I live in New Jersey. Before I retired, my job required me to take several trips annually to our customer at a naval base in Virginia. The trips were formal in nature, always necessitating a suit and tie. Since the trip there was almost 4 hours, in the hot summer months I would leave very early, drive comfortably in shorts and a tee shirt, and bring my suit on a hanger.
When arriving at my hotel, I would shower, change to my suit, have breakfast and then leave for my meeting. Following my usual procedure on an August trip, in Virginia I reached for my suit, discovered my pants had fallen off the hanger, and was back in New Jersey. As I was required to make a presentation at the meeting, this was a calamitous situation.
No department stores would be open at this hour to secure a pair of long pants. I decided to try save the moment by entering the base in my shorts, carrying the remnants of my suit. I would go to the meeting room before anyone else arrived, put on my tie and suit jacket, scrunch up to the wooden table, stay seated throughout the entire meeting (hopefully a short one) and leave the room after everyone else had left.
As the participants arrived, no one had discovered my bare legs. As the meeting was about to begin, a secretary entered the room and happened to look directly under the table, and screamed, “He’s not wearing any pants”. Everyone looked and a legend was born.
