My Grandfather's Tuxedo Shirt

I'm sure most of you were eagerly prepared to read and view a blog post with pictures of my Grandfather's Tuxedo Shirt.  Well...you're kinda right.  What you will see instead is the outer wrapping of my Grandfather's dry-cleaned Tuxedo Shirt, still awaiting its opening for just the right black tie evening.  If you look closely, it's been waiting since 1973!  The box wrapping is from Munro's - Your Clothes' Best Friend - in Beaumont, Texas.  The date is September 25, 1973, and the price to clean the shirt was $.75.

Of all the things I own, this is truly one of my favorites.  This thing has been floating around in my parent's attic for quite some time.  It probably came to their house when my Grandfather, Delmas Lee Hybarger, passed away at the age of 88 back in 1998.  Since it was still in its cleaners box with wrapping, not one of us ever had the nerve to open it.  After my dear Mother passed away this past April, my Dad has been "purging" the house.  The shirt was available for passage to a new owner, so I jumped at the chance.  And as long as I'm the owner, it will never be opened. 

So to this day, I have no idea what the shirt looks like.  I assume only that it is a white tuxedo shirt just like every man in the late 60's wore for formal occasions (think Mad Men).  We have several pictures of Delmas in black tie, but I don't know if this is "the" shirt or not.  I can only wax on nostalgically about the evenings he escorted my Grandmother most likely to school, university or city events where he held court as Principal, Professor and Beaumont City Councilman.

I found this picture in my stack of stuff and thought I would include it so you can see the shirt in action.  And check out that shawl collar!  He rocked those big eyeframes most of his adult life.  He just looks cool doesn't he?  I wish I could see what record he is holding.  I've decided to assume it's Sinatra.

On another note, I decided to post this entry today because on Sunday we laid my Mother's remains in her final resting place in the Memorial Garden at St. Luke's United Methodist Church.  Now she can rest.  She would have really enjoyed this post about her Daddy and the fact that we are preserving the shirt in it's current wrapped condition.  She just loved quirky items like this.  If they've got Internet in Heaven...Love you Mom!