The Ugly Duckling Sweater

Do you have clothes in your closet that make you wonder what you were thinking when you bought them?  What about clothing you received as a gift?  Do you wonder what they were thinking as they bought that particular item?  Maybe you have memories from your childhood of being forced to wear something that someone else picked out and that you absolutely hated!

Growing up I hated wearing cutesy clothes.  Teddy bears, hearts, little cartoon characters..forget it.  Those were the clothes that never left my closet or were stuffed into the bottom of my drawers.

Yet, everyone was under the mistaken notion that I did.  I would make enthusiastic remarks about how beautiful or cute it was with the promise of wearing it the first chance I got. I never wanted to hurt anyone's feelings and I know how much you want the person you bought a gift for to love it.

My mother and I as I'm sure most of you can relate have the polar opposite tastes in clothing.  I was an odd duck in the sense that I hated jeans and didn't wear them until middle school.  I had a closet filled with cords, stirrup pants (yes, I admit it), skirts, and dresses.  I was just as choosy about the tops I wore.

One year my mother came home with this sweater that she thought was a huge bargain.  It was made of a blue-green wool with a yellow fuzzy duckling in galoshes holding an umbrella and splashing through a puddle.  It was hideous.  Scratchy.  To snug.  And worse of all just plain ugly.

The only thing I hated worse than that sweater was turtlenecks.Which is what I had to wear to keep the sweater from torturing me with its scratchiness.

I was mortified to wear the sweater to school.  At the time, I was in sixth or seventh grade.  Middle schoolers DID NOT wear fuzzy duck sweaters.

One morning, my mother commented on why hadn't she seen me wear the sweater.  I remember shrugging.  At a young age, I realized that not answering and being noncommittal was sometimes the easiest way to avoid a lecture or scolding.  Sometimes though  it didn't work.

My mother waxed on about how lucky I was to have such nice clothing.  In the end, hoping to keep her from becoming further upset, I wore the sweater over a turtleneck.  As soon as I got to school, I yanked the sweater off my back.  My hair stood on end from the static of the wool being pulled over my long hair.  Not only did I have a bad clothing day, I had a bad hair day.

At the end of the day, I put the sweater back on as quickly as I could and covered it up with my coat before heading off to my bus.

That year for Christmas my aunt gave me a lovely white turtleneck with little teddy bears all over it.  That stayed hidden in my drawer until the day my mother handed us garbage bags to clean out our closets and drawers of too small clothing.  Luckily, my mom never went through the bag before carting it off to Goodwill.


What is the ugliest piece of clothing you ever recieved?  Did you wear it?