This is from a page later on in John Irvine's novel Hotel New Hampshire. Rung a bell when I read it years ago and still pops into my head sometimes. I have definitely picked up a slightly shambolic hi/lo dress sense from my aged Pops [hey! -ed.], and it may also be true that for some there is an inverted snobbery about the whole thing (like the Boston cracked shoe idea) but it just happens to be that he/I don't spend much money on clothes... As my drill sergeant would say in high school "Eyes up lads. There is no money down there I already looked!"
Def' helps to have a good thrift shop nearby. My Brooks suit from that place, and bucks below (old Bass jobs). Actually Pops found the shoes and I in turn gaffled them from him... Re: The hotel Sacher in Vienna (as in the book above) - the old owner of the Three Clock Inn in southern VT worked there as a young man and told me there was at one time a bomb blast nearby, just like in the novel - just remembered that...
