Getting shirtings

We were at a funeral last Sat: the penultimate survivor of the previous generation. I feel myself getting hustled penguin-like to the edge of the ice-flow and the leopard-seal of death in the cold cold waters below. I try to brush up nicely for weddings and funerals and someone complemented me on the jacket. Dau.I overheard and noted that, at a previous family gathering, my mother had expressed amazement to have born and bred two such different sons: "Take your Uncle J., when he runs out shirts because he's too busy to get to the laundry, he drops by Marks&Sparks and buys six more shirts. Your father on the other hand, robbed all your grandfather's shirts when he died, and I don't think he'd bought another shirt since"

It's true that I looted about 2 dozen of my father's office shirts after the funeral; and a very serviceable dark woollen overcoat - ideal for sleety Winter funerals; and a handful of dark 'service' ties - Royal Engineers, HMS Dolphin Torpedo School. The shirts presented me tidy for the last 20 years of my working life in academia. A few years ago, post-pandemic, after retirement,we were doing The Big Shop in Tesco. Their Winter stock was on sale and I bought a serviceable 100% cotton flannel shirt in what passes for Royal Stewart Tartan in the Bangladeshi garment trade. My father's shirts were worn-through at the collar or stained by hand-to-mouth food accidents. My new shirt cost 1 cappuccino or 2 at the most and has become my GoTo outdoor work-shirt. I've been looking for similar, in a desultory fashion, in charity shops, ever since. But WTF capitalism when you can buy 5 pairs of socks for less than a cup of coffee?

On 3rd September Aldi advertised 100% cotton tartan workshirts. It was great good timing because I was due to collect our latest Brazilian tradie from Bunclody at 09:00hrs and Bunclody has an Aldi. But the shirt-cupboard was bare when I got to Aldi - one pallet of middle-aisle merch hadn't arrived. When I go home I realised I could put my TFI rural bus routes project into practice. 11:35 in Kiltealy >>> 12:10 New Ross . . . 12:40 New Ross >>> 13:15 Kiltealy. By then it was 11:15, so I had to drive the 3.5km to catch the Southbound bus.

Imagine my delight when my journey intersected with the fortnightly 30 minute Kiltealy stop by the Wexford Mobile Library van: there were two books-for-return on the back-seat of the car. The 359 bus arrived on time (empty of passengers). GoogleMaps says it takes 12 mins to walk from the NR Bus Stop to NR Aldi but I did it in 9 (passing Lidl on the other side of the street). Bought two shirts against a working Winter and legged it back to catch the bus home. Proof of principle [✓] half-an-hour would be plenty time to do the messages at Supervalu && the adjacent Polski Sklep && the Pharmacy on Main St && find an ATM to pay for it all. That's pretty damned good infra-structural support for rural Ireland in the 21stC. You could sign up for 3½ hours in New Ross. But I don't think I could.

I do, So, buy my own shirts.