I used to have a couple of suits, before the fire. Never bothered to replace them, although I should go buy one, just in case.
Suits make me itch... And supposedly, when in suits one cannot scratch.
They offer no place at all to put my folding Schrade (which never leaves my direct contact), nor multi-tool, and so much as a snuff can in one's pocket,. makes the dang thing hang off center.
The only good thing there could be about getting a suit, is that it would give me the only reason to go buy a new set of my beloved Tony Lamas, because that's the only damn thing Tony's are good for nowadays.
Show up 'underdressed' and some folks think it's a lack of respect. I guess they just don't realize that this is my best pair of jeans, the boots don't even have 'corral residues' on them, and the shirt hasn't even been sweated on (today)--not to mention my best go-to-hell-hat, the one that doesn't need an oil change yet.
Some people get funny that way.
I am too old and set in my ways to give a flying crap what most folks think of me at all. Those few that do matter to me would be knocked over by the respect I show, just showing up clean, with my sh*tkickers polished, and a pearl buttoned shirt with a clean bandana. If the occaision is grand, I may even drag out one of my silver buckles. I don't hardly do that for nobody or nothing. My younger son is getting married this summer, and he and his wife to be will be stunned if I take the time to get 'decked out' like that. Half the town will be buzzin with it. Add a leather vest, a bolo instead of a bandana, and a new Bailey, well, that could only mean that someone very dear to me has died.
As for the beverages, I found out the US Olympic Beer Drinking Team t-shirts were a joke! and broke training thirty years ago, so I don't do champagne, either.
That's a fact. I still have a beer now and then, but the beer from the last five years wouldn't hardly be a good weekend from my youth.
That, and the deep seated realization that the average crowd is just a mob-in-waiting, and generally, I'm not too enthused bout being surrounded by a bunch of folks when I have no idea how they'll react to things.
Church, church socials, something at the grange hall, rodeos, rondezous, gun shows, hot rod shows, the mud pit, maybe a home or garden show, if a lady I'm courting insists. She might get me out for fine dining at one of the barbecue dives or a diner... but other than that, no crowds. The kind of folks that congregate elsewise ain't my kind anyhow.
And if I do wind up at a large venue, I will find a means of exit that no one will think of... Or at least a place to hunker down. Nothing worse than a crowd in a panic. I won't go where they're running - I'll turn 90 degrees from the herd and take my own chances.
