The Suit

I had two suits. One was black and one was navy. The black one was newer, I’d had it about 8 years. The navy suit was older; I’d had it for ages, and obviously it was quite worn, in both senses of the word. But I still wore it, and it was still a suit.

We moved, that was in 2006, and I remember hauling clothes out of the van into the new house, and I remember taking the suit and putting into the house.

And that was the last time I saw it.

That was a very journalistic thing to do, putting that sentence into its own paragraph.

But back to the suit – I never saw it again. I can’t imagine where it went, but it went somewhere. Maybe someone put it in the garbage my mistake. You never know.

Two years later we were getting ready to move again. And someone gave me a bunch of clothes. That’s unusual. When people give us clothes it’s generally girls’ clothes. that doesn’t help me much, except maybe saves us some money. But I can’t wear any of it, much as I’d like to.

But I got this big care package, and it was nice stuff, expensive stuff, but useless – not my style, not my size. But – guess what – there was one nice suit. It was navy and it fit. It had a vest that I could ignore, and two buttons on the jacket. (I could not bring myself to wear a three button jacket). So I put it aside, with plans to get the trousers shortened after we moved.

And so it went. We moved. And the suit moved with us. And I put it into my closet, because that’s the right place for a suit. And I went to see the tailor, and he said bring in the trousers, I am open every day at 6 am.

So I took the trousers and …. Oh no… where are the trousers?? The trousers hanging on the suit hanger are not the right ones!!?? Oh no!!

No idea where the trousers are, no idea where to look, very likely they got into the give-away bag and they are gone forever….

…..

So much for the suit…

So I wandered into a store called Henry Marks. That was on a coffee break. And the suits there are $900. Seriously. They have a few clearance items for $300. they are nice suits. The salesman, his name is Glen, he says you want a 36 short. He’s right. I say for a while I needed a 38. He says you don’t need a 38. We try some on. I tell him what I’m looking for. He says I’ll bring some in and call you. I say I’m not making promises. He says that’s ok.

A day or so later he calls and I go down and try on a navy suit. $300 he tells me. Pure wool of course. I put it on and he starts to measure and mark the adjustments. I say I don’t know if I’m buying it. He says that’s ok.

I go home. My wife says if you want the suit buy the suit. So I bought the suit. I went in and paid and said go ahead and do the adjustments.

Two days later I found the missing trousers…