Fashion Statements

     My teenage granddaughter just got new jeans. They look like they were left in a lion's cage and used by the whole pride on their scratching post. She says they are "pre-shredded", which I think is retail-speak for really, really expensive. I'm glad I saw her wear them first before I found them on the floor in a pile, which I'm sorry to say is where dirty....make that tried on once for three minutes and decided against....clothes go, because I probably would have taken them straight to the rag bag. (Does anybody still have a rag bag anymore in this day of all things disposable?) No chance of that, though, because she loves them and will wear them all the time. And she looks darned cute in them.
     When her dad was little I bought his jeans with special, reinforced knees so he wouldn't get holes in them and sometimes ironed patches inside to keep them from wearing through for as long as possible. Little did I know that if I had let them go and saved them to sell later I might have been rich today.
     For awhile I felt sorry for boys wearing jeans with the crotch around their knees and the waist so big and low that their underwear showed and they had to hold them up just to walk. Heaven forbid they might have to run in them. I wanted to say to them, "Don't worry. Just keep eating your vegetables and maybe you will grow into your clothes some day." I guess the Big and Tall stores are doing a booming business these days, because how many six-foot nine-inch linebackers have garage sales? It's probably a good thing I didn't say anything because I understand now that they might not have taken kindly to that. And I suppose it's also a good thing I resisted the urge to go over and straighten their ball caps for them when they had the bill completely crooked and sticking out the side instead of in front, although you know I was only being a Grandma and worrying about them.
     I just know that when I was a kid, I would have died of embarrassment if I had been forced to appear in public wearing raggedy jeans or clothes too big. And how many little gold safety pins did I use up to keep my bra straps from showing? Or....my goodness!....wear a black bra under a white blouse so that it showed through? You couldn't have paid me to go out like that. And my dad would have locked me in my room anyway.
     But, it's gotten me thinking. What about my favorite "Mom Jeans"? (Okay, Grandma Jeans)  hey are beginning to get some very fashionable holes in them. You can see right through in some places and they are shredded exactly like Hayley's with more holes just on the verge of appearing. What do you think? Should I try to sell them on e-Bay and make a bunch of money, or keep on wearing them and be a really stylin' grandma?