Pants

They were my favourite boxer shorts for many years. Frankly, as us men do, the shorts continued to be used long after their dispose-by date has passed, but there was something about those green, check blighters that were kind of homely, comforting (certainly not comfortable - that day had long gone).

But when the elastic finally gave up last weekend I placed them in the bin, then, ticking the green box as ever, transferred them to the recycling area (the garage floor) because textiles can be included.

On returning from Wells today I observed that my cardboard had gone, my bottles had disappeared, my aluminium foil had been collected and my paper was well on the way to mulch-central. But there, in the middle of the front lawn, fore-lorn even (gerrit?) and lonely, were my green check, non-elastic boxer shorts. Not even good enough for the tip eh? I'll just have to keep them a bit longer.

A parable for our times I feel. Stop the credit crunch hurting you. Get another few months out of your old pants. You know it makes sense.