Night in Shining

Who could forget Saturday Night Fever or John Travolta’s shiny white polyester pantsuit?

By the time the movie was released in 1977, I had more than my share of polyester suits. I had acquired my first pantsuit in 1970 and fell in love. As a young mother with a full time job, I loved that easy care, never wrinkle fabric. No time wasted with a hot iron or huge wrinkles appearing minutes after I had donned an outfit. They were perfect for travel too. I stuffed them in duffel bags, confident that they would emerge in ready-to-wear condition.

The seventies were also the decade, when I discovered how much I enjoyed camping and hiking. A friend gave me an old canvas tent and I learned how to pitch it, despite a few missing pieces of hardware. Since canvas is just a type of cotton, it can absorb a lot of water, when it rains. The theory is that the cotton fibers absorb the water, swelling to fill any tiny holes, so that the inside of the tent stays dry. With a short rainfall, the theory seemed to work, but several hours of hard rain would leave the inside walls so wet that the water drizzled down and pooled on the floor. Packing a water-soaked tent into my car, only to re-pitch it, when I arrived home really put a damper on any camping trip. The tent was useless, if I wanted to hike, as it was far too heavy for me to carry any distance.

My love affair with polyester attire, ended when I overheard a co-worker remark that only old ladies wore polyester pants. I gave my wardrobe an overhaul and got back into cotton, wool and silk. Over time, I did add some poly-blend items that had many of the polyester merits without the blinding shine. The next time I saw a picture of John Travolta, I noticed that he had changed his style too. Do you think my fashion change prompted that?

And the canvas tent? It got replaced with a lightweight beauty made of polyester fabric that kept me dry during the heaviest storms. It’s been quite a few years, since my camping days, but I still think about the fun I had. Maybe I can get Calico to pitch a tent in the backyard. We could hang a disco ball inside and see if John Travolta stops by