When A Coat Is More Than Just A Coat

[kickingrad]

So, a while back on Jezebel, there was a post called When A Coat Is More Than Just A Coat, all about the way certain articles of clothing or shoes take on a special meaning, the way they become stitched into the fabric of our lives, the way they represent a memory or a discovery of self.

"The shoes I loved so much have since been discontinued, and

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[bunniewabbit]

I still have the t-shirt that we all wore in high school for pep band. It's an ugly shade of light green, with the name of the high school and (in my case) a picture of a flute silk-screened on the upper left. I never really liked high school, and in fact was mildly depressed for much of it, but I loved band and the people in it, and it's my only remaining souvenir. I will never, ever wear it again, but I will never get rid of it.

I also have several pieces of jewelry that I've had since I was very young. One is an inexpensive bracelet of fake pearls, with dangling hearts that have different colored rhinestones in the center of each one. I wore it every Valentine's Day from the time I was about five clear up through college. My sister had one like it, but for some reason it makes me think of my grandmother. And I don't know if she even gave them to us.

Another bracelet I have is one that my mother helped me acquire: it was a promotional thing for Disney's "The Jungle Book" movie, and we had to send in special seals off of boxes of Kleenex tissue (if I remember correctly) in order to collect the bracelet and each of the charms. I managed to collect charms of all the characters except for one or two before they discontinued the promotion.

On a whim, I recently checked ebay to see what they're going for, and it's not a lot of money, but I got a kick out of seeing what other people managed to collect. It doesn't really matter, though, because I'm not selling it. It reminds me of being young and in love with Disney films, listening to the stories on vinyl records over and over (because there was no such thing as videotape, yet), and the thrill of getting each new charm as it arrived. I fucking loved that thing!