Dressing Up

Dressing Up

Jim Hathway always wore a suit to work, even though everyone else wore more casual clothes. At his editorial desk he cut quite the figure with his three-piece suit, his white beard and his shoulder length white hair. I asked him one time why he got so dressed up just to come to work and sit in an office by himself most of the day. He said that before he took this job he lived in the Keys for 25 years and wore cut-offs and old tee-shirts and flip-flops to work and that he was tired of it. Plus I suspect he knew that he’d never last in conservative Tallahassee with that shoulder length white hair and beard unless he did something to counteract it. And “there is no way I could cut my hair,” he said.

So we were treated to the Smirnoff guy every day.

At the other extreme was Herbert Zim who must have made a gazillion dollars in the 1950’s writing Little Golden Books of this and that science topic. He used to come to advisory committee meetings in Tallahassee wearing Bermuda shorts and mismatched plaid shirts and sandals. His hair would be barely combed and he was a little aromatic if you got really close.

Herb also lived in the Keys, and he claimed not to bathe. He just went swimming in the ocean everyday. He reminded us frequently that the skin is the first line of defense for the body and our obsessive cleaning and scrubbing, especially with soap, was ruining our protective shield.

Well, all I can say is, clothes DO make the man.