I enjoy Christmas and the cooler weather this time of year for many reasons. One of the things I really enjoy is pulling out my two woolen Pendleton shirts and wearing them during the holidays. I have had the shirts for several years but they are like new. They look like Christmas. Both are a subdued Christmas red. One has subtle black stripes and the other blue and thin yellow stripes. One of the main things I like about these shirts is they were made in the USA.

Most of my other shirts are cotton and synthetic fabric and are made in China or other foreign lands. They start falling apart after a few washings. I can usually only wear them one time before they need to go through the washing and ironing process to look fresh and presentable. I wear the Pendleton shirts several times before cleaning, and they look fresh every time I put them on and they don’t even smell bad.

When I was a kid we used to snicker at the country kids who wore clothes made from feed sacks, but those would be great compared to the shoddy stuff we get from overseas today. I would love to have a feed sack shirt like those when I was a kid, but even the feed sacks today are junk.

The other thing about foreign made clothes is the sizes don’t match those in the USA. Chinese and Indian folks are smaller and an extra large in their clothing is equivalent to a medium in this country. I found this out the other day when I was going to buy and extra large sweatshirt and it would about fit my normal size granddaughter in junior high. The foreign made stuff is sized to fit pygmies.

I just wish all our clothes were made in the USA along with most everything else. The quality would certainly improve. I know it would probably cost more because the labor in the US makes it unprofitable to manufacture goods here. If we could abolish greedy CEOs and white collar bosses along with the ruthless labor unions, maybe we could turn out affordable, high quality produces and solve the unemployment problem at the same time.

I guess all I can do is just be thankful I can sit on the porch in my old Pendleton shirts and wish we could again have quality and made in the USA. At least, it’s a Merry Christmas thought.