For two church directories, my husband wore the same pearl-snap shirt. Then I watched Wendell sit down for his picture.
For two church directories, my husband wore the same pearl-snap shirt. Then I watched Wendell sit down for his picture.
Six things I have noticed since picture day at our church this past October, from a woman who spent 28 years carrying other people’s packages up to the porch.
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. The longest thing I ever wrote for anybody was a note taped inside our mailbox, asking the new carrier to please not feed Deputy. I live on two acres outside Claremore, Oklahoma, with my husband Dale and that same old basset hound.
The two I am writing about are the Vernon and the Lucas, from Iris and Nora, a small boutique down in Austin. The Vernon is a brown cardigan with a wide shawl collar and big buttons. The Lucas is a light blue button-down shirt. They are men’s things, and I bought them for Dale. 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 the way it happened.
Every few years our church makes a new directory. It is a little book with every family’s picture in it, and it sits by the telephone in every house in the congregation. Picture day was a Saturday in the middle of October, in the fellowship hall. A photographer came up from Tulsa with a gray cloth backdrop and a light on a stand, and the ladies had the coffee urn going. Dale and I sat for ours and then waited in the folding chairs for Bev. That is when Wendell went up. Wendell and his wife Wynona were on my route out past Foyil for all 28 years. I know Wendell in two outfits: bib overalls, and the dark suit he wears to funerals. Not that day. He had on a brown cardigan with a shawl collar, buttoned, over a light blue button-down. The photographer looked up from his camera and said, “Now that one is going on the cover.” I went straight to Wynona by the coffee urn and asked her, plainly, where she got them. Read on.
Wendell on picture day. Wynona took this one on her phone while the photographer was changing his light. She said I could use it if I left his face off, since his face is already going in the book.
Here is what I had been looking at across the breakfast table. A man Dale’s age has two kinds of clothes for a picture. The funeral suit, which makes him look like he is at one. Or the pearl-snap shirt he wears to the sale barn. Nothing in between. Dale has sat for the last two directories in the same pearl-snap shirt, and he had it on again that Saturday. Wynona told me her granddaughter said the very same thing about Wendell before she ordered his.
I will tell you something from the route, and it is only my opinion. I carried a lot of men’s shirts out to a lot of mailboxes, and I carried a good many of them back. From what the wives told me at the box, it was nearly always the collar or the sleeves. I figured that is where these were headed too.
Two directories in a row, Dale is in the same pearl-snap shirt. It sits by the phone in every house in the church.
The day they came. I laid them out on the bed before Dale got in from feeding, so he could not turn them down in the box.
I ordered both that night at the kitchen table. Dale has worn them to church and to Sunday dinner since they came, and I have been watching, because watching is most of what a mail carrier does. It comes down to six things, and I will give them to you plainly.
A shawl collar that does the work of a tie
The Vernon has a wide collar that folds over and rolls around the back of the neck, then comes down the front in a deep V. It sits around his shirt collar like a frame. Dale has not worn a tie since our daughter Kelli got married, and he is not about to start. With this collar he does not need one. He looks dressed, and he can still breathe.
On the closet door the night before church, where it waits now instead of the pearl-snap.
The collar sits right around his neck and frames his shirt. He looks dressed without a tie, which is all he ever wanted.
Glenda R., TalalaFive big buttons, done up or left open
There are five large dark buttons down the front, the kind you can find without looking. He leaves it open in the house and buttons it up when we go somewhere. Buttoned, it looks like he meant to come. Open, it looks like he lives there.
Dale and Deputy on the porch steps on a Sunday morning, waiting on me, as usual.
He leaves it open around the house and buttons it up for church. Big buttons he can find without his glasses.
Faye M., AdairA raised diamond and cable knit you notice up close
From across the room it is just a good brown cardigan. Up close there is a raised pattern of diamonds and rope cables running down the front and the sleeves. It is the kind of thing a woman at church notices when she is shaking his hand, and two of them did. The cuffs and the hem are ribbed, and they have held their shape so far.
The pattern is even nicer in person. Our pastor stopped him after the service to ask about it.
Twila H., ChouteauA button-down collar that stays where you put it
The Lucas has a button-down collar, so a small button holds each point in place. No curling up by noon, no collar tips sitting on top of the cardigan like ears. There is a little band of a deeper blue inside the collar that shows at the neck when he leaves the top button open, which he always does. It is a small thing. I noticed it, and so did Bev.
Folded on the dresser, next to the watch he only wears when we are going somewhere.
The little buttons on the collar keep it from curling. First shirt he has not fussed with in the mirror.
Juanita P., ParsonsCuffs you turn back once
Inside each cuff there is a contrast color, gray on the light blue. Turn the sleeves back once and a neat band of it shows at the wrist. Dale rolls his sleeves up to wash his hands whether I like it or not, so now when he does it, it looks like it was on purpose. The Lucas is cut on the slim side, so I went by the size chart and not by the size on his old shirts, and I would tell you to do the same.
First cup of the morning, sleeves turned back. He did that himself. I did not say a word.
He turns the sleeves back once and the gray shows. Our son saw it at Sunday dinner and wanted one too.
Rhonda C., BerryvilleWear them together, the way Wendell did
The Lucas goes under the Vernon with the top button open and the collar points sitting on the shawl collar, and that is the whole outfit. Khakis or his good jeans underneath. The Vernon also comes in teal blue, black, beige, dark gray and rust, in sizes M to 3XL. The Lucas comes in white, coral, mid blue, navy, gray and black, in sizes S to 2XL. There are eleven men’s tops in this collection altogether.
The first Sunday Dale wore them, my friend Bev looked him up and down in the church parking lot and said, “Dale, are you running for something?” Dale said, “Just the book.” The photographer is coming back for retakes before the directories are printed, and Dale has his name on the list.
Bought the cardigan and the shirt to go together. He wore them to our anniversary dinner and looked like the man I married.
Billie Sue A., MonettThe Vernon and the Lucas, against what he was wearing
You can let him sit for the picture in what he has, like I did twice. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.
Looks like he is at a funeral
Or looks like he came from the sale barn
The same shirt in every picture
Collar points curling by noon
Nobody asks where he got it
A shawl collar that frames his shirt
Five big buttons, open or done up
A raised diamond and cable knit
A button-down collar that stays put
Bev asked if he was running for something
About the price
The Vernon is $91.95. It was $184.00. The Lucas is $55.95. It was $112.00. 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 the man in your house owns a funeral suit and a sale barn shirt and nothing in between, 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 Wendell, tell him Connie said the book is lucky to have him. He will turn red. That is just Wendell.
Connie
THE VERNON & THE LUCAS
The Lucas: $112.00 $55.95
- Vernon: shawl collar cardigan with a button front
- Raised diamond and cable pattern
- Ribbed cuffs and hem
- Lucas: button-down collar with a contrast band inside
- Contrast inside the cuffs, full button front
- Vernon M to 3XL, Lucas S to 2XL
- Eleven men’s tops in the collection
- Free shipping
Sale on now, half off. Once this run is gone, it is gone.