Too Old To Be Goofy and Girly

Clothes have never interested me much. I try to wear appropriate clothing for whatever I'm doing. When I worked in business settings, I wore dresses, suits, or pant suits and heels. I very seldom wear bright colors or fadish styles. I'm a basics, pastel sort of a person. When I go to Walmart, I wear jeans. When we eat at McDonald's (or is that Mac?), I wear jeans. If we go to nicer places, I wear nicer clothes. I don't mind wearing last year's clothing. In other words, I only care if what I'm wearing is decent and appropriate. I do have one little fashion obsession—shoes and purses. I love them!


Today Mr. Fixit and I had some errands. I dressed in dark jeans, a white shirt, and black sandals. The day before I had been wearing pink pants, a white shirt, and white sandals. (My pink sandals didn't match the pink pants.) I carried a multicolored purse that had same pink in the fabric as the pants and white. My black purse, which is my basic purse, was in the trunk of the car because the one I carried yesterday isn't big enough to carry the junk I might need. As I was standing at the trunk of the car transferring the stuff from the multicolored purse to black one, Mr. Fixit said, “What are you doing?” I explained that I was changing purses. He said, “Why do you need to change purses?” I didn't say anything, I just pointed at my black shoes. He said, “Why did you point to your shoes instead of saying that you didn't want to carry colored purse with black shoes?”

I felt my blush rise in my face. I said, “Okay, okay, you've got me. I didn't want to say out loud that I am uncomfortable unless my shoes and purse match. So now I've said it, and I don't want to hear one word from you on the subject.” He said, “Okay,” but he smirked for the next five minutes. I want to point out that we have been married for 44 years. Has he never noticed that my shoes and purse almost always match? Or if they do happen to be a different color as they were yesterday, either the purse or the shoes match what I'm wearing.

I don't know why I was embarrassed to say that I hate it when my shoes and purse don't match. Maybe it's because it sounds so silly and girly. It's one of those things that my grandmother and mother taught me along with the rule that you never wear white shoes before Good Friday or after Labor Day. 

I do know that from now on whenever I buy shoes, he will remind me of my little quirk, and I will feel goofy and girly. Somehow being goofy and girly at 64 years of age isn't quite dignified.