My Favorite Collection – Lodge T-shirts!
I really can't tell you where I got hooked on lodge T-shirts. My brother will tell you that when he shipped out for the army after graduating high school that I raided his drawers looking for cool clothes. Among the shirts in there was the 1983 Dixie staff t-shirt from Santee 116. It is not a very beautiful shirt but I remember wearing it to school with pride. My dad was also a member of the OA and had one of the classic lodge t-shirts from the 1970s with the jacket patch design on it.
The 1983 Dixie Host Lodge t-shirt that I stole from my brother Chris
So when I started getting into collecting my home lodge in the late 1980s one of the things I picked up was t-shirts made for OA Week and the Dixie Fellowship. Some guys in my lodge including Greg Vaught and Scott Alexander helped me with my collection. I also remember getting stuff from Bill Tyson and Phil Whittle in those days. It was also a cool thing on camp staff to wear vintage t-shirts since we had to have on a Scout t-shirt and you could easily go through a couple shirts every day working in the sand hills of SC in the summertime heat.
The week I got into the OA! 1986 OA Week - the Battle of Issa Tavora by Austin China and Woody Collins
My first Dixie Fellowship shirt from 1987 at Camp Blue Heron
Over the years I've put together a nearly complete collection of t-shirts from my home lodge. I've only got one need on Dixie t-shirts and that was a 1990s issue where the adviser made a few polo shirts with the spirit theme on them. I've got my eyes on one of those but I have to wait til the guy is ready to part with it. As for OA Week shirts I've got all the regular issues that started in 1979. I need several of the directors shirts that were made over the last decade. These were typically a unique color of the regular shirt given after the pageant to people who assisted the director with things like lighting, props, etc.
This design nearly became the logo for Santeeswapper! I'll tell that story another day
Funny t-shirt given by Lodge Adviser Jay Hodge to the 18-21 year old's in the lodge who liked to stir up trouble at business meetings.
Submitted by Webmaster Jason Spangler
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