I'll Show You Mine if You Show Me Yours

Like me, I'm sure when you hear someone mention the brand Fruit of the Loom you most likely think of under garments. Well, guess what? Unlike Fruit of the Loom, we've been one-dimensional thinkers all these years. Not only was I befuddled when I learned that the Loom dabbles in more than just briefs, I was shocked to learn that the brand name has been around for over 150 years! And to confound things even more for me, I never quite got the guys in the grapes and apple and wilted head of lettuce costumes. How exactly did they fit in to the concept of cotton close to the skin?
From Wikipedia: "The Fruit of the Loom brand dates back to 1851 in Rhode Island when Robert Knight, a textile mill owner, visited his friend, Rufus Skeel. Mr. Skeel owned a small shop in Providence, Rhode Island that sold cloth from Mr. Knight's mill. Mr. Skeel's daughter painted images of fruit and applied them to the bolts of cloth. The ones with the fruit emblems proved most popular. Mr. Knight thought the labels would be the perfect symbol for his trade name, Fruit of the Loom."
I, of course, can only remember Fruit of the Loom as far back as my childhood, when in the late 1970's and early 1980's Underoos became a big must-have phenomenon for kids.

My sister Kathy had a set of Scooby-Doo, my sister Beth had a set of Wonder Woman, and I had Captain Marvel Underoos. (This picture is not me--I couldn't find any of me sporting the red 'Roos. Thanks to Derik for this pic and here's his Flickr link.) Beth and I used to poke fun at Kathy for her Scooby-Doos, because we were super heroes. (Well, I considered Scooby a hero but didn't let on. The cartoon was my favorite and my mother was convinced that I was scared of the dark because of it.) I would yell Shazam! and rough up my sisters, and Beth would put up her wrist shields to block bullets, and Kathy, well what could she do? Run around acting frightened of fake monsters and eating pretend Scooby Snacks? Wimpy. And by the way, you can bet I'd sport Captain Marvel Underoos now if they were in my size.
Little did I know Fruit of the Loom went beyond tightie-whities and Underoos. I found this sweater-shirt made by Fruit of the Loom. Now, whether this is a vintage men's shirt or a woman's I'm not sure, nor do I care. It fits me for the most part. But my gut feeling is that it is a guy's shirt from the 1960's. The fact that it seems men wore more feminine clothes in the 60's and 70's has me that much more confrused (as Scooby might yelp), and is something I'll have to write about in a future blog. Now, fair is fair. I showed you my Fruit of the Loom....