Once upon a time... in the previous century... when men were men and Jimmy Makuta was a young man...
Seriously, above is a perfect example of an "old school" west coast beach lifeguard t-shirt. This particular t-shirt was the reward the undersigned earned as part of the Central Section L.A. County lifeguard team in the summer of 1975 at the (then) annual event held at Belmont Plaza. You name it, they were there... the City and State lifeguards of San Diego, San Clemente, Newport Beach, Huntington Beach, Long Beach and the three sections comprising L.A. County.
COX, MILLER, STEVENSEN
Lifeguard Championship
Long Beach, Calif.
1975
Named after three Big Time West Coast Lifeguard Godfathers. Ask Prof. Arthur C. Verge, Ph.d to fill in the blanks cuz we are not going to even try to give them their individual and collective due in this short blog post, which after all is all about the t-shirt above. Additionally, we are NOT even going to mention the after-event party across the street at then "Big John's" Pizza (and pool hall). PITCHERS of beer flowed, ok. Enough said.
(note: sock and sandal not included...)
Back to the t-shirt. As was typical of the time, t-shirts sported a separate color along the neckline and on the shirt sleeve. This particular t-shirt was recently rescued from the rag bin (please forgive me, I do not know how it got in there with the El Camino College t-shirts...) Hey Now ! In any case, just for comparison's sake, take a look at just this past summer's SMS t-shirt, which granted is of exceptional design.
No separate coloring on the neckline and sleeve and certainly no pocket on the front. The material itself in contemporary t-shirts are also of a much thinner quality, unless, of course, one demands old school all cotton, heavy duty fabric. Another feature of contemporary t-shirts is the shrinkage (to save money) in sizes. A LARGE contemporary t-shirt is the size of an old school MEDIUM. Same goes for a contemporary XL, which is really the size of an old school LARGE. First it was chewing gum, then RED VINES got smaller, even KRISPY KREME donuts have shrunk. I tell ya, it ain't right!
In the example above, the gold SMS Summer of 2010 t-shirt is an XXL, whereas below it is the 2010 SMN old school 'retro' Hanes Beefy T sized XXL. Leave it to Gabe Campos to deal straight up with the old school sizing. Two Thumbs Up, in fact, is deserved and a "County Recurrent" head nod to boot for Gabe's acumen. Granted, we like the SMS design as much but not the quality of the t-shirt itself unfortunately.
The Good Old Days (aka, Old School T-Shirts):
Exhibit B (front and back of 1983 Taplin Relay Team T-Shirt)
And last but not least,
Exhibit C, the Classic 70's style t-shirt with the ubiquitous (look it up, Art!... Hey Now!) front pocket, as shown below, with the Spring 1974 SMC Varsity Men's Swim Team T-Shirt (Coached by Johnny Joseph; JJ shout out), artwork, design and production by Santa Monica City Recurrent (and LACo Recurrent), Tom Thorson.
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