I came across Margaret's high school "letter jacket" with the numerals '96 on the leather sleeve signifying the year she graduated. I didn't realize dancing was an official sport? The Xavier letter is sewed on the front of the jacket with the word "Academics" proudly displayed.
As a kid in high school, I could not get a letter jacket until I earned my first athletic letter. This was a big deal especially if your Dad lived and breathed sports. You could earn a letter by playing 48 minutes of football during a season, 32 minutes of basketball or 9 innings of baseball. "Track" required winning a certain number of points awarded for first, second or third finishes. I wanted a jacket. It was a goal. It was a big deal. It confirmed that you were a "big jock on campus".
If you earned a letter as a freshman, that was an incredible achievement. Almost nobody did that. Earning a letter as a sophomore was special. As a sophomore, I "started" on the football team as a defensive safety and an offensive end. I got my first letter in November of 1956. The letter entitled me to acquire a jacket which my parents gave me for Christmas. Plymouth was unorthodox because the "P" letter was sown on the back of the jacket rather than the front. The letter had a small symbolic football stitched into it indicating the sport in which it was earned. The next year our football team went undefeated so we got a big white football patch to sew on the front of the jacket with "Champions" embroidered within. Because it was my second consecutive football letter, I got to place two large stripes (like the military) under the football patch. My final football year, we again went undefeated and I got to place an updated football Champion patch on the jacket and a third stripe.
My jacket was becoming a major work of art. Something to be worn proudly around school. Now the irony. It was common practice to let your girl friend wear your jacket. So this "prize" that I had worked so had to earn ended up in the hands of your Mom. Hey, sharing my special jacket witht the special person in my life seemed appropriate. I went on to earn many other "letters" in basketball and baseball but the football jacket "creation" was always special.
Like so many things in life, my letter jacket just disappeared. It was in closets gathering dust and it got moved several times as I took different jobs. It was gone. The jacket is like my favorite high school convertible Oldsmobile. It would be nice for one day to drive that car again. It would be nice to wear the letter jacket one more time.
The lesson Grasshoppers is that there are things in life that seem important at the time. In the end it was the participation and the achievement that were important. The jacket just verified the endeavor. It was a testimony to my "ego".
Wear your jackets proudly!
Love,
Dad
I got mine as a freshmen, track I believe. I believe I got 4 in track, 1 in football. Ironically I never got one in my main sport of Basketball.