I admit I don’t follow fashion that closely. One advantage of being older is you can wear what is comfortable instead of fashionable.
I love natural cotton and happily pull out my golden oldies for my summer wear. They serve two purposes for me. They are nice and cool for summer and they also bring back memories of the trips when I bought them.
I admit I love cruises. You pack and unpack once but you get to wake up to different cities almost daily. We started doing cruises ten years ago and I was hooked immediately.
Our first cruise was on the Mexican Riviera. We got to go whale watching and even went to a ranch that also produced tequila. The Better Half enjoyed the tequila, I loved the lunch and the dancing horse that entertained us also the Mexican dancers that performed.
I started learning how to haggle on that trip. The first price starts the discussion and it was almost expected that there would be a counter offer before an agreement was reached. We ended up buying another suitcase to bring home souvenirs on that trip.
I also fell in love with a pretty blouse and I bought it. It was cotton, with embroidery decorating it and had been tied dyed. I loved it and wore it the next day on ship.
On our sea day I did laundry so we wouldn’t run out of clothes. I thought that the washer was set on cold only. First mistake. Next I threw the new blouse in with the rest of the laundry. I wanted to save money so I bundled the whites and coloured clothes into one washer. Second mistake. The B.H. socks and underwear are white and they were in that load along with my undies.
I went to move the load to the dryer and noticed the clothes had a different look to them. Well, a hue of another colour. Pink. All of the whites were now a bright pink. Except my red tie-dyed top. It was still red in colour. Houston we have a problem.
I put the pink clothes back in the wash and tried washing them again to get them back to white. They came out of the second wash slightly less pink but they were still pink. The third wash was not the charm. I went back to the cabin and showed the B.H. the newly washed pink clothes. I really couldn’t hide the evidence.
I learned that any clothes purchased on a trip waits until I get home before I try washing it. I also learned that the B.H. doesn’t care for pink underwear.
Luckily there was only a few pair of undies in the wash that day. When we got home I hid the evidence in our overflow drawer and the B.H. switched back to a neutral shade of undies.
Over the years we have gone on a few more cruises. I love going somewhere warm in winter and we have had some wonderful adventures on Caribbean cruises.
We even managed to take my mother with us and cruised into the Panama Canal. That was an extra special cruise and helped my mother cross off an item from her bucket list. She was 96 when we entered the canal at five in the morning and my mother sat in our balcony loving every minute of the experience.
I don’t know when we will manage to go on another trip. I doubt if it will be this winter but when I pull out my summer clothes I remember the adventures as I wear the tops I bought in various ports. Those souvenirs along with the photos we took bring the adventures back in our minds.
I admit we have found a use for at least some of the pink items from that first cruise. In February there is an anti-bullying day where to show your support against bullying you wear pink.
I pull out the pink socks every anti-bullying day for the B.H. and he wears them. Wearing them one day a year I figure that his pink socks will last him for years. Probably longer than my red tie-dyed top will last me.
Willa Condy was born and raised in the West Kootenay. She is married, lives in Trail with her “better half” and their dog Roxy. Willa is part of the baby boom and loves photography, music, writing and having fun. Her email address is pokie1@mac.com
