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T shirts can provide a lasting impression on your life and those around you. Through simple illustrations and slogans they immediately show your current feelings or opinions.

Vintage t shirts will bring up situations from the long ago past. They can be anything from funny to rude and offensive, to sayings, to your favorite rock band of yore, to baby tees. And don't forget putting a t shirt on your dog. Ugh.

In my own experience I have been a cancer survivor for 5 1/2 years. In my first summer my struggle inspired my sister-in-law to get active in the Tacoma, Washington Relay For Life program of the American Cancer Society. Every spring they host a weekend walk and fund raiser. A large part of that walk is the Survivor's walk celebrating all those people currently battling cancer and those who are cancer free.

All the survivors walking in that event are given purple t shirts with the Relay For Life logo on the front. On the back is the saying: I Am... Living Breathing Inspiration. I love wearing my t shirt with that saying on it both for my own feelings and for the inspiration of those around me.

Another situation involved a camping/hiking trip my partner and I took several years ago in the Columbia River gorge near The Dalles, Oregon.

This was the year the Sesquicentennial of the Oregon Trail was being reinacted. A replica of the 1843 wagon trains was in progress coming all the way from the mid-west to Portland, Oregon. When we joined them they had arrived in The Dalles and were camping out at a large fair grounds. After square dancing the night before, we set out on foot hiking with the train for that day's journey, a distance of about 18 miles.

When we got up the next morning and were about to leave the train, we came on a fellow in a wheelchair who was selling t shirts. He said they were his own original design, in this case a fine pencil sketch of the Oregon Trail at Barlow Pass. I bought one on the spot both to support him in his efforts and for my own memory of the occasion. I still wear that tee shirt and think of the fun my girl friend and I had on that trip.

The next obvious use of t shirts is if you're a sports fan. In my own case as a long suffering Seattle Seahawks fan, I still wear the tattered t shirt I bought in 1983 that reads "1983 Play-Offs" along with the team logo on the front. I guess that hasn't been the last playoffs we've been in, but it sure seems like it.

So get out there and express yourself with a t shirt. Buy one or get online to design your own. I think every aspect of life has been shown on a t shirt and every new experience that shows up seems to wind up on a tee shirt.

Copyright 2005 Dale Miller