Fruit Loops and Locker Loops

. . . looping back to a memory I didn't realize needed mending.

Fruit Loops and Locker Loops

Today, I was at the Savers store here in Albuquerque exchanging some items. I really enjoy this thrift store because they pay their staff, the merchandise is of a higher quality than most thrift stores and they play great music for dancing in the aisles while shopping.

I go out of my way to shop at the store near Costco instead of the other locations because the store is newer, bigger and the staff is fantastic. The clerks, the manager and even the security guard seem to really enjoy their jobs.

Not being Tuesday, Seniors Day, it wasn’t crowded. I always keep an eye out for certain household items—not urgent needs, but if I find a good replacement, I’ll snag it.; or, I have been looking for a long-sleeve muslin shirt for my husband, Don to wear at auditions for characters in period pieces especially in the 1800’s.

Today, I lucked out.

I found a relatively new, Oster four-slice toaster. Our toaster has been burning our gluten-free waffles or toast for awhile now no matter how often I clean out the unit. I went to the back of the store to the testing station to plug it in and see if it was functional. (It was). It has four wide slot options but this toaster allows you to put in two slices at a time on one side, or all four. Bonus! Even separate crumb trays.

There were other cool ‘finds’ including two very nice shirts for my husband that were his size, almost new and from high-end manufacturers.

As I took the window pane Oxford shirt off the hanger to scan into the register, I noticed the shirt had a traditional little fabric tag on the back under the neckline. “Oooh! A fruit loop!” I heard myself say. I was so excited as I hadn’t seen one on a men’s shirt for decades.

Back in junior high, those little loops had social meaning—girls would rip them off to flirt, boys would rip them off to mock. Sometimes playfully. Sometimes cruelly.

When I brought the shirts home for Don to try on, I told him how amused I was at seeing an Oxford shirt with a fruit loop. “I never heard it called that” he said.

So I decided to do some research on this topic. Was this common among pre-teens or was it just something in the Southern California culture?

According to a May, 2024 article online from GearPatrol.com, writer Gerald Ortiz shared exactly what I needed to know.

Originally, the small loop of fabric on the back of a shirt is called a “locker loop” that first appeared on sailors garments for hanging inside their locker to keep shirts from wrinkling.

Ortiz goes on to write: “The locker loop gained popularity and eventually made its way onto dry land when Gant Shirtmakers incorporated the detail into its line of oxford cloth button-downs. As the official fashion brand of Yale, Gant produced shirts that were a mainstay on the New Haven campus, informing popular men’s style throughout the US in the 1950s and 1960s.”

He confirmed the habit young women developed to use tearing off the loop as a sign of their interests; or, a boy would cut the loop off as a method to indicate that he was “spoken for.”

Then Mr. Ortiz also included the fact that an intact loop was a means by which homophobia could be stoked and make the way for some people to use it as a signal and as an excuse to spew derogatory names at certain people.

Then came a moment of awkwardness.

Although I neither participated in the girls doing it to the guys as some sort of pre-pubescent dating/mating behavior, and I certainly didn’t do it as it felt wrong to damage anyone’s clothes. I didn’t understand why some boys did that to other boys in a taunting manner. I was ignorant and it would never have occurred to me the depth of hurt it created for the boys who actually were homosexual. I was too young and naive to realize the games being played or why.

Being someone who was bullied as a different kid, I know how lingering these behaviors can be even if it wasn’t originally maliciously intended. And for me, I wasn’t raised to be racist, anti-semitic or homophobic. In fact, I was from The Theatre where everyone was welcome and accepted.

Kids can be cruel. Especially when prejudice and bias is overtly, or even unconsciously taught. I think of the powerful song in the show, South Pacific, “You’ve Got To Be Taught” that addresses this insidious topic. I am grateful that I was raised in a liberal and open-minded household. Yet, over the years I regret to admit where even my ignorance still made me complicit.

Fast forward to the present.

As this month of June celebrates PRIDE, I am proud (that word purposely chosen) that throughout my life, I have not seen a separation of color or gender or sexual preference. Love is love, right Lin-Manuel?

As someone who’s walked alongside the LGBTQ+ community for decades, I see how frighteningly hostile the climate has become.

And no, I won’t tie this up with a colorful bow by saying the only fruit loops in my life are in a cereal bowl—I don’t eat junk food. Or think junk thoughts.

Instead, let’s loop back to love,