Time Travel is the Only Answer

Sometime close to fifty years ago, could be 49 nine years ago, my father bought me what became my favorite shirt in high school. It was a short sleeve pink Leon Levin with a collar, four button placket and a yoke. It was the perfect color pink. It was a light weight knit. It went with everything in my preppy wardrobe.

I wore the business out of that shirt. I think I also had the same shirt in white, but did not love it the way I loved the pink one. I am certain there are pictures of me in my year book candids wearing that shirt.

When my family moved to London I went over for the summer before I went to college. As my mother was renovating their house in St. John’s Wood we lived in a hotel called the Selsdon Park in Surrey. It was terrible to share a room with my two younger sisters. My mother did not like paying the hotel prices to get our laundry done so she went to a laundromat in the village and tried to wash our clothes.

That was a disaster. She came home with all the clothes shredded. I was devastated. My favorite pink shirt was unwearable. I only had a limited number of things with me as I was only there for the summer and you would have thought I had been shot I was so despondent over the loss of this favorite shirt. Everything in England was crazy expensive in 1979 as they were in a terrible recession. My mother refused to purchase any replacement clothes. I had to wait to return to the states. Unfortunately that pink shirt was no where to be found when I got back.

Fast forward to this week. I went with my high school friends Nancy and Karen to a store in BoothBay, I described to them as, “one that still has the exact same merchandise as stores we shopped in while at Walkers.” We walked into the House of Logan and looked at the crew neck sweaters and jeans, and button down shirts. Then in the sale pile I saw it… a Leon Levin shirt. Same collar, same four button placket, same yoke, same color pink, just long sleeved. How on earth are they still making this exact shirt?

I tried it on. Same fit. And on sale. There I was with my two best friends from high school trying on a replacement for my favorite high school shirt. Had a black hole opened in the universe and I had done time travel?

Of course I bought the shirt. I still love it. It is as soft and comfy as the original. Has it always existed or did Leon Levin suddenly come back into business? The next thing you know is I will be wearing Pappagallo shoes and carrying a button cover purse and wearing a ribbon belt.