Perhaps Plain Shirts Are Best For Me

I've often talked on this blog about the fact that everyone feels the need to tell me their life story. Something about me makes people want to share their thoughts and opinions, no matter how unsolicited. Last week I was down in Wareham, checking the plumbing and power to make sure we're good to go for the summer down at the beach house. Now, to turn the water on requires me to climb into a crawl space under the house, tighten some bolts, turn the main on and then wait to check for leaks. It's a bit of a squeeze for a man my size and not a job you want to do while wearing your Sunday best. Like everyone who does a fair amount of dirty work around their house, I have a series of shirts that are "working around the house" shirts. These would be the shirts where you don't care what happens to them. They are covered in paint and stain and have small holes from the various screws and nails that I have caught them on as I do whatever project I am working on at the time. One of these shirts is a University of Virgina shirt that I bought while visiting my sister when she was living in Washington, DC (you know, I wanted to blend in) and I was wearing it when I went to open the beach house up.

After making sure the house was leak-free I headed to the local shopping strip mall for the opening of a new TJ Maxx (not exactly Marshall's, but it'll do). I'm walking around, not even thinking about what I'm wearing when an older woman grabbed my arm.

"Oh, that is just the saddest story," she said.
What?
"That boy that killed his girlfriend."
Huh?
"The lacrosse players."
Yes, it is sad, but why are you telling me... Oh wait, you think I went to Virginia.

Now, I can see why she would think that, because University of Virgina shirts aren't exactly prevalent around here. It's not local, like Boston College, or a school with a national following like Michigan, where you could find someone who didn't go to there still wearing the school logo anywhere in the United States. You have to figure anyone wearing a Virginia shirt in Massachusetts probably went there. It's actually not the first time this happened, because last time the men's lacrosse team played in Gillette Stadium I wore the same shirt without thinking and had to deal with half a dozen people congratulating my team on a good game. Still, that made some more sense because Virginia was playing in the stadium that day. But, the main thing that struck me was how the woman seemed to take a position like she expected me to disagree with her. Like I'm not going to side with her opinion that a guy killing his girlfriend was tragic. To avoid any future conversations like this, I think from here on out I'm only going to wear shirts with no logos on them.