Duane Topping (DT): I would go to where you could pick up care packages. And they’d split them up, male female. Well, I always went to the girl ones, ‘cause I liked, I liked the scents better, I liked the soap better.

Jamie Topping (JT): I know, I would tease you.

DT: I liked the lotion. I still do. Instead of the Sports Illustrated and Men’s Health, I would go find the Vogues and the Marie Claires.

DT: Once I retired, I didn’t know what I was going to do with myself.

JT: You lost yourself.

DT: I mean, I tried being a motorcycle mechanic. That lasted about three weeks. And then, I don’t know, a number of nights and early mornings in dive bars and passed out in parks.

JT: I would have to go and find you in the yard at night when you would have flashbacks.

DT: Digging foxholes, I guess.

JT: I don’t know.

DT: When I decided I was going to sew, I came home with that sewing machine and I was like, ’I’m going to do it RIGHT NOW.’

JT: And I literally just shook my head.

DT: Do you remember the first thing I made?

JT: Yes, a purse.

DT: It was upside-down.

JT: And inside-out.

DT: At first, It was just a hobby. And then, you know, it blossomed from there.

JT: Yep.

DT: Those first designs, I didn’t know how to do zippers, I couldn’t do sleeves. And I just, it wasn’t ever really about —

JT:  But it didn’t frustrate you, you just kept working.

DT: — No, and that was just it. At that time it was so much about finding my peace.

So much of the world is just noise. And for me, it’s that noise that brings the anxiety.  When I sew, that world of noise and chaos is a world that I have control over. It’s only six inches. And that’s my six inches. And no one else can get in there. And I think, for me, that’s where the peace is.