Let’s get into the “way back ” machine.
The year is 1996. I’m a mere sophomore in college, on a European backpacking adventure with my college roommate Amy. There have been three Wallace and Gromit short films, stop-motion animation done by a Aaardman Animation, a studio based in England. They aren’t very popular in America, but as a film major, specializing in animation, I had seen and loved all the animated shorts. I was a HUGE Wallace and Gromit fan and happy to discover all sorts of Wallace and Gromit merchandise while traveling in England.
I bought a black shirt with Gromit in a yellow rainslicker. (From the short The Wrong Trousers.) That was almost 20 years ago. It’s now lying on my bed next to me as I type this. This shirt has outlasted my marriage, traveled to more than 20 countries, and helps me sleep at night.
![](https://beckyances.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/IMG_7480-2.jpg)
I don’t know quite why this shirt survived so long. It’s not especially attractive or high quality. It’s compact, and I love the picture which might be one of the reasons it came with me when I traveled around the world in 1999-2000.
![](https://beckyances.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/IMG_7477-2.jpg)
It was one of the items of clothing I had washed in Indonesia in the year 2000. To make sure the clothes didn’t get mixed up, the washer woman put a small colored thread in each item of clothing to mark the owner. That thread is still in the shirt 15 years later.
![The piece of thread identifying the clothes as mine.](https://beckyances.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/IMG_6073.jpg)
As time went by it got thinner and softer. I have trouble sleeping when there is any light in the room, and I don’t like sleeping masks. One morning, as the rising sun began to trickle into my bedroom, I reached out for a shirt, grabbed this one, and covered my eyes with it. A habit was born and in 2005, long after it was no longer wearable, the shirt came with me to China to help keep the light out of my eyes.
![](https://beckyances.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/IMG_6072-2.jpg)
I haven’t worn it in years, but I use it daily. I don’t need to use this shirt to cover my eyes, but I prefer it over others. And it has become a sort of trigger to tell me it is time to sleep. (I wouldn’t go as far to say it has become a security blanket, I don’t bring it with me when I travel and I sleep just fine. But it does make me feel better when I have it.)
What the oldest piece of clothing you still have?
I love Gromit! Such great shorts. (Though the cheese always makes me hungry.) Gromit was clearly built to last.
Shawn the Sheep was pretty entertaining also.