La versión en español está después de la versión en inglés.
I think I’ve asked this question before, but some of you may not have been here back then. Do you tuck? I always do. And given my mildly obsessive-compulsive tendencies (anal retentive is more fitting, I suppose), it drives me a little crazy when I see someone with a clothing label untucked. It takes all my self-control to not take a finger and tuck it for them. No matter where it is. I have so far managed to control my urges.
I saw two young guys tossing an American football on the beach. It’s the first time I’ve seen an American football in Fuengirola. I once saw some kids playing baseball on the beach. They ran the bases in the opposite direction. Seeing that football did not bring back sweet memories. I remember carefully finding the stitching with my fingers so I could do a correct throw. I never took pleasure in it. I also remember my father putting a football in my hand and making me pose for a photo, so he could show his friends I wasn’t a disappointment. I tore that photo up in anger years ago. But I did find two photos with baseball bats.
Creo que ya hice esta pregunta antes, pero es posible que algunos de ustedes no estuvieran aquí en ese entonces. ¿Te arropas? Siempre hago. Y dadas mis tendencias ligeramente obsesivo-compulsivas (supongo que la retención anal es más adecuada), me vuelve un poco loco cuando veo a alguien con una etiqueta de ropa por fuera. Se necesita todo mi autocontrol para no tomar un dedo y meterlo por ellos. No importa dónde esté. Hasta ahora he logrado controlar mis impulsos.
Vi a dos tipos lanzando una pelota de fútbol americano en la playa. Es la primera vez que veo un fútbol americano en Fuengirola. Una vez vi a unos niños jugando béisbol en la playa. Corrieron las bases en dirección opuesta. Ver que el fútbol no me traía dulces recuerdos. Recuerdo haber encontrado cuidadosamente las costuras con los dedos para poder realizar un lanzamiento correcto. No lo encontré satisfactorio. También recuerdo que mi padre me puso una pelota de fútbol en la mano y me hizo posar para una foto, para poder mostrarles a sus amigos que no fui una decepción. Rompí esa foto con ira hace años. Pero sí encontré dos fotos con bates de béisbol.
• Lo dejé desabrochado.
• Su cordón estaba desabrochado al frente, pero esa es la manera genial de usarlo. Pero no estaba empatado. ¿Qué habrías hecho?
• Me in photo at left being forced by my mother to hold the baseball bat so my father could prove his 13-month-old was a real man. My cousin (my perpetual bully) had already grabbed the ball. (That’s Dale in background.) Photo at right, 9 years later my father was still trying. Note: I could actually hit a baseball — sometimes. (Click the images.)
• Yo en la foto de la izquierda siendo obligado por mi madre a sostener el bate de béisbol para que mi padre pudiera demostrar que su hijo de 1 año era un hombre de verdad. Mi primo (mi matón perpetuo) ya había agarrado la pelota. (Esa es Dale al fondo.) Foto de la derecha, 9 años después mi padre todavía lo intentaba. Nota: De hecho, podría batear una pelota de béisbol — a veces. (Haz clic en las imágenes).
• El tipo a la izquierda de la cabina de drones estaba lanzando un balón de fútbol con otro tipo al agua. ¡Gol!
• Encontré un poco de “nieve” del Cirque du Soleil en mi bolso. (Haz clic aquí.)
• Mi ensalada de cabra: Lechuga, tomate cherry, queso de cabra, salmón ahumado, avellana, manzana, vinagreta de mostaza y nata, reducción de porto.
• San Geraldo tenía helado de mango y chocolate belga. Comí chocolate belga, ricotta y higo. Debería haber comido helado de queso de cabra. La ricota estaba deliciosa pero demasiado ligera para competir con el excelente chocolate.
Click the thumbnails to enlarge.
Haz clic en las miniaturas para ampliar.
So many delicious foods, so little time 🙂
Judy C:
I know. We haven’t even scratched the surface.
I’m always tempted to tuck a tag on a shirt (and sometimes give in to temptation, depending on the circumstance). I wouldn’t touch a tag that near a butt crack for any reason, even if it was an attractive butt.
Kelly:
I have an English friend who has a thing about “fluff” on people’s clothes. And I have seen her remove some many times with kind apologies to the “fluffee” for her obsession. So far, they’ve always laughed.
Pic #2 – “What would you have done?” I think that package is enough to explain exactly what I would have like to do… Jx
PS That “salad” perplexes me! Where’s the salad? Why does it look like an iced doughnut. or some other exotic dessert?
Jon:
The light in the restaurant sucks for photos. So, the sliced-into image was awful. It’s a whole apple, sliced and reassembled. Wrapped in lettuce and goat cheese and then wrapped in smoked salmon. SOOOOO good. Speaking of SOOOO good, an awful lot of irresistible packages lately.
Oh, yeah, the pressure on young males to be good–or even satisfactorily adequate–in sports, well, if I write anymore I’ll break down–or go break something.
Kirk:
Isn’t it amazing how long those feelings linger? Sometimes I’d like to break something, too.
Boud here. I used to work with a compulsive colleague who would grab me and forcibly stuff the tags back into my collar! I used to blame her for not coming to my house to dress me.
Have you seen the female fashion of the French tuck? Shirt half tucked in at the front, half out. Unless the wearer has panache, it looks as if they left the house in a hurry.
Boud:
I worked with someone who never tucked labels. He also missed belt loops and sometimes buttoned and sometimes didn’t button his collor, and often only one side. He reported to me and we were friendly. As a friend, I commented on the buttons and belt loops and he simply didn’t care. It drove me crazy!!! The French tuck is so ridiculous, isn’t it. And so many bought into it. Is it still a fashion?
I always tuck in my own clothing labels — that is, if I haven’t already cut them off.
Debra:
I, too, remove a lot of labels. Some shirt makers put them in the side seam, and that could make me crazy. I don’t understand how it doesn’t annoy everyone. And T-shirt labels can at times be really irritating.
I think the untucked tag was the least of his problems with that bathing suit. 🙂
This post makes me mad and sad for little boy Mitchell and for so many other little boys. And bigger ones, too. The father who accepts his children just as they are, just as they arrive here in this life, are precious and all too rare. I think things are changing though. At least in my children’s families and friends.
I’d rather eat that salad than the ice cream although I am not fooling myself- the salad probably has more calories than the ice cream does.
Ms. Moon
Ms. Moon:
The truth is the baseball bats and football for photos were the least of our issues. My father did accept me for who I was but it was way too late in his life for us to make anything better. I was a good son despite it all. He was a “responsible” father who sadly left behind a lifetime of damage. Have the salad and then the ice cream! Yeah, I do wonder which has more calories.
I can’t stand seeing things untucked. Especially bedsheets. My grandmother taught me well to make a nice neat and tight bed! Clothing labels drive me nuts too. The drawstring doesn’t bother me on swimsuits unless it’s untied.
And that first man. Looks like he ate way to much cottage cheese honey.
Mistress Borghese:
I love neatly made and tucked beds. I usually leave the drawstring exposed but tied.
I would happily tie up the drawstring and then tuck it!
Bob:
Me too! I see that all the time. Come for a visit and we can do our good deeds together.
Your childhood and baseball/football are very similar to mine. I was a huge disappointment to my father. When I see a baseball or a baseball bat, very unpleasant memories come back. Luckily for my father, my brother came along and fulfilled his desire to have an athletic star as a son. My father died when I was in my 30s. I remember when I came back from the funeral, I had to go to a ceremony because I was up for a teaching award for the entire metro region. I won that award. But when I was asked to come forward I could feel tears welling in my eyes. I kept them in. Then the presenter read a passage that a parent had written about me. I remember the tears coming back and I fought like hell to keep them in as a whole auditorium of people was watching. The whole time I was thinking, “I have finally done something that my dad would be proud of, and he now is dead.” After the ceremony, a parent of mine in the audience came to me and told me that I looked like I was about to cry. I told her that my dad had just died a few days before. I remember her hug. It meant a lot. Sorry…didn’t mean to write so much. That picture of you with the bat brought the memories back. And that’s a good thing because I know I wasn’t the only one who went through stuff like this. Thanks Mitchell
Michael:
Honestly, my father would have made my life miserable even if I had been the jock son. Nothing was ever right or good enough. I often (usually) felt like I couldn’t breathe in his presence. I understand him better now and I know he died at the age of 60 with those regrets (apparently his father was the same with him) but the damage was done and, on my bad days, I still have his voice in my head.
I am exactly the same way when I think of my father.
I like Debra cut my clothing labels off, even the size and care label that comes in the corner of bras. Funny thing about that though is that, all my life, I took the label “do not remove under penalty of law” on bedding as gospel. It was just a few months ago I figured the Feds weren’t actually going to come after me and cut the label off the quilt I purchased a few years ago. The certificate of approval labels are still on the pillows, but I tuck those into the pillow case.
Shirley:
I, too, remove a lot of clothing labels. I wonder how many of us never removed the labels off bedding. I remember as a kid reading that on a pillow and actually getting scared.
I remove tags but, if not, I tuck them. I tuck the hell out of ’em.
Sassybear:
If they irritate, I remove them.
Best to leave that label alone, there are some places you do not want to stick your fingers. The salad looks wonderful.
David:
I agree. And the salad is exceptional.
It makes me sad that ao many boys and men are treated like they have to be manly jock types to be accepted as “real men”. It’s so damaging, and contributes to toxic masculinity. Honestly, I’ve never understood the sports obsession anyway.Thank goodness I was born female, because an athlete I am not!
Jennifer
Jennifer:
The Kid Brother LOVES sports. And Dale was very athletic and confident when it came to sports (although she did solo sports like skiing and ice skating and not team sports). When Dale was born (first) my father went home to his sister and disappointedly said “Ah, she had a girl.” (And man did he ever get it from his younger sister who had had a girl the previous year.) Granted he was only 24, but what a start. He was a tough nut to crack.
A tag on the back of the neck of a new shirt quickly gets removed permanently. As do any others that might be an irritant anywhere else.
Frank D:
Same with me. If it can be seen or felt, it’s removed.
So good of you and Bob to help the gentleman with the untied drawstring. You are both angels of kindness in the world 😎.
Will Jay
Will Jay:
I can’t speak for bed, but I am completely selfless.
I just don’t see anything entertaining about tossing a ball back and forth…and back and forth…and back and forth…get me OUT of here!
(I don’t mean HERE as in your blog…I mean HERE as in that game of catch. 🙂 )
Steve:
I understood. Of the two guys, the one on the left didn’t seem to be enjoying himself. The other was showing off his throw. Not a lot of joy in it.
Steve:
Nor using a stick to try and get a ball in a little hole in the ground!
Around these parts the menfolk don’t tuck anything, and they walk around looking like slobs. I only not tuck if the garment is speficialy designs that way.
Urspo:
But I’m sure your labels are always tucked.