This Retro North Face Fleece Haunted My Childhood Dreams

When I was 9 years old, wandering around Gordon’s Gateway to Sports in Cos Cob, Connecticut, I came across a bright yellow North Face fleece jacket. Trying it on catalyzed a sort of religious experience, so I pulled the smallest size off the rack and presented it to my parents, hoping it would have the same effect on them. It did not. They refused to be reasoned with, and I proceeded to have a meltdown most people would consider wildly embarrassing. (In this case, most people would be…