FASHIONAB-AL
After a lifetime of 300+ pounds of morbid obesity, Lonesome Al Barger had gastric bypass surgery on April 4, 2014. By August, I had to buy clothes anyway, and wasn't feeling quite so disgusted with what I saw in the mirror. I discovered that I could buy all kinds of groovy duds for next to nothing at Goodwill - and God bless them. Soon I was developing a fashion sense and started getting the idea of fashion as art and a statement of how you wanted people to see and think of you and really how I see myself. Putting together fashion statements is great fun.
For years, I have walked miles at a time through the streets for exercise. Being seen and known as a guy who is out making that effort has long been one of my top preferred ways for people to think of me, even when I felt like a troll escaped from under my bridge. But as I approached a regular size and started representing with my appearance, I started getting very different responses and people paying attention to me. Strangers young and old - men, women and children are smiling and complimenting me in the streets, as well as family and friends. Rather than simply taking walks, I often describe this now as "promenading." Hey, who couldn't use some affirmation and validation?
Here are some of my early fashion concoctions in chronological order. I think they get better chronologically. I particularly like the more conceptual Orwell Redenbacher series with me as a crazy paranoid tinfoil hat wearing hillbilly.
Minnie Pearl Look August 2014
Blue Paisley Dreams of My Father August 2014
Black and Mauve September 2014
Agitated Orange September 2014
Hillbilly Ska September 2014
No Bette Jones October 2014
Atlas Wears Pink November 2014
Mad Hater December 2014
Solstice Brown December 2014
Yellow Cat in the Hat March 2015
Orange Sunshine June 2015
Orwell Redenbacher June 2015
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