When I was walking my dog this morning, I passed a man walking his dog. The reason I mention it is that he (the man, not the dog) was wearing an old-school grey sweatshirt/sweatpants ensemble. I hadn’t known one could purchase such a thing anymore but it looked fairly new, so I’m guessing that it hasn’t been hanging in his closet for 20 years (which is the last time I saw someone in such an outfit).

The sweatpants were the baggy, elastic around the ankles, tie waist (actually, I’m not sure about this. I did not get close enough to his waist to see the band) sort of thing and for some reason this made me really happy.

I guess I was pleased to see someone as out of the fashion loop as I am. Pleased that he was unafraid to be wearing something that was not low-rider and bootcut. He got up, slapped on his sweatsuit and decided to face the day.

Brother, I salute you!

It also made me happy that I don’t have sweatpants anymore. I have plenty of clothes for running but they are not of the sweatpant variety. They are more breathable, less heavy. Still, you can’t really beat sweatpants for lounging around.

And, accoring to photographic evidence, lounge in them I did for years and years. Recently I was going through some old photos and found some truly unfortunate examples of what I will call the sweatpants of my youth. Apparently I had no problem wearing these sweatpants 24X7.

The problem was that they were not “real” sweatpants. Instead they were elastic waistband and made out of a cheaper, more lightweight material than your typical sweatpant. They also had thick red stripes running down the outer side and the bottoms of them were not cinched with elastic, rather they were wide-legged and a bit short on me. They were not a name brand like Champion. They just sort of were. They existed as something I wore when nothing else worked for me.

You might be thinking. Hey, these sound cool! These sound like something you could wear today.

Trust me when I tell you they were not. And neither was the perm I had when I wore them.

And so, yes, when I saw this guy in his sweatpants today, I had a twinge of desire for my own sweatsuit but I’m going to opt not to get one, so damaged am I from the photographs of the sweatpants of my youth.