Don't you dare wear that jacket

It was a red denim Levis jacket. I picked it out as part of my school clothes for the 1975 school year. It was a size too big but that's the way we bought things back then because we figured that we would grow into them eventually. I wore that daggum jacket all the time. I thought I was really cool. I'm surprised that my parents actually bought it for me because it was an actual name brand jacket and we normally couldn't afford name brand clothes. I usually wore either Sears brand or K-mart brand clothes.

It was school picture day that day and Mom threatened me as I was heading out the door to catch the school bus. "Don't you dare wear that jacket in your school pictures!" "Ok, I won't momma," was my reply. Of course, I had my fingers crossed.

I remember standing in the picture line waiting for my turn. Sweat was running down my back as I wrestled in my mind as to whether or not I should heed mom's warning. Finally, they called my name, "Byron Chesney, next!" I sauntered up to the desk that they had set up for the pictures and placed my hands on the books. I figured if I wasn't supposed to wear the jacket in the pictures, that either the teacher or the photographer would say something; they didn't. So I smugly stood and gave my best crooked smile as the picture snapped. Afterwards I ran off to play and never gave it another thought. Until...

Flash forward a couple of months later. The pictures arrived at school. "Ok, students, make sure and give these to your parents when you get home." I looked at my pictures and it hit me like a ton of bricks; "Mom's gonna kill me." I had thoughts of hiding the pictures and pretending that I never got them. I schemed about throwing them out the bus window on the drive home. I even contemplated falling off the bus steps and hurting myself in hopes that it would take away from the inevitable beating that I was going to receive. But instead, I snuck into the house, laid the pictures on the table, and ran back out of the house as hard as I could run.

Alas, I eventually got hungry and had to return home in order to eat supper. Sure enough, my parents were waiting for me with the pictures in their hands. Needless to say, I endured much yelling and hind-end beating but I survived. I never wore another jacket during picture day ever again!

Moral of the story: Just cause you think your parents are stupid, doesn't mean that they are. And don't wear your jacket during pictures.