Greetings. What an occasion--the 301st post on this here flyingears blog! I figured I better post something really special to mark this grand happening, and, what do you know, the perfect thing just presented itself as I was rummaging through a box.
Perhaps, if you grew up when I did and were in junior high and high school in the early nineties, you recall Cross Colours clothing. Back then, I knew they were cool--I mean really, really cool--but I only knew of them in a kind of vague, I've-heard-of-them and I've-maybe-seen-one-person-wearing-them sort of way. I definitely had never worn a pair of Cross Colour pants or donned a brightly colored shirt bearing that very hip logo.
But all of that was about to change, maybe, if I could just save enough money and get to some amazing place that sold the elusive Cross Colours garments.
One day in some winter when I must have been in junior high, I took a trip with my friend and his family in their big van (complete with tv and vcr--we watched Young Guns II enroute!) to Minneapolis. It was quite a trip. The van was broken into in the hotel parking lot, the tv and vcr were stolen, and, worst of all, my copy of Young Guns II--still in the vcr--was stolen (unknowingly, I'm sure). The blow of the theft was somewhat lessened, though, when my friend and I pulled on the handle of a newspaper machine in the hotel lobby and the spring-action door opened right up, revealing not only free newspapers (big deal) but the whole money box of quarters and other shiny coins!
Anyway, the real point of bringing this up is that I had saved up money for this big trip because we were going to go to...the Mall of America! Yes, I remember it so well. I distinctly remember being in the bathroom of the Mall of America. In fact, that's probably my most vivid memory of the whole malling experience. But also memorable, and the reason I'm even writing about that trip, was the incredible piece of clothing that I bought with the money I had saved.
My folks wouldn't buy expensive, trendy shit for us kids. Although I thank them now for it, back then I decided to save what money I could get and purchase something truly cool--a bright yellow, zippered Cross Colours flannel. I remember it so well. It didn't really fit worth a shit, but it was so, so cool. And it had a zipper.
I don't know what ever happened to that flannel, but I hope that somewhere someone is still wearing it.
It came with a Cross Colours sticker, because all smart companies know that stickers are a good advertising scheme.
Today, I was going through some stuff that my parents dropped off awhile ago--a few boxes of old stuff from childhood all the way through high school. In one of those boxes I found an old catalog I used to get that sold swords and all kinds of medieval weapons and clothes and armor. I used to flip through those catalogs and look at the longswords and think how cool it would be to have a real sword. I'm not sure what I would have done with one had I ever gotten one (maybe it would have been the Norman Sword or the Irish Sword, both simple, practical swords, you know), but I suppose some sort of adventure would have ensued.
Well, I found stuck on one of these catalogs of swords the old Cross Colours sticker. I just couldn't imagine a better combination and I really want to share it with you. So, here it is. Beautiful, isn't it?
Labels: family, memories
