Story by Donna Swagerty Shreve
The year was 1977 and John, my husband, worked at Diamond Walnut in the export/distribution department. A San Francisco shipping company had won the bid to be Diamond Walnut’s shipper overseas. In a gesture of gratitude, four of their executives had taken the entire export/distribution department out to, what was then the finest restaurant in Stockton, Albert’s. Drinks were flowing and the four shipping employees loosened up. They started making fun of John’s attire. His only suit was quite out of style according to their standards. The width of his lapels and tie gave him away. Being the only male in the department John became easy prey.
John came home mortified and we decided, on our limited budget, we had to get John a new suit. We went to a men’s store in the Weberstown Mall. We bought one of their fanciest three-piece suits they had, Wow, did he look sharp!
A few months previous to John getting a new suit, I had splurged, with the help of my mother, and bought an elegant long dress at a local fancy boutique. After my second son’s birth, I experienced postpartum depression. My mother became quite concerned and decided retail therapy was needed. We found a beautiful long yellow pleated dress that made me feel well attired for any dress up occasion. The cost of the dress in 1977 was $150, which Mom and I split. Even $75 was certainly out of my price range but I gave in to the temptation. I had already worn the dress to a wedding and was ready to wear it again.
Meanwhile John found a large error in favor of the shipping company. One of the four executives called John personally. The executive was so impressed with John’s diligence that he wanted to show his gratitude. He arranged for the four of us, John, me, himself and his wife, to go out to the best restaurant Stockton had to offer. They were driving from San Francisco and taking us out to the same restaurant that had been used before. The executive inferred that the valley clients were the least favorites in their office but he didn’t mind being the low man that got stuck with us. We were obviously thought of as country bumpkins.
Dress up time! One of the women in John’s department was well aware of all of the dynamics involved with the first and now second dinner. She begged to be our baby sitter for the evening so she could have a ring side seat.. Our boys were six months and almost four years of age. They were fed and dressed in their pajamas and would go to bed early and it should be an easy babysitting job.
John and I dressed up in our best and were ready to be as sophisticated as possible as city people. At the appointed time, a full size new Cadillac pulled up in front of our modest home on our narrow street. At that time our drive way had cement borders going up on either side that were not wide enough for modern cars. Our Volkswagen bug had no problem but the Cadillac wisely didn’t even attempt our driveway.
The couple exited their car and came up our porch. The door bell rang and I answered the door in my fashionable long yellow dress. The man was wearing a loud plaid sport jacket with khaki pants. I don’t believe he was even wearing a tie. His jacket was wrinkled from either the long drive over or from being squished in the back of his closet. His wife was attired in a short sundress with spaghetti straps. She accented her outfit with fancy flip-flops.
I have never felt so over dressed in some time and they hadn’t seen John yet. I do believe our babysitter was enjoying the show and I knew the office would be buzzing the next workday. We got into their back seat and off we went to the restaurant where we had reservations.
The maitre de went straight to John to inquire if he had reservations. This theme was replayed when the waiter tried to give John the check at the end of our expensive meal. We ended our evening and the city slickers left to return to the big city after being out-classed three times by us. First we out-dressed them. Then the maitre de ignored them as did the waiter.
Four years later Brad , our son, was now in an U.O.P. speech therapy session. He was being given a language test. Brad had quite a stutter and his language skills were being tested as a possible contributing factor. He was doing quite well until he was shown a picture of a man wearing a suit. Brad was asked what the man was wearing and Brad replied, “Clothes.” After our infamous dinner date, John limited his use of his fancy suit. I am thinking Brad had quite a limited exposure to a man’s suit by either his father or retired grandfather. I guess we were country bumpkins after all!
851 words, April 17, 2015
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