My Lucky Shirt

I have been re-reading “REI: 50 Years of Climbing Together” which was written by Harvey Manning to celebrate REI’s 50^th anniversary and was distributed to employees in 1988.  Lots of cool stuff to revisit and anyone who thinks they know about REI really doesn’t unless they have read this book. 

Anyway, it features many pages from catalogs that exhibit the evolution of the co-op and one of those pages stood out.  It is circa 1977 and displays many products that I owned modeled by people I worked with.

From left to right and top to bottom we have Lynn Campbell, Jerry Desmone, Jim Rosa, John McNulty (the Marlboro Man), Lynn once again, a woman whose name escapes me but went to high school with my niece, Sue Anderson.  John Mueller, a guy who I don’t recall, Jenny who was Todd Frankawitz’s partner, Arleen Hiuga and Bill Egan. 

Article “F” modeled by John Mueller really caught my eye.  It’s a rugby shirt that was available in the store before it debuted in the catalog.  I bought a red and black striped version before ’77 and it was my favorite shirt.  I really liked the way it fit and how sporty I looked in it.  Most of all I liked the fact that good things happened to me when I wore it.  So many good things happened when I was wearing that shirt that I took to wearing it whenever I really wanted things to go my way.  Ultimately, I started depending on it when a desired outcome was a stretch and having things go wrong had serious consequences. 

It became my “Lucky Shirt” and was always in my harness bag when I went hang gliding.  If I was facing “soar-or-die” launch conditions I put it on no matter how uncomfortable a cotton layer might be.  I never performed a single launch on the Green Monster without that shirt.  That launch scared the shit out of me and I depended on that shirt to keep me alive.  I wore it to ensure that I didn’t do something dumb, go down in the trees, stuff a launch, blow a landing, collide with Rich Pfeiffer in a thermal or anytime that I was trailing in competition standings (which I always was) and since competitions were always held in hot weather I sweated like a pig.  That shirt stunk even though it was washed all the time.  It showed the amount of wear it received as seams failed and holes developed here and there.  Still, it was my “Lucky Shirt” and I put it on when I needed help. 

January of 1986 Jean was pregnant and suffering from Toxemia.  Her blood pressure was spiking, liver function was compromised and her Doc called our shot.  Time to induce or risk a stroke. 

I put on my “Lucky Shirt” and wore it to the hospital.  We were there for a while and things weren’t fun before our daughter, Kasie Chelanne, came into the world.  Kasie was fine but Jean was still at risk of stroke so she and Kasie remained at the hospital for 5 more days. The only time I took off that rugby shirt was when I went to the hospital to be with them.  When I came home for the night, I put it back on.  I even slept in it.

 

When Kasie and Jean came home on January 17, 1986 I retired my “Lucky Shirt”.  I put it in a drawer and never wore it again.  I figure you can only go to the well so many times and that shirt had delivered for at least 10 years.

I try to get rid of stuff that I no longer have use for.  I’ve been donating a ton of stuff to Goodwill, Salvation Army and others so that it isn’t a burden to Kasie.  This shirt, a rag really, I am hanging on to.  It has served me well.  At some point in time Kasie will have to figure our what to do with it.