Looped

 

I have this terrible perennial problem with my Levi's jeans, which are pretty much all that I have worn during my adult life, which come to think of it is most of my life at this point, that is, if we are not counting what passes for normal adult maturity.

The problem is that, like many things, they are not making them like they used to and the belt loops are always breaking off at the bottom.

So I am faced with two possible choices when this occurs, either have a floppy belt loop, something somewhat frowned upon in the habitués of polite society that I frequent or take them to the cleaners to mend, which costs a cool five dollars a loop, a usurious outlay that I am loathe to pay.

I was returning a navajo squash blossom necklace to a friend the other day, my back right belt loop flopping in the wind like an injured seagull for all to see.

The couple ushered me in to their living room to chat for a moment when I spied a rack of thread spools on the wall behind Margaret.

A thought hit me.

"Hey you wouldn't happen to have a sharp needle and some black thread I could borrow, would you?"

Margaret said that she in fact did and her husband Jon was kind enough to fetch it for me. I told them that I would return it at my soonest opportunity. Then she said something that took me aback:

"You might as well drop trou and fix them here. I am blind you know?"

Good point.

I did know that and she was right. Margaret lost her sight a few years ago, poor thing. I took off my shoes, pulled off my pants and went to mending right then and there. John found a needle with an eye big enough to thread and we were in business.

He took a picture to commemorate the event.

Good to have friends you can get down to basics with. Jean problem solved!