I
was watching John Wayne westerns to improve my English skills and the cowboys,
at least the celluloid ones from Hollywood, sported well-worn and seemingly
indestructible Levis covered with chaps.
Blue
jeans had become a status symbol of sorts in the poor Iron Curtain countries.
It was not for the same reason Americans loved clothing fads – to prove that
they were rich, trendy, and fashionable. We liked jeans because they
represented freedom, exploration, and the ability to cross unchartered borders
and territories. Jeans epitomized a physical freedom that we longed to have but
were only allowed in spirit because, to our communist rulers, everything
western was decadent and dangerously capitalist. Profit and capitalism were
dirty words.
To
make durable capitalist jeans inaccessible to the masses, no importation was endorsed.
Black market dealers made huge profits by selling cheap knock-off denim pants
smuggled into the country from Turkey and sold for $150 a pair back in 1977! Most
people earned $70-80 a month, including specialized doctors. Stories were told
of foreign visitors, approached by locals in the street, wanting to purchase
the jeans they were wearing.
I
was so excited that I would finally own a pair of denim pants, but not just any
pair, blue jeans made in America, indigo blue denim with rivets, snaps, a metal
zipper, and the famous Levi leather patch.
My
birthday present arrived two weeks late. As usual under communism, the package
was received at the post office downtown and the security police inspected its
contents before I was allowed to pick it up. It took an hour to walk downtown
but I did not mind this time. They opened the box and, to my surprise, it
contained a vest and a matching skirt made of blue dyed soft material with a
denim-like pattern. My elation deflated like a huge balloon.
My
fiancé’s mother, Thelma Jean, a very caring and proper southern lady, thought blue jeans to
be an inelegant 18th birthday gift for a young lady and took it upon
herself to find material, a suitable pattern at Hancock Fabrics, and an enterprising
seamstress willing to sew, subject-unseen, the matching vest and skirt in
record time for $10. I knew the price because “rotten capitalists” had to
declare the value of any gift package sent to communist citizens. The commies
then assessed 40 percent custom duties. After a thorough examination of the
contents to make sure that there were no subversive materials hidden, I took
possession of my package and paid the equivalent $4, exchanged times 12 into
the pegged Romanian currency, the worthless “leu.”
There
is a very good reason why I cringe every time the TSA goons rifle through my
belongings at the airport and frisk me. We were subjected to many unwanted bodily
and purse checks during my almost twenty years of life under communism,
including upon exiting department stores. It was always assumed that we were
criminals engaged in stealing from the oppressing government that was actually robbing
the country blind.
Always
grateful for my gift, I took pictures with the unusual outfit on, sent it to my
future mother-in-law and wore it a few times before it faded. My heart was
still longing for a real pair of jeans.
On
my 21st birthday, very pregnant with my first daughter, I went
shopping with my friend June D. She was buying clothes in an old fashioned mom
and pop store in our small southern town. I had told her the story of my 18th
birthday blue jeans that remained just a dream. It must have struck a chord
with her. When we finished, she dropped me off to my home and handed me a
beautifully wrapped box. Inside was a brand new pair of indigo blue Wrangler
jeans. I was very pregnant and unable to wear them yet but I was jumping with joy,
on the inside. The price tag was mistakenly left inside: $20.
Every
year since that time, I never forget to pay it forward. I have given away my
expertise, translation services, food, toys, books, shoes, and clothes,
especially blue jeans, to other legal immigrants like me. In my mind, jeans were
the quintessential expression of the American pioneer spirit and of boundless
personal freedom.
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