Looking sharp when tossing the ball is not only important to you, but also your team.
Something that we don’t ask ourselves very often is: where does imagination come from? We see artists, designers, writers, and even kids we know live in a world of their own that they have imagined. Not everything can bring inspiration but retro bowling shirts can help bring a little creativity to your life. You might be wondering how exactly, but it is all about the way they can make you feel. You should agree with me that certain things can give you different feelings.
A new car can make you look at the world as if it’s an unknown island waiting to be conquered, an old watch can take you back to the afternoons where your grandfather would tell you a story while looking at it, and the smell of an old trunk can make you feel like you are still that young adolescent dreaming of the future. What are memories anyways? They are the footprints of time that we leave behind so when we look back we can see how much we’ve walked. They sometimes can be bittersweet but what is the point of being in this life if you can’t look back and see the moments that were responsible for making you into who you are.
It is true that memories can make you reminisce but it also true that objects, even if small and as insignificant as they may seem can trigger feelings that sometimes do not happen on their own. We see people collecting vintage items and even in fashion we see how the old becomes the new. We can’t ever let go completely of the past because it is always a part of us. Because of this we are able to learn from our mistakes and better ourselves. I believe we can all use a little creativity and imagination in our lives. It is always better when we have items to inspire us.
The 1950’s were a time where life seemed so much more simple and even though there are always problems, people always seemed to be more relaxed and enjoyed life a lot more. It was a time where bowling alleys and lounges were popular hang out spots and where school dances were still the highlight during school years. People look for things nowadays to remind them of different time or perhaps what they think were easier times. There is nothing wrong with that however.
Bowling shirts can make you feel like you are back in the old convertible cruising around with the night breeze on your face. We should all take the time to enjoy life’s small gifts and that includes reliving our memories perhaps with a modern twist. Retro shirts can be an inspiration to anyone that reminisces about a time that no longer exists. Having a shirt that says something about who you are and that makes you feel unique and still cool and fashionable is a priceless item of clothing.
Sometimes things can be brought back into fashion without looking retro, but I’m pretty convinced that this is hard to do with bowling shirts. So, that means that it takes a little bit of extra courage to wear one, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it. I wouldn’t say this if it wasn’t something I do myself. One thing that can help is if you invest a little extra in a personalized bowling shirt. If you’re always satisfied with discount bowling shirts, you make leave yourself a little disappointed.
Now, just because I wear a bowling shirt on occasion doesn’t mean that it’s an easy thing to do. That’s all the more true because I’m not just talking about bowling team shirts, I’m talking about ones that we wear casually. But, the challenge of it actually makes it a little bit more satisfying. One thing to remember is that if you’re going to wear something that’s a little bit of a challenge, you gotta make sure that the quality is decent. This can make all the difference. When you wear a bowling shirt people are going to be unconsciously skeptical about it. So, if it doesn’t fit well, or it’s of obvious low quality, people will notice. Sometimes they might notice unconsciously as well, but that’s the same as if they noticed consciously.
So with this in mind, last weekend I went out with my best bowling shirt, and I’ll say upfront that everything went really well with it. I made sure to keep quality and good looking bowling shirt designs in mind when I made my purchase. I went to one of my favorite Mexican restaurants with a couple of friends, it was a safe environment so it was perfect for trying something different. But, there was a little bit of a problem that day. It was something that was completely out of my control, so it doesn’t bother me as much as it would if it was something that I caused myself. But, of course when things go wrong it’s frustrating and its own way.
As I said I made sure to get a bowling shirt of top-quality to ensure that it would be a successful wardrobe addition. It wasn’t a Guy Fieri bowling shirt, and I’m not going to see how much it cost exactly, but let’s just say it was worth a decent pair of shoes. The problems started early and began with chips and salsa. Chips and salsa or the appetizer, and so the problem that came with this appetizer was also kind of an appetizer of a problem. Now that I think about it, I guess this one was pretty much totally my fault. Do you know how salsa has a way of sliding off a chip and you lost and find yourself leaning into your bite to catch everything before it falls. Well, either I was too slow, or there was just too much salsa on this trip, because just before I caught it it slipped off right onto my new bowling shirt.
Now I know what you’re thinking if you’re picturing this happening in your mind, because let’s face it this really could happen to anyone at any time in any Mexican restaurant. You might be wondering what color was the shirt that I bought? Well as is usually the case, it was not just one color. It was two colors. And, one of the colors, yes, was white. And, yes, the area of the shirt that the salsa fell onto was the white part of the shirt. Chalk it up to bad luck that the salsa didn’t fall on the red part of the shirt which happened to be the same color as the salsa, but I guess that’s Murphy’s Law. Maybe I should have gotten a pink bowling shirt, or a black bowling shirt instead. What’s Murphy’s login? I think it’s that when something bad could happen, it does happen.
I quickly wiped the salsa off of my shirt. I even went to the bathroom ran some water over it and wiped it again. I knew that this would create a huge block of wetness on my shirt that would remain uncomfortable for the entire day, but I was willing to make the sacrifice if it meant that I could reduce the staining effect of the salsa. Man, I should have saved my money and bought this bowling shirt wholesale. Eventually, I was successful and the redness of the stain was reduced, but a stain is a stain and if we’re talking about something that looks good and is of high quality, then the quality is totally lost with a stain on white.
But at this point, I was still not in complete despair because I know that salsa, even though it’s bright red, it’s made of things that are basically water. It’s made of tomatoes, onions, jalapeños, and probably some of the red stuff. I know that this type of stain is pretty easily and pretty completely fixed with a little bit of stain remover spray and a good wash. But, as I said, this problem was just the appetizer.
I was ready for the main course of my meal, but I really wasn’t prepared for the devastation that was to come next to my new favorite shirt. I should mention the food that we had because it really was a great Mexican place. I ordered the enchiladas which is my way of evaluating any new Mexican restaurant. The enchiladas that day definitely cut the mustard so I was happy about that. My friend to my last ordered a chimichanga, with cheese sauce on the side. I personally haven’t had a chimichanga since my senior year of high school when we used to buy them at the gas station across the street in the frozen burrito section of the refrigerator aisle. But I guess they are like a real meal and not just something you buy gas stations.
My friend liked the chimichanga, but he wasn’t interested in the cheese sauce that he received on the side. He said that he didn’t need all that extra fat and calories. I was thinking, but if you’re going to eat a chimichanga then fat and calories are probably the last thing on your mind, but what do I know? Anyway, I didn’t want to see that you saw us go to waste so I asked if I could use it on my enchiladas. My friend was happy to pass it over, may be a little bit too happy because as he reached it over to me it slipped out of his fingers bounced off my glass and off the table and onto my bowling shirt.
Yep, I was two for two. Two courses to a meal and two stains on my shirt. Unlike with the salsa, this one really was totally out of my control. Well, I guess I didn’t need that extra cheese sauce, so you could say I asked for it. But my new shirt really didn’t deserve this. I had just created an entirely new bowling shirt pattern. At this point you may realize why I pointed out that I was happy about the relatively minor salsa stain on my shirt from earlier. As I mentioned, salsa is mostly made of water. And that means that it will come out in the wash. But cheese is made of oil and fat. I’m not sure if you’ve ever got an oil based stain on any of your clothing, but it never completely goes away. Even if the color comes out you will still have a round shadow-like mark where the stain was made.
If anybody knows why this happens with oil or fat I’d be curious to know the answer. Is it because the oil molecules are super small and work their way into the fabric to the point where they just never come out? Or is it something else. I took chemistry in college so I should probably know the answer to this myself already, but yeah, I don’t. What I do know, is that at that point in time my new bowling shirt had seen his first and last day of use.
Out of desperate futility, I went to the bathroom again to try to wash it out, but honestly I knew that it was hopeless. My friend apologized for his butterfingers and even offered to pay for my shirt, but I said that it was already ruined anyway because of the salsa stain. I knew that this wasn’t actually true, but I just couldn’t take money for an honest mistake. I really can’t deny that it was an honest mistake because after all, I had just spilled something on myself all by myself a few minutes ago.
Even though trying to wash off the cheese sauce was an effort in futility, at least it made it more noticeable, and I was able to enjoy the rest of the meal with my buddies. The next day, just to test my luck, I went ahead and sprayed the bowling shirt with stain remover and washed it in a small load cycle to see if the stains would come out. As I had expected, the salsa stain was completely removed, but the dark mark from the cheese sauce was still visible.
I have to say that I’m still tempted to wear this shirt because the dark mark really isn’t that noticeable. If people can’t see this, is it really that big of a deal? But, I already know what the answer is. The answer is yes, it is a big deal. As we talked about before, a lot of what people notice is unconscious. When they see a bowling shirt, they unconsciously try to decide whether it just looks retro and weird, or whether it could actually be something pretty cool. When they’re already on the fence about this, even a small thing can push them over.
At this point I had to decide what I was going to do with this new, but now old, retro bowling shirt. It wasn’t cheap, and it’s of good quality so it’s a shame to just toss it in the garbage. So as I do with the rest of my old clothes I put it in a bag which I will eventually bring to the Goodwill. At least somebody somewhere will be able to wear this shirt, and enjoy it. And maybe by wearing it, whoever is around then will gain a new appreciation for bowling shirts as a fine addition to a wardrobe. I’m pretty sure that the clothes they go to Goodwill eventually end up in far away places like Africa or Thailand. Maybe the people in Africa or Thailand or less sensitive to things like minor remnants of cheese sauce stains.
I like to look on the bright side of things, so planning the future of my new old classic bowling shirt made me feel better. There was another thing that I had to look forward to at this point as well. I had an opportunity to plan my next bowling shirt purchase. The one that I have just talked about, as you know, was white and red and I got a feeling for how to wear it, what to wear it with, and maybe most importantly, I just got comfortable with being in it.
Now, I have an opportunity to purchase a completely different bowling shirt. So, for a few bucks, I am able now to double my bowling shirt wearing experience. I know that I’m already comfortable and white and red, so now I’m thinking about what I should try next. Does anybody have any suggestions? Actually, I’m pretty sure I know what most of you will suggest first. You will probably suggest that I should get some thing other than white. And I would say, that’s a fantastic idea.
You may also suggest that when I get this new shirt, I should probably avoid Mexican restaurants like the plague. I think that’s also an excellent idea. But then again, Mexican restaurants aren’t the only places that have dangerous stain causing foods flying around. If I were to think about some of the foods that I might eat that first come to mind there are many that could be a potential problem. For example, another thing I love eating when going out is chicken wings. Chicken wings are covered in sauce, and I love them for it. A lot of the sauce is red in fact. A lot of this sauce is also pretty oily when I stop to think about it.
When you eat chicken wings it can actually be more hazardous than most other foods. You bite and tear pieces off the wind and when you do this it off and flicks pieces pieces of sauce around in the air. You might not notice this happening, but trust me it happens. Come to think of it there are a good number of other foods where sauce gets flicked around. Picture an Italian restaurant. This image is probably a terrible nightmare for any bowling shirt. Spaghetti in particular seems like a particularly significant risk. Although I guess if you’re eating spaghetti properly you’re not slurping it, but rather biting it and chewing it with proper etiquette.
This idea of etiquette training wouldn’t apply to all places though. It’s usefulness is limited by your particular tastes in food. For example, one food that has become popular lately is one that I also enjoy myself quite often. This food is Ramen. Ramen is similar to spaghetti at first glance. It’s a bunch of long noodles, and rather than sauce it is served in a bowl of soup. You would think that soup is much safer than red sauce but did you know that proper etiquette when eating Ramen noodles is actually to purposely slow for them?
Even though I said that even subtle stains can be unconsciously noticed by people, there is a degree of leeway that I think we should be willing to accept. If there are tiny invisible splash marks from otherwise clear soup that contains a small portion of fat, they should be so negligible that even peoples unconscious mind won’t notice them. Well this article has focused on some of the dangers and pitfalls that can come when wearing a shirt, and in particular a bowling shirt that you’ve spent a chunk of change on, this may come as a ray of optimism.
As we’ve talked about, and as I hope this article has helped to explain, trying new things is a great thing to do. It might seem difficult to wear a bowling shirt at first, but how else will you be able to experience the satisfaction that comes with trying something new, and in this case, being able to experience something old at the same time? The main take away here is that while you should try new things you should also be aware of various things to keep in mind to make it successful. I’m looking forward to hearing about the different bowling shirt wearing experiences that other people have. Please let me know if you’ve had similar experiences, or if you’ve had issues totally different from the ones that I’ve talked about. It would also be great to hear about success stories. My story is more of an un-success story, so hearing the opposite would be a great thing.
We’d also love to hear about your process for choosing the style and colors that you prefer when it comes to bowling shirts. Of course style and color is something that’s different for each person. We should all choose what we are naturally interested in, and what we naturally like and feel comfortable with. And when we hear about what other people are comfortable with and why they are comfortable with it, we may learn something that we didn’t think about before. And when we think about it we may realize that we could also be comfortable with it too. So that’s why hearing about all of your experiences are just as important as reading about the experiences described here today.
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