Actually he had mentioned previously some interest in having one. I confess that he does look pretty sharp in his Orchestra tux (uniform) so I just ran with the idea. I floated it past Ben and he said, “sure.”
We went out shopping that night, but we did not find anything that he was in love with. Ben told me not to buy anything that he was not in love with because he would not want to wear it. I agreed. The prices were also not as fabulous as I was expecting for the store I went into. Evidently the fabulous prices in there are only when there is a sale. The sales are frequent but evidently not all the time – like at the end of January.
We decided that we would just keep shopping until we found something that he really liked. He expressed interest in having a suit with a vest. The guy at the store we were in said that vested suits were very hard to come by in his size. I gave the guy a dumbfounded look or something because he continued, “most young men do not want a vest, it is usually our older more robust men looking for vests.” What can I say? Andrew just has mature tastes.
I kept watching the sales and I would stop in various suit shops like the Men’s Warehouse, Kohls, and other stores to see what was available. I got on email lists for the various stores so I would get coupons and sales notices. I wanted to know when things were happening. The sales just were not all that good.
The only stipulation we put on Andrew was that his suit needed to be “mission ready” so that if it still fit when he was ready to leave on his mission we would be at least one suit ahead. Otherwise he could have what he wanted within the guidelines set forth in the missionary standards. In other words, the suit needed to be fairly conservative.
Finally, I got an email from K&G for a sale for buy 1 suit get 2 suits free. That is my kind of sale. It was any suit $199 within a few brands. There were several brands listed. I could handle that. The icing on the cake was when I got a coupon for 15% off the total purchase!!! Score!!! The coupon however ended today. Incidentally, this evening was the only time I would be able to get both boys together at the same time.
Of course I did not put two and two together that today was the day before Easter. I mean I knew that it was Easter weekend, but it did not register completely until I walked into the store with the boys and the line was halfway across the store. Oh man, it was going to be a long night! We were there with a mission to find three suits and there was no turning back at this point because the sale was an awesome sale and I had a coupon to take 15% off the $199 suit. The only way we were leaving was if we did not find suits that fit our needs.
After much searching and trying on, we finally found…
One suit for Kyle….
Kyle insisted on wearing his orchestra tux shirt and bow tie with his fedora for this shopping expedition. I really do love this child. We found him a suit that looked very sharp on his refined and sophisticated yet upscale style. May you always dance to your own drum, Kyle.
In the end we ended up with one suit for Kyle and two suits for Andrew. We even managed to find a suit with a vest for Andrew. Double score! Yes, folks, that is a smile on Andrew’s face because he got exactly what he wanted – a vested suit. See it does not take much to please these children. Andrew, opted not to get all dolled up for this expedition but he did at least put on a white shirt. He did have on a tie at one point, but that was removed…
We then proceeded to stand in that very long line. We were in line for over an hour. I was quickly reminded about how many people might need to buy a suit to attend Sunday services on Easter Sunday. For us it was just another day to be followed by another Sunday that had a little extra special meaning. We were not going to get all dolled up and primped for Easter services like those that only attend church twice a year. Being a regular church goer makes life so much easier sometimes. A regular wardrobe is so much easier to maintain than to have to stand in line and hope that you have to find something that works. K&G was not doing any alterations at all tonight so if your suit needed anything, you were on your own. Fortunately, we were in no rush and we were not buying them for the Easter holiday, we were just buying them and the alterations could wait a week or so.
May you always look sharp…
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