Confessions of T-Shirt Hoarding Husband

"My name is Aiden and I hoard t-shirts."

"Hi, Aiden!"

Those lines are almost too predictable to even type, and yet . . .

On to the reason I have gathered you all here today:

I have a lot of t-shirts.  I feel I am like the average male in that sense.  Every once in a while I pass some shirts along to my son. Or, I'll give them to the girls as sleeping shirts.  Or, I might donate them to Goodwill.  But, some . . . . a very select few . . . the editor's choice, if you will, never go away.  Ever.
In my defense, I only have three or four shirts that I am absolutely attached to.  The kind of attached that, if-my-wife-threw-them-away-I-would-actually-be-mad kind of attached.  And there's good reason.  There's a story behind why these particular shirts are so special (cue Holly's eye rolling).

The 'Lucky Brand Dungarees' t-shirt, in gym shirt grey:
This shirt has been through more than one catastrophe (starring the same two people).  There's the infamous picture of me holding a very wet and frustrated two and a half year-old Ashley.  We were at the beach before leaving Disneyland when a wave knocked her over.  Wet clothes off, Aiden's t-shirt on.  Good to go.

See how pissed she is?  She did NOT like the ocean.

Then there's the time I rushed her into the house as Ashley (remember that name, as it might play an important role later on) was suffering from a nose bleed.
And then there's the time Ashley (I told you to remember that name, didn't I?) face planted off the slide area of the new playground equipment right on to a "rock climbing wall".  That's the one where I proved I could still run if necessary.

The 'Zebra Tattoo and Piercing' t-shirt, in faded black, sleeves ripped off:
I got this shirt as a promotional thing when I got my first tattoo.  That was almost twelve years ago.  Need I say more?

The 'West Coast ATON Conference' t-shirt, in navy blue, sleeves ripped off:
This was the last unit-type shirt I ever got in the Coast Guard.  And it was the only one, somehow, that survived all of my moves in the last ten  years.  I know I could buy Coast Guard shirts on-line, but there's something particularly special about a shirt you get while you're at your unit.  My Coastie friends will totally get it, and I'm sure my non-Coastie friends have a decent idea.

Those are the top three.  The shirts that would probably disappear in the dead of night if Holly could get away with it.  So, we made a deal.  I can keep them, but not wear them once they reach a certain point and some day Holly will sew them onto the squares of a quilt (or something like that). 

The only one in the "can't ever wear it again" pile is my Lucky shirt.  However, I'm currently in a flare-up which means a lot of pain.  And a lot of that pain is nerve pain.  And that means scratchy fabric is not going to work.  It also happens to be laundry day.  So, I dug the shirt out of the closet and threw it on, because (just ask Holly) this shirt always seems to make me feel a little better.  That, and it's really soft after all the washes it's been through.

I'm sure I have pictures of the other two shirts somewhere, but here's a couple of the Lucky shirt from tonight: