Give them all capes!

Yesterday as I was exiting the building to go hook it up with some lunchtime goodness at the local HEB, I walked past a mom and her two little boys who were heading into the office. One of the wee tykes was wearing a Batman mask and a matching black cape that was just slightly too long for his short little self. I'd have found it amusing anyway, but being a new father to a little boy of my own, I smiled extra broad. I recognized them from the pictures that sit on the desk of one of my coworkers, so later on when I saw him, I said, "Hey there fellow employee, I saw your kid dressed up as Batman, the Dark Knight, the Caped Crusader yesterday." He laughed and went into the story about how the little guy's grandma made capes for both of his little boys. At this, I was instantly transported back to the time of my own boyhood, when I in all my glorious boyness enjoyed the wearing of my very own homemade cape. I don't recall who made it for me, but I assure you it was homemade and I wore it everywhere. I loved the shit out of that thing. This fuzzy little Wonder Years memory gets one to thinking that all the little boys and all the little girls should be given their very own capes for the wearing, capes in any color or pattern the little guys and gals may choose, capes for the young imagination sparking, for the superhero role-playing, for the tying around the young shoulders and declaring oneself to be a vampire to total strangers in the mall and having to be yanked away by embarrassed but amused parents. Yes, lots and lots of capes. That, my friends, would be an excellent use of a lot of fabric.