Dress for retirement success

At the end of this month, I will have been retired for four years. It seems impossible that time has flown by so quickly. I’d like to say I am fully adjusted to a life of indolence, but I still get the feeling that I should be doing something more meaningful while my physical and mental health are good enough to fool others.

One aspect of retirement I have mastered is how to dress for this life. While a good share of my clothes closet still holds never-worn sports jackets, dress pants, and neckties*, an increasingly large space is devoted to cargo pants and hiking shirts.

The two major advantages of being male are having the ability to pee standing up and wearing clothing with pockets so one does not need to carry a handbag. (Yes, I know other privileges come with the Y chromosome.) But I do love pockets.

Cargo pants, like smart phones, help slow the symptoms of encroaching dementia as one ages. I increasingly use my phone to find things I might otherwise forget - phone numbers, hotel room numbers, grocery lists, calendar events, etc. But on a more immediate basis, I use my cargo pants pockets to find stuff too.

My front left cargo pocket always contains my wallet, firmly zipped or velcroed shut. My front right cargo pocket always contains my keys, firmly zipped or velcroed shut. My regular front pockets contain my face mask, Swiss Army knife, pocket change, and foldable reading glasses, none of which, if lost, would result in tragedy. Back pockets are for maps and Kleenex packages.

Most of my cargo pants are hiking pants from REI or Eddie or Bean or the like, always purchased on sale. While I did buy my first pairs for hiking (I liked knowing my car keys would still be on my person at the end of the hike so I would not have to retrace my steps looking for them had they gotten loose), I now wear them on a daily basis. They are always clean, never tattered, and held in place with a belt, my shirt tucked in. So far, none of the clients I give rides to as a volunteer driver has complained about my dress code. I don’t sense any rude stares at the grocery store or Target. I've not yet had my picture on the People of Walmart blog. I guess I meet the haute couture standards of suburban Minnesota.

As my experience with retirement grows, I plan to offer more fashion tips for Blue Skunk readers. Hmmm, thinking about making a photographer's vest a wardrobe mainstay. Stay tuned…

* I am reluctant to get rid of my professional clothes. Will there come a day when I need them for some reason - a job when Social Security goes bankrupt, perhaps? 

In the four years I've been retired, I have traveled to:

• Netherlands, three times (boat bike trips)
• Belgium (boat bike)
• Alaska (cruise and Denali visit)
• Isle Royale (backpacking)
• Montenegro (hiking)
• Croatia (conference)
• Philippines, two times (hiking)
• Vietnam, two times (hking Sapa Valley, wedding, and bicycling)
• Thailand (biking and relaxing)
• Every state park in Minnesota (hiking challenge)
• Every national park in Utah (hiking)
• Superior hiking trail segements (backpacking)
• Philmont Scout Ranch (backpacking)
• Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary (boat bike)
• Maine (hiking)
• Ecuador (Galapagos cruise and jungle stay)
• Apostle Islands and Door County, WI (hiking)
• Border Route Trail (trail maintenance)
• Black Hills (hiking)
• Trips to visit family in Atlanta and Kansas City, plus family weeks on houseboats, Lanesboro, Acorn Resort, etc. a few times each year.

Coming up:

• Boat/bike in Italy
• Hiking Yosemite. 

See, I've needed those hiking pants.