I have at least a dozen pairs of blue jeans. Some date back to the last ice age and for some reason have shrunk so much in the waist I can’t zip them up.
Some have holes in the knees, probably from excessive hard work. I use them for mowing the lawn or when I want to look way-too-cool. Some have holes in the pockets, and a couple are worn out in the backside. I probably work hard sitting down, too.
I even have a couple pair of antique bell bottoms. Think ice age there, too. Some of my jeans are dark blue while others are light-colored because, as the label says, they have been “stone-washed.” What does that even mean? Is there a creek behind the jeans factory where workers lather up new pairs of jeans and work them over with stones, pioneer-fashion?
All my jeans have one thing in common: they all have watch pockets. I’m not sure why. My dad carried a pocket watch back in the 1930s and 40s. Pocket Bens, they were called. Back then they cost a dollar and usually lasted a year. Dad gave me the broken ones to “tinker with.” He carried his watch in his watch pocket.
But by the time I was in high school, dad had graduated to wristwatches, Timexes, mostly, that “took a licking and kept on ticking.” Dad did a lot of hard work and was hard on watches. When he died my sister found eight of them in his sock drawer. He hadn’t kept any pocket watches.
Just about everybody started wearing wristwatches by the 1950s, and the pocket watch slipped into dusty obscurity. From time to time some fashion maven will still promote pocket watches as a means of being way-too-cool.
I’ve asked around and no one seems to know why watch pockets persist in a pocket watch vacuum. The jeans companies could save a lot of money by dropping them. They’ve already cut costs by eliminating two belt loops.
I’m not complaining, just mildly puzzled. After all, I use my watch pockets for spare change and my pocket knife in those jeans that have worn-out pockets.
I don’t see pocket watches coming back any time soon. Even wristwatches are vanishing nowadays with the continued surge in smart phones. And now the way-too-cool crowd is wearing all kinds of electronic doodads that forecast the weather, report football scores and keep us up to date on the number of steps we take in a day.
Still, I sometimes miss having a broken pocket watch to tinker with.
