Black dickie

 

Black dickie

     A Xmas joke failure was the black dickie  that became a symbol for unwanted gifts. As Greg's godfather my Dad usually gave him a quality gift the ranged from a pendleton shirt to a london fog windbreaker. As the years went by and fashion became  all important for young Greg the choices narrowed and BC would ask me what might be appropriate. At the time there were two distinct looks around So Cal. The first was a mixture of Ivy league and early surfer stuff. This included madras shirts, A-1 taper pants, pendletons, saddle shoes and windbreakers. Unlike brother Jack, Greg was never hot on surfing but liked the traditional quality of Silverwoods men's store with dress shirts by Arrow etc. The other side of the dressing scene was hair boy stuff that was kind of inspired by Elvis. This included hairspray stiffened pompadours, straight legged slacks with pockets in the front called racers, knit shirts and the very bold dickeys that were like a  fake turtle neck that you wore under your shirt or shirt-jac. We considered everything about the hair boy look to be lame and cheesy. Even in suits the look was loosely called continental and we wanted no part of it. So, one Sunday in early December as we watched a game with the visiting Sheehy's my Dad threw out a question about a Xmas gift for Greg. I sarcastically shot back that he probably would love a black dickey while raising my eyebrows toward Greg and we both laughed. Come Xmas which coincided with his birthday there was a high quality black dickey under the tree for Greg. He accepted it with a smile and filed it away where it stayed unworn for decades.