Dressing for the cold - or not!
It is a rather peculiar thing, but the further north you go in the world, the less people seem to wear in the cities. For me, stinging rain, sleet, a wind chill factor below zero degrees celcius (-32F) all rather suggest I dress warmly. But as I’ve roamed the streets of such northern cities as Glasgow, Edinburgh, and even walked along the Thames River in London on a cold winter day, I’ll pass young people dressed in a pair of cotton 3/4 length jeans, a t-shirt and maybe a thin fleece half open hoodie.
At least in the UK, it was a phenomenon which seemed largely confined to youth, and in particular, extremely image conscious teenagers. I guess walking around dressed like Michelin man hardly let the opposite sex know you had rippling abs or voluptuous breasts, even if the temperature is -10C. Still seemed like madness to me - even at the tender age of 15 or 18, I think I would rather have been dressed warmly outside if it was the middle of winter, as any conversation I’d engage with the opposite sex was most likely going to be rapidly moving inside to somewhere warm!
So when I moved to Canada this year, I don’t even recall seeing many teenagers out on the street - they were all in the malls, wearing their thin hoodies and t-shirts. The few rebel university students seen scrambling over the snow-covered sidewalks, were usually appropriately dressed for the sub-zero temperatures and everyone else was covered from head to toe in protective clothing…
I thought that was refreshing - until spring came. In this part of the world, spring is defined more by the absence of snow on the ground than anything else. The temperatures are still cool - rarely exceeding 5-6C - whether it is sunny, rainy, foggy or windy. But all of a sudden, no one was dressing like it was winter anymore… It was like a collective wave of belligerence has swept over any Newfoundlander of any age and by golly, they are going to dress as if its spring no matter what!
So yesterday, when I took one look through rain/sleet smeared windows and bare-limbed trees thrashing violently in the wind and decided to go for a walk, I promptly put on thermal underwear, fleece and waterproof outerwear.
As I walked the nearly desolate streets of St John’s, I passed a few souls, and every single last one of them was wearing jeans, t-shirt and a fleece hoodie. Sometimes the hood was up, sometimes it was down, exposing the head to the sleet and wind. I don’t know how they could do it… It was sleeting AND windy! I felt terribly overdressed compared to them, but then… I was strolling along quite comfortably and not huddled over and practically running to my destination.
Well, its an optimistic approach to spring. I wish I had the guts to dress like that and pretend its spring, but I think I’ll stick to breaking out my brighter coloured outer rainware and pretend I’m adding a splash of spring colour to the grey backkdrop instead!
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