Full Circle

On Christmas Eve 1992, I carried my thirteen-month old daughter into Grandstand Sports on the corner of 35th and Wallace. Michele was working, and I had to pick up my Christmas gift, a 1938-41 White Sox varsity jacket reissued by Mitchell and Ness. For over 30 years, I wore that jacket. It had a red, wool body and tan, leather sleeves. The logo went on the left side of the chest, a large blue S with a smaller O and X fitting inside the two loops of the S. Sox great Billy Pierce saw me wearing it once and approved. I wore and wore the jacket until the leather wore in places, with holes by the cuffs and creases that threatened to turn into rips.. On Wednesday, Maeve was over when another 1938-41 White Sox jacket arrived; it really does pay to shop on eBay. This one has virtually no signs of wear, as if it had been hanging next to the one I bought at Grandstand all those years ago. If our daughter ever had any doubt we were a White Sox family, that jacket taught her otherwise. With luck, this one will do the same with our granddaughter.