I never thought I would write about jeans. Trust me, it’s not only about jeans. It’s more than that. Much more. When I was about five, the Levi’s were the pinnacle of my denim wonderland; it was a must-have for a kid like me (Yes, I began to wear black corduroy pants at the age of four). Its long history along with the trusty label, made in the USA, allowed me to have some faith in the brand. I had longed for a pair of rigid Levi’s 501 since I understood the merits of the “classic” fit. 501s always have kept their well-known straight fit, which should be compared to the constantly changing fashion trend. They are strongly sewn and they last for a long time.
That morning, I had an undeniably strong urge to have a pair of Levi’s jeans for the first time in my life. My mother needed to hang up her phone because of my impulse to get a pair of jeans. My mother could not stand me singing a song about a kid wanting some denim, so we decided to go to the department store. The department store was three minutes away and it was the hottest mall in Seoul at that time. There was also an ice cream shop in the department store with a beautiful girl who used to greet me with a big smile and always left me with a bit of vanilla on the top of my chocolate ice cream. Because I only had two older brothers, I felt that the girl at the ice cream shop was my virtual sister. I would cling onto my mom’s legs saying that I want to have some ice cream whenever I want to see that big smile. I cared more to see the ice cream girl than to eat ice cream.
Preparing for my delightful stroll into the store, I was checking myself in front of a mirror. My mom was summoning me, saying that there was a phone call from a friend of mine. I picked up the phone and heard that he would like to hang out with me soon. Tempted to say no, I said yes. I liked to play with him at the playground more than anything else in the world at that time. Anyway, I notified my mom that I had changed my mind. She seemed glad and I saw her closing the door, picking up the phone again. I put on my black corduroy pants to go out.
We were constructing a whole new empire out of sand and we had more than five castles built at that time. We made sure to build the empire by focusing on a single castle each time. The priority for us was to build the finest sand castles in the town. Then, we heard some kind of loud sound we had never heard before, it felt as if the Earth was angry, vibrantly shaking. We could see the gray dust coming from the sky, hovering over the site of the department store. The blue sky suddenly changed into a gray, opaque canvas. We sensed that something went wrong and our castles were being demolished little by little because we had not yet poured water over the architecture. The department store building had just collapsed while I was having a fun time building castles with my friend at the playground without any memory about my urge I had in the morning. We stopped our construction as soon as we witnessed the real non-sand castle collapsing and we ran over to the site to see.
Although I didn’t get a pair of Levi’s jeans, I did get spanks from my mom when I told her that the building collapsed. She saw my dusted hair and dirty hands. She wiped my face and hands with a warm wet towel. Then, she told me to find the remote for the TV and we both stared at the screen, which showed our neighborhood, the building, and as well as many injured people being carried out by firefighters. Due to that terrible incident, some of my classmates lost their mothers. I lost my favorite person in the store, the ice cream girl. My mom figured out that the name was on the list of people who died from the accident and she didn’t keep it as a secret. I didn’t feel like eating ice cream anymore in my life.