personalized shirts: Cheesy T-shirts a time-honored summer tradition

By Joe Kovac Jr.
TELEGRAPH STAFF WRITER


Somewhere on the way to summer vacation - or perhaps at the last-chance taffy-and-trinkets emporium on the way back - cheap, holiday-destination T-shirts became a traveler's look-where-I've-been badge.

Some of the more memorable tees date back to those iron-on shirts of the '70s, particularly ones bearing the phrase "My Parents Went to (fill in tourist-trap beach or mountain-town name) and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt."

Such shirts were (and maybe still are) to souvenirs what personalized, airbrushed visors and license plates are to the flea marketplace.

And yet visiting, say, Myrtle Beach just wouldn't be the same if you couldn't plunk down 10 bucks for a "Darn Seagulls!" T-shirt replete with fake blobs of gull poop.

Or a shirt advertising some coastal seafood haven that its wearer is pleased to promote as the place where, um, "I Got Crabs."

Or one with that ubiquitous sailboats-at-sunset scene that looks the same, be it bought in Tahiti or at Tybee.

Majestic peaks, jumbo cacti, palm trees, whales, surfboards, dolphins, flamingoes and blazing suns sporting smiley faces, sunglasses or both, they're all souvenir emblems from our roads most traveled. And nowhere are they more at home than when emblazoned on 100-percent cotton, 100-percent tacky T-shirts, in shops where mainstream America meets cheesy and gladly slips it on.

Some of the clever T-shirt slogans that over the years caught the eye of former Washington Post staffer Bob Levey - whose column featured an annual list of shirt sayings sent in by readers - include:

"Summer in Nags Head, Some Are Not."

"This Is the Only Shirt I Didn't Lose in Las Vegas."

"My Folks Slept in the Lincoln Bedroom and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt."

Of course there are vacation T-shirts that transcend tacky and find themselves elevated to the realm of fashion statement. The Hard Rock Cafe and Ron Jon Surf Shop shirts come to mind.

But they don't pack the camp of genuine souvenir tees, the ones that like bumper stickers on your back serve up their wit with a flair that says, "Not Only Am I Wearing This Lousy T-Shirt, But, Boy, It Kinda Makes Me Feel Like I'm Still on Vacation!"