I received a compliment from a store associate yesterday on the top I was wearing. It’s a yellow cotton blend shirt with embroidered dots throughout. I thanked her and revealed that I’ve had it for over 20 years. I bought it at the former Strawbridge & Clothier before it was shut down and turned into Macy’s back in the 1990s. You wouldn’t know it by how well it’s worn over the years. I wear it every summer, and it washes beautifully.
The demise of the department store is a sad one, as is the demise of quality clothing. At the time I bought the top, it also came in blue, and I’ve always regretted not purchasing it, but old faithful yellow is still serving me well (and reminding me that I’m not becoming too fat as I age).
The only other reminder of Strawbridge’s I own is a teddy bear created by Gund to celebrate the store’s centennial. I named it Ozzy, short for Ozymandias and based on the poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley: it serves as a reminder of how things change, and how grateful we should be to have sturdy reminders of what once was.
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