After reading the piece “shirt worthy” there is a lot of memoir and pathos described into the read. Although they are more indirect then direct, you obtain and understanding for both of them. This pertains to an older crowd of retired rockers realizing how much the rock and roll industry has changed. While back then it was all about going to see your favorite band and getting a t- shirt after a long and grueling concert through “blood sweat and tears” as described in the reading; Now receiving a t- shirt is as easy as going to hot topic to get one.
The narrator of this story is a rocker who has now become a father and is no longer in his glory days. He has a son now who loves the Romones band and desperately wanted a Romones T- shirt for his 10th birthday with no real reason besides that he “wanted one”.
The father thinks back to his days as a minor and his first concert where he came very close to being “shirt worthy” while his brother bought a shirt and he borrowed it. He did not know the rules to wearing and owning a rock and roll t-shirt. His brother explained to him that wearing a “Pleasant Dreams” T-shirt and or “rock and roll paraphernalia had to be hard-won, meaningful and scented with personal experience.” You couldn’t just wear the shirt without having meaning behind it. Not that anyone these days would notice, especially in the state of Ohio.
The father set out to the mall where he found the new era of rock and roll, starting with the store that changed it all, Hot Topic. He then realizes how much it has changed and there is no real meaning behind these t-shirts compared to his day. He bought the Romones T-shirt for his son but his pathos regretted not explaining to his son the real meaning of owning one. The father knew times had changed.
The boy was ecstatic and thanked the father. The father was in a state of only caring for his son, he didn’t want to let his memoirs take over when raising his child. While at a cook out the boy first wears his new T-shirt. He is running around with the other children enjoying his appearance, as the parents sit and talk on the patio.
Soon after the boy comes up crying to his father, he ripped the new Romones shirt on the fence. One of the parents said “no, that’s good you made it better.” The father new this was true because it now had meaning to the shirt but he couldn’t explain this to his son at a time like this. He was afraid of bringing back memoir on his son.
Instead he bought the son a new shirt and then the father would now own a ripped Romones shirt and was now “shirt worthy”.
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