While in Florida for 3 months I had many reasons to dress each day, either in appropriate field clothes or something semi-professional for my ESL classroom days. On those days I even I combed my hair and wore clean shoes.
Living now in Alabama island mode, I want nothing but the extreme comfort of jammies or clothes that are so jammie-like that I can sleep in them at the end of the day without bothering to change into official PJs. I just throw on some warm socks, crank up the electric blanket, and snuggle in, making the transition to sleep mode easy. In the morning when I must walk Tango for a few minutes I am already dressed.
My post retirement jammie/wardrobe includes short nightgowns with beach motifs that act as beach cover-ups. My regular daily wear, depending on the weather, is leggings with a t-shirt or untucked man’s shirt. On colder days I wear sweats, both top and bottom. When at freezing or below, I add a fleece half-zip top or a hoodie. I even have 2 sets of dressy sweats – pants and zip hoodies, one set burgundy and the other a deep purple.
Fleece fabric and stretchy knits (and bright sneakers) are the baby boomer’s double knits. As I walk around the campground, which is populated with boomers, I notice that the other women wear similar combinations of fat-defining knits. It’s not a bad thing. It’s blah. Blah, blah, blah. Unimaginative, lazy, frumpy, sloppy. For many women, a blah look day after day means, eventually, a super blah attitude and an overwhelming sense of frump. Clothes do more than cover our bodies–they affect and then reflect our attitude. Part of this desire to look better is due to marketing ploys but the other part is ancient, as in the desire to ornament and draw attention to ourselves. Some self-respect factors in as well.
As for us old folks, as others have noted, when you live alone the days are better when you get up and get dressed. No evening gowns needed in the campground. Something between a Hillary pantsuit and the baggy men’s boxers that I wear in the summer. So today I decided to look a bit sharper. I wore denim jeggings (wooo, a step up) and a nice, cheery, yellow rayon tunic-top. I rinsed my hair in the shower and did a French braid. I put on some Mary Jane shoes and hoop earings and, on this perfect Island day, headed out on a with Tango for a walk through the campground and then down to Fort Gaines, near the pier. Allow me to note that several guys smiled at me and one guy pulled up on his bike to talk. As I walked back inland from the pier, a lady sitting in her car told me she loved my top. “So comfy and cheerful,” she said. I walked taller and more confidently.
So I have a new goal: I plan to dress nicer most days. By nicer, I don’t mean anything close to professional clothes, but something that shows I am alive and well. The exception being on rainy days when staying in jammie-like clothes is as comforting as a bowl of clam chowder and Moscato for dessert. Today is warm and we will set up on the beach. Instead of the nighties, I will wear a flirty tunic/dress made from an indigo fabric and a hat. Where did I put that darn thing? I will dig around the sweats and boxes and hope it floats to the surface.
Maybe something more like this for bike riding?
