Doing Some Shopping

So, I was headed to Warsaw, Indiana a few weeks ago, to shop for books at the local Goodwill store there, when I got a call from my husband.  He’s been doing a lot of driving and hauling for a young Amishman whom I’ll call “Junior,” who has a water treatment business.

Junior is busy from before sunrise to early evening these days, and being a bachelor, he has no one to shop for him.  So my husband asked, “While you’re at Goodwill, Junior wants to know—could you pick him up some shirts?”  (Amishmen wear specially-made pants and jackets, but they can buy their shirts off-the-rack.)

I said I’d be glad to, and Junior got on the phone and gave me the proper size.  He said he wanted 10 or 20 shirts—long sleeve and short—if I could find them.  I told him it was half-price senior’s day, so I’d do my best!

Once I got there, I realized this was going to be a bit of a challenge.  Amishmen wear only solid colors—no prints or stripes or patterns of any kind.  Also, they had to be button-down-the-front shirts—no t-shirts, no polo shirts, no pullovers.  Luckily he said any color would do, so that helped.

When I looked at the short-sleeved shirts, it was pretty discouraging; not a single one in his size met the requirements.  Anything solid-color was either a polo shirt or a t-shirt.  So, onward to the racks of long sleeves.

I had much better luck there.  Lots of dress shirts from famous brands—and with my half-price discount, they were only $2.50 apiece.  I started finding shirts his size in solid colors, and came up with about a dozen.  A couple of them were thicker and softer, which I thought would be good for working outside.  I tried to get easy-care fabrics… a few of the selections were silk, which I could not see his Amish sister-in-law washing and wringing and hanging on the line! 

I got half a dozen more in the next shorter sleeve length, which he said he could use by having the sleeves cut short and hemmed.

When I gave the bags of shirts to him later, I said, “There are plenty of colors here, especially blue.”  He said, “Why do men wear so many blue shirts, anyway?”  I answered him, “Because blue looks good on almost any man.  In fact, when you have your first date with the future wife I’m praying for, wear a blue shirt!”  That brought a laugh.  (I was serious about the prayers, though.)

All in all, it was a lot of fun.  I think I should hire myself out as an Amish Personal Shopper for men who need shirts.  It was nice to able to help him out—and I hope he can use the blue ones soon!