The Amazing Shirt

It's probably the oldest shirt that I own. And I'm amazed that I can still fit into it.

In 1998, DW and I took a vacation to Thailand. We were teaching English in South Korea, and after my abduction, we felt that we needed a getaway. I was able to convince my administrators at Jeonju University that I needed more than the one week that my contract allowed, and my fellow English teachers agreed that they could fill in for my classes for the extra days.

We had a great time, visiting Bangkok, Krabi, in the southwest coast of the country, and the small island of Ko Pha-ngan, in the Gulf of Thailand, which wasn't nearly as developed as it is today; especially, on its northern shores.

I'll never forget our tiny hut, just a dozen steps from the beach, and the restaurant of the Star Huts, which was half as far and had a 24-page menu. Ah, to turn back time.

I saw the t-shirt in a touristy part of Bangkok, and even though the cotton was thick and the shirt a bit big for my then-small frame, I wanted it. The black shirt had colourful lettering, with a stylized eye at the top, and read Amazing Thailand 1998-1999.

It's a bit faded, and covered in cat hair.

I bought it but didn't wear it during the day, as the temperatures were too hot for the fabric. Instead, in the cool evenings, I wore it on the beach in Ko Pha-ngan.

Before DW and I returned home, to Canada, in March 1999, we returned to Thailand one more time. This time, we arrived from the south, in Malaysia, when we took a bus from Penang to Krabi.

We revisited Krabi and then made our way to the island of Ko Lanta, but after a couple of days on a muddy and rocky beach, we decided to return to Ko Pha-ngan and Star Huts (we even got our old hut from the year before).

Of course, I travelled with my Amazing Thailand t-shirt and wore it more often when we reached Chiang Mai, where the coolness of the mountains made me want to wear a thicker shirt.

When we returned to Canada, spring hadn't quite arrived, and I was thankful for this thick, cotton t-shirt. It was also a bit of a bragging piece of clothing, as some people, who saw me wear the shirt, would ask me if I had actually gone to Thailand.

"Yes," would be my smiling response. "Twice, actually."

As the t-shirt showed, I had been there in 1998 and 1999.

I went through a period when I didn't wear printed t-shirts. I liked solid colours with nothing on them. And I also didn't wear t-shirts without a buttoned shirt over top: especially, when heading out of the house. And so, my Thailand shirt would move to the back of my t-shirt drawer, only making an appearance as a sleep shirt or when I did chores around the house.

Over the years, I started wearing shirts with brewery labels on them, and I even bought three printed shirts from last year's Spamalot musical in Stratford. Having returned to wearing printed shirts, I dug to the back of my t-shirt drawer and retrieved my Thailand shirt, thinking that I had outgrown it and wouldn't fit into it. Perhaps one of my kids would want it as a sleep shirt, much like Kid 2 had taken over my Great Wall of China shirt many years ago.

But it fit, much to my surprise, even though it was large on me when I had first purchased it.

If I wear it out of the house and anyone asks me if I've been to Thailand, I'll have an answer at the ready.

"Yes, twice, in both 1998 and 1999."

Someday, perhaps, I'll go back.

Happy Thursday!