T-shirt #275 - Smokey the Bear

T-shirt #275 - Smokey the Bear

I love this shirt. I think it's iconic, and yet usefully informative.

SMOKEY THE BEAR'S WEB SITE

The website is pretty cool. Check it out. Tour through the Smokey memorabilia. I checked this post for the 1970s Nostalgia category because my best memories of my Smokey are from the 1970s especially during the years I was a Cub Scout and a Webelos Scout. I did not advance to Boy Scouts as they did things on Saturday mornings, and I prefered to stay home and watch cartoons. Had I grown up in the age of VCRs or DVRs, I would have recorded those shows and gone camping.

Today's shirt is a favorite. I consider it kind of "dressy" because of the collar. Imagine my consternation when, as a puppy, Satchel slashed a hole in the shirt. Hence, my "before" photo above left. I had a local seamstress patch the shirt, and thus, the next photo (directly left) is an "after" photo. If you are local and need seamstress work done, her name is Joann Wespinter. I have her contact information if you leave me a message or look her up. Beware, she also sells Amway but not too evangelically.

I am happy to have one of my favorite shirts repaired. You have to get your face right next to the fabric to see the patch.

This is another post that went up on its original day incomplete. I am finishing it the next day.

As for the hat, I unearthed it while packing up things during the move my parents made back in January of this year (2013). I had many T-shirts that I let go in that purge. I have mentioned this sequence of events before. I had the idea for the T-shirt blog in time to start it January 1st 2013, but I didn't think anyone would be interested, considered it overly narcissistic, and was not sure I could keep it going on a daily basis. Thus, when I was going through stuff for my parents' move, I let many T-shirts get away, old ones that I had not worn in a long time or ones that did not really fit anymore. Had I known I would reconsider the T-shirt blog, I would have kept the clothing.

Old toys also re-surfaced in this packing and moving enterprise. The Smokey hat came to my house and was soon propped on a light in my office where it has stayed all year. I believe it has been seen in the blog several times already. I have also written about letting go and growing up a few times, enough to justify a category. Keeping the hat in plain sight and wearing the shirt makes me feel connected to my childhood and keeps my parents alive for me. I really miss my mother. She's still alive, but she is not the same as she was before she contracted bacterial meningitis. I often wonder what our lives would have been like had she avoided that coma of 2000 and the resulting paralysis. This shirt and the hat symbolize these thoughts and these wonderings.

The picture above is from our Hazelwood house where we lived from 1969 to 1978, just northwest of Richland, near the Upjohn (not Pfizer) farms. It's possible that the Smokey the Bear hat is under that tree in one of those wrapped presents. This photo pre-dates the built in couch my father put in that living room, and so is probably from the early 1970s. My sister was probably 2-4 years old, I am judging, by the presents, and so I am guessing this photo comes from 1971-1973. I may update this part of the blog if I can get confirmation from my father on the likely year of the photo.

Given that Smokey the Bear warns of the dangers of forest fires, I thought I would share this photo from one of our Long Lake vacations in Traverse City. Given my hair and that awesome Tigers shirt plus the size of my sister, I am guessing this photo comes from 1973 or 1974. Again, I may update if my father gives more information. He should have named the photos with years.

I had an idyllic childhood. For that, I am forever grateful and blessed.

COUNTDOWN TO THE END OF THE BLOG YEAR - 90 shirts remaining

- chris tower - first published - 1312.21 - 21:12
final publication - 1312.22 - 9:41