I spent 28 years dressed for a mail Jeep. At the retired carriers’ lunch, Leota was the only one of us who looked retired.
I spent 28 years dressed for a mail Jeep. At the retired carriers’ lunch, Leota was the only one of us who looked retired.
Six things I have learned since a lunch on Route 66 at the end of October, from a woman who still had a closet full of clothes for a job she does not have.
Connie Mayfield · Claremore, Oklahoma · 5 min read
I am 66 and I carried the mail on a county route for 28 years, so I am not one for putting things on Facebook. Most of what I have written in my life fit on the back of a slip that said we tried to deliver and nobody was home. I live on two acres outside Claremore, Oklahoma, with my husband Dale and an old basset hound named Deputy, who rode up front in the Jeep with me for my last few years on the route.
The two I am writing about are the Eira and the Janetta, from Iris and Nora, a small boutique down in Austin. The Eira is a beige sweater with a real collar, edged in a dark trim around the collar, the cuffs and the hem. The Janetta is a cardigan with wide navy and white stripes and four big buttons. I bought them both for myself, which I do not do. When the boutique asked if they could put my letter up for other women to read, I said yes, as long as I could tell it plainly.
The last Tuesday of every month, the retired carriers from our county have lunch at a little cafe on Route 66 in Claremore. They push three tables together in the back, and everybody talks routes and dogs and who has had what replaced. I went for the first time at the end of October. I had been retired long enough to go, and I still had not gone, and I will tell you why in a minute. I walked in wearing the same fleece I wore in the Jeep, and so did half the table. Then Leota came in. Leota ran the route on the other side of the county, out of Verdigris, and she retired a few years ahead of me. For as long as I have known her she was in a fleece and work boots, same as me. That day she had on a beige sweater with a collar, trimmed in a dark edge, over a good pair of jeans. She looked like a woman who had somewhere to be after lunch. I waited until the pie came and asked her, plainly, where she got it. Read on.
Leota at the end of the table. She said I could take her picture if I left her face out of it, so I did.
Here is the thing I had not told anybody. For 28 years I dressed for a Jeep. Fleece, work pants, boots, a coat that smelled like the heater. Now, for the first time in my life, I can go somewhere on a Tuesday. And when I open the closet, it is still dressed for a job I do not have. That is why I put off the lunch. Leota said it took her two years to quit dressing for the route, and she only noticed when the man at the bank asked if she was still carrying.
I will tell you something from the route, and it is only my opinion. The sweaters I carried back out of a driveway were nearly always the ones that looked good on the screen and like a feed sack in the mirror. I figured that is where these were headed too.
For 28 years I dressed for a Jeep. Now I can go somewhere on a Tuesday, and my closet is still dressed for the route.
The day they came. I laid them out on the bed before I could talk myself out of it.
I ordered both that night at the kitchen table. I have worn them to lunch, to church and to the bank since they came, and I have kept track of them the way I used to keep track of which houses had a new dog. It comes down to six things, and I will give them to you plainly.
A collar that makes a sweater look like you meant it
The Eira has a wide open collar that lies flat around a V at the neck. That collar is the whole difference. A plain sweater looks like you got cold. A sweater with a collar looks like you got dressed. I wear it with my good jeans and nobody at the bank has asked if I am still carrying.
Leaving for the bank on a Tuesday morning. Dale asked where I was going. I said out.
The collar is what sold me. I look put together without trying, which at my age is the only way I am going to look put together.
Darla K., NowataA dark trim that does the work of jewelry
A two-tone edge runs around the collar, the cuffs and the hem. On the beige it is a dark trim, and it frames the whole sweater the way a good pair of earrings frames a face. I own exactly one good pair of earrings, so I appreciate a sweater that does the job on its own. It also comes in black with a white trim.
On the dresser, next to the one good pair of earrings I own.
The trim at the collar and the cuffs makes it look like a nicer sweater than the price. My sister asked if it was from a department store.
Peggy Jo W., SperryPlain in front, so the trim stands out
The front of the Eira is smooth, with no pattern and nothing sewn on, so the eye goes to the collar and the trim and stops there. The shape is relaxed and the sleeves are full, so it does not cling and I can reach across a table for the pie without the whole thing coming with me. I have had enough of clothes with a hundred things going on. This one does one thing well.
Easy shape, not tight anywhere, and plain enough to wear with anything. I have worn it three times this week.
Lorene T., WagonerWide stripes you can see from across the parking lot
The Janetta has bold white stripes that run across the body and the sleeves, navy and white, wide and even. It is a classic look, the kind of thing that never really goes out. I wear it when I want to look cheerful and do not feel like explaining myself. Deputy does not care what I wear, but he has started walking a little taller on our way to the end of the road.
Deputy and me on our walk to the end of the road, which is as far as he goes now.
The stripes are nice and wide and the navy is a true navy. I get stopped about it at the grocery store.
Carolyn B., Fort ScottFour big buttons, open or closed
There are four large buttons down the front, the kind you can do up without looking. I wear it open over a plain top when the house is warm and buttoned up on its own when I go out. The V-neck sits neatly over a plain top, and the shape is easy, with room for a layer underneath. The cuffs and the hem are ribbed.
At the kitchen table the night I sat down to write this letter.
Big buttons I can do up without my glasses. I wear it open in the house and buttoned for church.
Nedra S., Eureka SpringsTwo tops, and somewhere to wear them
Between the two of them I have a week of places to go covered. The Eira with my good jeans for lunch or the bank. The Janetta over a plain top for church, errands, or a walk with Deputy. The Eira comes in beige with a dark trim or black with a white trim, in sizes S to XL. The Janetta comes in navy, black, brown or green, each with white stripes, in sizes S to XL. There are fourteen women’s winter tops in this collection altogether.
The first Tuesday I wore the Eira to lunch, I stopped at Bev’s on the way to drop off her pie plate. She looked me up and down from the porch, took the plate, and said, “Well. Now you look retired.” Coming from Bev, that is about as close to a compliment as anybody gets.
Bought the collared sweater and the striped cardigan together. First new things I have bought myself since I quit working.
Wilma J., Webb CityThe Eira and the Janetta, against what I was wearing
You can keep wearing the clothes from the job, like I did for longer than I will admit. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.
A fleece that smelled like the Jeep heater
Work pants and boots to lunch
Dressed for a job I do not have
Looked like I was still on the route
Nobody asked where I got it
A collar that looks like I meant it
A dark trim at the collar, cuffs and hem
Wide stripes and four big buttons
Open or closed, over a plain top
Bev said I finally look retired
About the price
The Eira is $34.95. It was $70.00. The Janetta is $34.95. It was $70.00. Prices like that make me suspicious. I spent 28 years handing people boxes, and you learn a lot about a company from which boxes come back the other way. So I read the whole page looking for the catch, and I have not found one. They came with free shipping, they looked like the pictures, and neither one has gone back.
I will pass on what the boutique told me, which is that these come in small runs and the good colors and sizes do not stay in stock long. Their words, not mine.
And I do not trust perfect scores, so I read the reviews before I ordered. Just over three hundred of them, sitting at 4.2 stars, which sounded like real people rather than robots. The same things I have just walked you through come up in them, over and over, in other women’s words.
If you spent your working years dressed for the job, and you are only now finding out what you look like on a Tuesday, this is where I would start. Take a look before this run sells through, because once it is gone, it is gone. And if you see Leota, tell her Connie owes her a slice of pie. She will say I do not. I do.
Connie
THE EIRA & THE JANETTA
The Janetta: $70.00 $34.95
- Eira: wide open collar with a V-neck
- Contrast trim at the collar, cuffs and hem
- Janetta: button front cardigan with wide white stripes
- V-neckline, wear it open or closed
- Relaxed shape, long sleeves
- Both in sizes S to XL
- Fourteen women’s winter tops in the collection
- Free shipping
Sale on now, half off. Once this run is gone, it is gone.