The Smell of New Leather, The Feel of New Clothes

Perhaps I am easily amused, but I went to the gym today and I was totally thrilled to be seen wearing my brand spanking new pair of Asics Nimbus running shoes. These are shoes that have never yet been outside and met a puddle. They are so white you practically need sunglasses, just to wear them. After 600+ miles on the last pair, it was time for a change, and I could not be happier about it. New stuff makes me happy.

I grew up in pretty modest circumstances in Central Arkansas in the 1950's and 1960's. When you say modest circumstances in that place and time, you're talking pretty damned modest. Okay, we were poor. We so poor we couldn't afford a pet peeve. We were so broke we couldn't pay attention. We were..... You get the point. Anyway, in those days my mother would go down to Pace's Department Store and buy us all our school clothes in late August on store credit. We would pay it all off a little bit every month and by Christmas it was all paid off and it was time for Mom to buy us some more clothes for Christmas, you know winter stuff instead of that late summer, early fall stuff from August. I seem to remember coats and sweaters and a few toys thrown in. I also remember underwear and socks. At Christmas? Oh yeah.

The thing is, whether it was the bunch of new clothes at the start of the school year or the mid-winter wardrobe renewal, I loved it all. The crisp feel and that brand new smell you get with new clothes, there's nothing like it. When you spent some of your early years wearing used stuff from Goodwill Industries, new stuff was just a thrill and the smell and feel of it stuck in your brain. New shoes were especially nice. To this day I love the smell of new leather. I love the look of shoes that have never been scuffed, that have never been worn and creased from walking in them.

All of this baggage about new clothes has stayed with me over the years. I still feel the thrill when I get something new to wear. I still feel ultimately cool when I wear it out in public for the first time. I can still get an olfactory jolt from smelling those new shoes. Why wear them? Why not just keep them in the box and get them out long enough to stick your nose in them and smell that new shoe smell instead of that been worn on sweaty old feet smell? Because then you wouldn't get to show them off to people. That's why. Never stopped me from taking that surreptitious sniff of the new shoes when no one was looking though. It's just a little sad when that smell goes away. They're broken in. They're no longer new. Then they're good for wearing, but not good for sniffing any more.

As I've gotten older the thrills have gotten a little more expensive, but not necessarily more sophisticated. I walked into the office of the building where I live yesterday. There was a new smell about it and it made you feel good. The building manager looked at me sniffing and said, "New carpet." It made that office smell new. It made you feel good. Not particularly impressive or overly decorative, but new carpet. It was all a part of a multi-million dollar restoration project that is being paid for out of my assessment and the assessments of the other owner-tenants at 860-880 Lake Shore Drive. Like I said new smells and feels have gotten a wee bit more expensive.

What about that new car smell? There is nothing like that new car smell. The funny thing is, I never owned a new car until I was 40 years old. I got used to the smell pretty quick. I like it. That first new car was a Mazda Protege and it cost the whopping sum of $10,000. It smelled great. I think I could get used to savoring the smell of a brand new Mercedes, but I haven't advanced quite that far as yet. The last new car smell I savored was a Mini Cooper. Not a Mercedes, but considerably more than the cost of that new car smell in the Mazda Protege.

The last item that gave me that new thrill before the running shoes was a birthday present. Babs knows how much I lust for leather coats. My last one finally bit the dust several years ago, and I've been suffering through the Chicago winters in a cloth coat, albeit with that microfiber lining to keep you warm, for the last several years. The zipper broke. I was due for a new coat and on my birthday, Babs presented me with the most fantastic heavy winter coat, made of the most wonderful supple leather. I was overjoyed. It smelled fantastic! It still hasn't gotten cold enough to wear this coat. I've been wearing my lighter weight suede coat so far, and it doesn't smell new anymore. I really want to wear that new coat out so everyone can see it, and I can strut my stuff. In the meantime, however, I can still go to the closet when no one is looking and take a hefty sniff. That new leather coat smell is marvelous. And I'm thinking that I may just need some crisp new shirts to wear with that coat, maybe a sweater, and probably..........