The Pinochle Shirt

By Mike Rhodes

The year that Tir na nOg opened I owned a screenprinting and embroidery business.  Not long after the new place opened Billy asked me to print up some shirts that Jean Warren had designed with original logo that showed the mythology of Tir na nog.  I am not sure how many of you remember those shirts.

Anyway some months later Billy had gone to Ireland for Dennis and Caroline Griffin’s wedding.  The week he was gone Mark Mahon, Frank Connell and I were in the pub several nights (4 or 5) well after closing time.  When Billy had returned the following weekend I was in the pub as usual.  Billy had just come in and was sitting in the dart room.  My cousin Joe Rhodes comes up to me and says that Billy is looking for me and needs to talk right away.  At this point I thought I was FLAGGED, I figured that he found out about me staying and drinking after the pub had closed.  So I sheepishly approached Billy and said, “Hey bro what’s up?”  Billy responded “I got an idea bro and I need your help…”.  (Billy called me bro, he was my friend)

Billy continued, “I want you to make some new T-shirts, check this out, ha ha ha.”  With that, he pulls out a cocktail napkin with some scribbling that says, “COOL DUDES FROM NEW JERSEY 1991 ALL IRELAND PINOCHLE TOUR”.  Billy asks me what I think (I think I’m not FLAGGED) and I told him that was great and sure I could make some shirts.  He goes on to say that he wants all the places they stopped and played Pinochle on the back of the shirt (kind of like a concert tour shirt).  Thus, the birth of the Pinochle shirt.

I showed Billy my designs on his concept which he loved and he promptly ordered six dozen shirts.  A few weeks later I delivered the shirts and the look in his eyes was like a kid on Christmas morning.  He quickly took off the shirt he was wearing and put on the new Pinochle shirt, he gave me one and a couple out to the few people in the pub that afternoon.  He said he was going to give some to the people on the Ireland trip as well.  At this point I figured that he was planning on selling them and that he might wear his shirt from time to time.

Boy was I wrong.  The next day Billy was wearing the shirt again and then the next and so on and so on…I quickly realized the shirts were really for him.  Billy LOVED that shirt.

If you saw Billy you knew for sure that he would be dressed exactly the same, black pants and the black Pinochle shirt.  Sometimes he would even wear the shirt inside out…did it really matter.  I kept wondering when Billy was going to wear something else.  I pondered that for a very long time.

A year or so later Billy, P’Simer, Joe Rhodes and I were on our way to Dennis Keenan’s installation as the Trenton Fire Chief.  I remember the following conversation like it was yesterday.

Billy: Hey bro, I need to order some more shirts.

Mike: Sure Bill no problem, how many?

Joe: Hey Bill…

Billy: Yeah bro…

Joe: You know…YOU CAN WASH THEM

Billy:  Ha ha ha…spare me.  Give me six more dozen.