Is This You? - Belts

I like seeing someone wearing a hand-tooled leather belt that even has their name, or better yet a nickname, on their backside. I think that is something to achieve to become a rancher, cowboy or rodeo bull or bronc rider. The leather belt is not gender-oriented. They are made for both ladies and gents. But. Yes, a leathery “but.” When the time comes in nearly everyone’s life that the numbers on the scale climb faster than your body is using your calorie intake, those belts sometimes are just a happy memory. And there is no way to make a leather, name-inscribed and centered, no way to stretch or expand them. I have one of those. I love that belt. Loved it when my other half ordered it for me from a lady in town that made some amazing leather goods. Loved it when he added the most adorable double-heart silver belt buckle to adorn my midsection. Sigh.

That was several years and up and down pounds ago. I pull it out occasionally. From the bottom drawer. Where it hides in the back, under some old socks and a tangle of used but could be repurposed shoelaces. In different colors and lengths. I don’t keep junk. At least I don’t keep broken shoelaces.

It would take a miracle for me to actually ever be able to show the sparkle of the buckle now. I still love it though. And you can’t deny that belt is mine. It reads TRINA dead center. Oh, I still wear a belt. Now it is to actually keep my pants up, not for decoration. Although it is quite designer-like. This one I have had for maybe 10 years. The only reason I still have and can use it? It is this wonderfully woven and very colorful thing that doesn’t need specific holes. Nope, this baby can be hooked anywhere you stick the prong through, you know the pointed thingy on a buckle. Never have to make a new hole, or have a worn-out hole. It’s the perfect belt for me. So what’s the problem?

I was changing my belt from one pair of my Wranglers to another when I realized that although I wash my clothes, pants, shirts, socks, jammies and all, this belt has never seen the water of a washing machine. It actually made me go eeeeewwww. To think of all the things a belt goes through over time and to never wash it! I have seen some “mature” cowboys wearing name-emblazoned belts that have been worn for a very long time and they have a great patina to them. My belt just looked used.

I read that in the world of martial arts they do not wash their various colors of belts. They have an old superstition that claims washing a belt will wash away the blood, sweat and knowledge acquired during training. I’m going with that. My belt has had a lifetime of blood, sweat, honest, sometimes painfully acquired knowledge beyond its years. But it still feels like it should be washed.

I didn’t start wearing a belt until the jean manufacturers started to add stretch to the magic mix of making denim. All of a sudden pants for me and tons, (get it tons!) of “non-size-0” ladies were more comfortable in all sorts of Levis and Wranglers and Lee jeans. It was a miracle. But with that miracle came the fact that I needed a belt. See, as the day goes on those comfy and just tight enough jeans seem to, uh, relax and grow a bit. Making them all of a sudden become a slippery slope. Like when you have snow that lies quietly and then it warms up and any new layers come along you can get an avalanche. Yes, the body is the first snow and when you add the pants and things “settle,” slippage occurs. Thus the need for a belt. Whew, that was quite an explanation.

The other thing I finally understood was this. My other half used to say he hated to have to change pants because he had to not only change all the stuff in his pockets, he had to go through the dance of pulling his belt off and putting it on the new, clean pair. I thought that was such a silly thing. I can now attest to the fact that it is a little bit of a pain to have to do.

Yep, as I see it, a belt is nothing but trouble from the day it comes home with you to hold up your pants.

Trina lives in Diamond Valley, north of Eureka. She loves to hear from readers. Email her at [email protected]

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