Black History Month: My Doritos Shirt

I call these posts Black History Month because I’m Black, and these stories are my history.

When I was about 14-15, I had this shirt that I just loved. It was a pull over, and it was this ugly shade of green, and it had matching shorts that went with it. That summer, I think I wore that shirt at least 3 times a week. And yes, we had a washing machine, so stop thinking I was nasty. I just liked wearing it. It was baggy, and comfortable when I was working out, which is something that I did a lot back then. Yeah, I was a chubby teenager, but I was active, unlike now. I used to be outside playing football or baseball, or cutting the grass or my favorite: riding the exercise bike. I would ride that bike for hours on end while I played Nintendo, or watched a movie. I need one of those in my life now. I’m sure I would be more active. Anyway, the problem with that shirt, which again, I loved so much was that once I got to sweating, the shirt started to smell like Doritos.

I don’t know why that happened. None of my other shirts did that. I was prone to sweating a lot, but I didn’t have any out of the ordinary smells. Just teenage funk, and I think I was a little more conscious of the stinky pits than other kids, because of my excessive sweating. I rocked antiperspirant and deodorant and took long showers without having to be told. So, why was this shirt smelling like that? What was this shirt made of? You would think that after a while, I would maybe stop wearing that shirt all the time, but nope. That ain’t Rashan. The Doritos shirt was my favorite. I couldn’t imagine my life without it. It was always fodder for jokes with my brother and sister. Maybe I kept it because I secretly wanted something to bond with my siblings over. Yeah, right! That wasn’t it. I’m just stubborn. And maybe the stronger the shirt smelled of Doritos, the more I knew I was burning calories. I don’t know, but it was really weird that nobody hid that shirt from me.

I was at my grandmother’s house Saturday and the memory of me in that shirt and jumping around with my brother and sister to an Bodies In Motion exercise program on ESPN came flooding back. I couldn’t help but laugh as I thought of those times. I could have sworn I smelled Doritos again too.