A mate of mine posed a question to me the other day: When did it become okay to wear those branded fishing shirts out to dinner?
They’re definitely great for fishing in Queensland, with their protective long sleeves and collars but, according to my friend, wearing them out to dinner is a step too far.
The question is, has Mackay changed or is my friend a little bit precious? Perhaps pretentious?
My friend was born in South Mackay where, last time I checked, no one was complaining about fishing shirts in the dining area.
However, he now lives in a nice street in Mount Pleasant and has a white-collar job that requires him to mix in certain smart business circles. “Ooh la la,” I hear you say.
No, the truth is My Mt Pleasant Mate is not pretentious but he probably has changed from when he was a kid growing up on the streets of South Mackay.
I wasn’t in Mackay 40 or 50 years ago but I imagine those fishing shirts wouldn’t have been too prevalent then, even in fishing circles, and let alone in a dining area. My guess is that it would have been fishing in a pair of stubbies and a tank top or a t-shirt and probably not too much in the way of sunscreen.
So in some ways Mackay, along with My Mt Pleasant Mate, has changed. In others it hasn’t.
In summer, the shorts and singlet or t-shirt are still part of the uniform, along with those new-fangled fishing shirts.
My Mt Pleasant Mate hasn’t passed comment to me about stubbies and a singlet in the dining area but I think we all know how he’d view it. Being a real estate agent, I got to thinking what would he think about the way people should dress for an open house? What would he think about stubbies and singlets?
There is no dress code for an open house in Mackay … and I’ve got no problem with that.
I’ve seen people turn up in bikinis, speedos, stubbies without a shirt and one bloke who turned up with a towel wrapped around his waist and no top … not sure if there was anything underneath because I dared not ask.
One thing I know about Mackay is that the way someone dresses does not indicate whether or not he or she has the money to buy a property I am selling.
That quiet, barefoot bloke in shorts and a t-shirt looking at the shed out back turns out to be a retiring cane farmer who is very financially comfortable and is ready to pay cash for the low-set $600,000 Glenella property he is planning to downsize to with his wife.
In real estate, and in life, you don’t judge a book by its cover and you soon realise that it takes all types and all styles of dress.
So feel free to come along to my open homes in whatever makes you feel comfortable. I promise not to have My Mt Pleasant Mate at the door imposing a dress code.
