very similar to what many of the men and some of the women in my extended family donned in the evenings, after showers and before drinks and dinner, when we used to congregate on the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia, The Outer Banks in North Carolina, or North Myrtle Beach in South Carolina each summer.  Way back when before the latter became as built up as the area is now.  After early morning walks on the beach, days horsing around in the sun, afternoon trips inland for groceries, a late lunch, or with another destination in mind, and before the all-night Bridge games that, among some family members, stretched from 8:30 or 9pm until, on a good night, two or three in the morning.

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But back to the here and now.

Pictured above is my 'go to' attire for lawncare and other outside chores between late April and late October each year.  Comfortable and relatively cool even in the warmest weather, plus the sun is kept off my face and arms thanks to the long sleeves and cap.  Not really a baseball cap kind of guy here, perish the thought, but I've had the latter since the mid-90s (from Stamey's of Lexington, North Carolina, "The best pork BBQ sandwich in the state!"), and it's handy when I'm out in the sun.

There are a couple of other pairs of khaki shorts and worn out oxford cloth button-down shirts in my wardrobe that, as comfortable as they are, have not really been fit to wear anywhere for the last two or three years.  Certainly not in a typical Monday through Friday 8am-5pm context.  Yet, for gardening and mowing the lawn, they're perfect.  As an added benefit, any neighbors who might observe you won't mistake you for a homeless person hired for a few hours of work by some good Samaritan.

Not to make light of the less fortunate, you understand, but there is simply no reason to look like you have developed an opioid or methamphetamine habit and fallen through the cracks of society, even when dressed for physical labor outside.

Let's pull ourselves together, people!

-- Heinz-Ulrich