Bill and the Ratty Old Sweater

Grateful for my father's very happy birthday

My father and I stood in the rain on the plaza between Bloomingdale’s and Neiman Marcus at Friendship Heights. Dad had forgotten to pack a coat or a sweater before we flew to visit my son in DC, and we needed to find a store to accommodate us.

We had gone into Bloomingdale’s where my Depression-era father was overwhelmed with the cost of a zippered sweater. I couldn’t find anything for less than $140, and Dad wouldn’t pay that much. So that’s how we found ourselves standing in the chilly spring rain as I contemplated our options.

I suspected the choices would be the same at Neiman Marcus, and I stood there wondering if I should leave Dad at the hotel and take the Metro to Macy’s downtown, where I had shopped before.

I noticed a Gap sign in our hotel’s building across the street as I considered my options. Perfect. We crossed the street and found the Gap. But it was April, so I asked a clerk, “I know it’s spring, but do you have any men’s sweaters?”

The clerk pointed to a sale rack near the back of the store and Dad beelined to the rack and pulled out the sweater he is wearing in the picture above. I don’t think it cost more than twenty dollars.

That was in 2018. Sweaters are not made like they once were. Recently, there’s been media attention to the sweater industry's unraveling (awful pun). You will likely be glad you still have the wool sweater you bought in Ireland. If you get two or three years out of a sweater, that’s a long shelf life today.

Dad wears this sweater every day. I’ve bought him two other zippered sweaters, and he has none. I suspect it is warmer than the other two, but it is ratty and needs to be combed about once a week. Which he never does. And he doesn’t care. He’s 93 and he wants what he wants.

We walked in the door last week to celebrate his 93rd birthday, and of course, he was wearing “Old Ratty.”

I’ve decided to stop dissing his sweater and celebrate that he is here to wear it. Happy Birthday, Dad.