"It Takes Thick Skin to Wear Plaid Pants"

Now a days in the modern era of hipsters and skinny jeans, you hardly ever see a man wearing plaid pants. It takes a man with thick skin to wear plaid pants. There are two people in my memory that I can ever remember wearing plaid pants.  The first is Chevy Chase in the 1980 classic movie, "Caddie Shack" and the second was my high school English teacher Charlie Underwood at Blair Academy in rural New Jersey.  Recently, I was told the sad news that Mr. Underwood lost his battle with cancer and passed away in Concord, New Hampshire. 

I was shocked by the news, as it was just this past summer that I that I ran into Mr. Underwood at my ten year high school reunion.   He looked to be in great spirits.  Mr. Underwood was a living legend at Blair, as he put in over 35 years of service to the school.  He was a true renaissance man. Not only was he the head of the English department, but he also coached soccer and baseball.  It was this past year that Blair dedicated the varsity soccer field in his honor.  Over one hundred people were there to show there gratitude to his hard work and dedication to the school.  Everyone on campus loved Mr. Underwood.  If he were to be compared to a country, he would be Switzerland as he never took sides and because of it he never had any enemies.   He also had a great sense of humor.  He was the first person to tell me that my side burns reminded him of his favorite meal, pork chops.

To me, Mr. Underwood was an inspiration. He was a humble leader who had an incredible ability to make each and every Blair student feel special. I was always astounded how he could remember every student’s name that he ever taught or coached over the 36 years he was with the school.  Even after he retired Mr. Underwood was a frequent visitor back to campus.  I could count on seeing him every year at Alumni day in early June. He would always come up to me and say, "Mr. Peters, I see you shaved your Pork Chops".  I would quickly reply back to him, "I see that you still like to wear a plaid pants."  I would than say to him, "where do you buy your wardrobe, Golf Smith?"  He would than reply back and say, “It takes a man with thick skin to wear plaid pants." I remember thinking to myself how I wanted to try wearing plaid pants on a night on the town when I got back to New York City.  I was a little nervous, but I followed through with the idea.  People thought that it was pretty funny for the most part, but when I asked out one girl who I was talking to she said, "I don't date guys who wear plaid."  I was astounded, but I came to the conclusion I would never wear plaid again.  Looking back on the whole experience, it made my memory of Mr. Underwood grow fonder as he had the confidence to wear plaid, something that I lacked.

When Mr. Underwood past away, I sent an e-mail to my class at Blair, the class of 2000 saying that I had sad news and that Mr. Underwood had just passed away.   I told them that I would be sending his family flowers on behalf of our class.   I admit that I struggled to send his family flowers as I thought that our memory of him would just get lost in the crowd.  I did the only thing that came to mind. I went to Golf Smith and bought two pairs of plaid pants and mailed them to his wife and daughter.  I wrote in the card, "Mr. Underwood always told me that it takes a man with thick skin to wear plaid pants. In so doing, he taught me an important lesson that I never understood until now.  It takes a person with thick skin to get through life."