Print or Email

It has Teal, Pink, White, Gray, Blue, Red, Brown and shades of many more colors. I bought my “coat of many colors” in 1977. I had just come home from a church mission in Argentina, and I wanted to look sharp in a new sport jacket! And in my mind, I did! I loved it the moment I put it on. I was King!

Fast forward six months and I found myself going out on my first date with a girl at college that I had just met the day before. I wanted to look sharp, and since it was a Sunday evening religious fireside we were going to attend, I put on my “coat of many colors” to impress her. She was a major babe who made my heart skip a beat when I first laid eyes on her. I don’t think I ever met a girl like that before or since. She was just so incredibly fun to be with and was so alive. About a month later I called her up and asked her, “What are you doing next Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday; what are you doing the rest of your life!” Well, it’s now been over forty-five years since that first date and I give all credit to my ‘coat of many colors’ for getting her to say “Yes” to my proposal. I wore my ‘coat of many colors’ in all it’s glory on our wedding announcement.

I still have it, my ‘coat of many colors.’ It holds a prominent position in my clothes closet. Over the years I have taken it out and put it on and stand in front of the mirror. It’s too tight of course, but when I am standing there, I get a chance to gaze into the past and I see my young self again. And I am brought back to a simpler time when my head was full of hair, and my future rested on my dreams and on the girl I choose to be by my side. And I can honestly say that all of my dreams have not come true. But this much I am reminded of. The girl of my dreams is still holding my hand when we go to church. And the girl of my dreams is still hooked in my arm when we walk together in the mall. And I am reminded that my ‘coat of many colors’ was well worth the cost I paid, to impress my wife the night we first went out. And I smile!

Then I take my coat off, and I place it back on the hanger and cover it with plastic till the next time I need to be reminded about the day I first went out with an angel. And that angel still loves me after all these years. And I feel like the luckiest man on the earth. That’s how I feel, every time I put on my ‘coat of many colors,’ and why it’s still hanging in my closet after 45 years.