Julie Seedorf, Something About Nothing

I gave away all my skinny clothes a couple of months ago. I was sorting through my spring things and decided I was tired of looking at the clothes that no longer fit me. I had dreams of someday fitting back into the cute jeans and smaller dresses and unmentionables that they mention all the time on television now. I decided that if I ever lost weight I would replace the skinny clothes knowing that my dreams of wearing some of these smaller clothes were probably just dreams.

The clothes were donated to Goodwill, and I went shopping for unmentionables that would let me breathe easily instead of feeling like I was holding my breath all the time.

The ink wasn’t even dry on my credit card receipts when the dreaded illness hit. I recovered a few weeks later and crawled into my clothes to find I was 15 pounds lighter and I could wear my skinny clothes, my skinny clothes that now were somewhere at a Goodwill store. All it took for me to lose weight was to get rid of the clothes that I hoarded for years waiting for the weight to drop.

I don’t think a lot about clothes. Most of the clothes that I have are jeans and shirts that I can wear to work and get dirty when I wrestle with computers. I wear the same clothes day in and day out. I wear the same sets of clothes to church that are a little better than my work clothes but my work clothes take me many other places besides work.

Recently I was browsing through my Whole Living magazine when a section about Michelle Adams Organic Textile designer and editor of Lonnymag.com caught my eye. Her words were “I don’t believe in work clothes.” She advocates that many pieces that you own can be used for many occasions. I thought about the past and how different the way we dress for work, church, school and other occasions has changed.

Growing up in the ’50s and ’60s the dress code was different for different occasions. We wore dresses and skirts to school and blue jeans were not allowed for guys. We had our school clothes and after school we would change to our play clothes. We had our church clothes. It was a sign of respect to wear good clothes to church. Most people didn’t have a lot of clothes like people, kids and teenagers do now. They had fewer clothes for different occasions and they took care of them.

There were many complaints from all of us to our parents about the school dress code. Men wore suits to church and many women wore hats.

The clue to how large our wardrobes were in the ’50s and ’60s and earlier years is in the closets of old houses. Have you noticed the small closets? Fewer clothes meant less room was needed to store them.

I could have saved my skinny clothes longer. I have plenty of room in my closets to store old clothes. It was a weak moment of defeat when I gave them away. Who would have guessed I would lose all that weight in 5 weeks? Not me.

I still have the dress from my first son’s wedding. I love the dress, but 15 years ago I was a size 8. I still cannot bear to let go of that dress. However, in my skinnier state now I still can’t fit into that dress and my in-between clothes are gone.

Therein lays my dilemma. Do I get rid of my fat clothes and hope I stay skinnier? Or do I work up to my fat clothes again, which means a lot of good eating. Or do I keep on trying to lose the last weight I need to lose to get into the dress I love that is a size 8?

I have such a hard time making decisions. Did you see that banana split that just went by my table at the Dairy Queen? I think my decision has been made.

Wells resident Julie Seedorf’s column appears every Monday. Send email to her at thecolumn@bevcomm.net.