Paul J Penton – Songwriter

Levis – Daily Writing March 30

He stands on the edge of a huge rocky outcropping with the sun setting behind him holding a pencilled cigarette in hand, a few whisps of smoke diffuse into the air. He’s a ‘real’ man, with those tight faded Levis and that faux leather jacket, just him and the wilderness. He’s a real man. That’s how it used to be once anyway, these days, that advert would be shot down in flames, especially the cigarette. Smoking is definitely not ‘in’ anymore – I seem to remember that was for Marlboro’s. I tried them one time and thought they tasted odd and never did again. I think they might have had the theme from the magnificent seven playing behind the ad, he might even have galloped off on a horse.

Levi’s this was always the aspiration in high school and formative years. Lee jeans didn’t make it . Wrangler were second best- but Levis, Levis meant donning a face mask and robbing a bank. I didn’t want to face the problem of years of jail or having to breath through a nylon stockinged veil. While other brands were say $20 Levi’s would be sixty, neatly arranged in pancakes at ‘Just Jeans’ or the Myer mens dept. They look so crisp, fresh and new , babies just arrived from the production line – were they still made in the U.S.A. in those days? I used to feel threatened when I walked into those stores like just jeans or Jeans west – was I on the right side of the store?: The boys or the girls sides – and what was fashion anyway to me. All this for a pair of blue scissors that would dangle from lumpy hips. Sure I appreciate shapely bottoms and shapely legs but that wasn’t what I had to fit into these tubes of swelling fabric with zippers that would zip with golden brassy locking teeth. These days there’s so many styles, then it was one or two – hell they even come ‘pre -ripped’ these days. I prefer to see those cobwebs of fabric start to shred through real use….