A kid doesn’t have much use
for an umbrella in Arizona. There are seasonal monsoons, but they are welcome
and warm. I had a seldom used, clear plastic bubble umbrella. Something that Lady Ga Ga would
consider costuming today. Very
70’s mod, but it wasn’t used very often. It stayed in the living room closet
with the moving box full of Christmas decorations and a thick lambskin coat my
mother rarely had an opportunity to wear.
By college I had a matching rain
coat and Papagallo slip ons, but again, seldom used. I met a boy at school in
Flagstaff who told me he thought only rich people had umbrellas. He was raised
on a gentleman’s cattle ranch in southern Arizona. Cowboys wear hats and dusters, seldom carry an
umbrella. That’s a city folk
thing.
After college I lived in NYC and
the moment the sky threatened, vendors
with boxes of cheap black compact umbrellas materialized outside subway stops. These were the umbrellas that were left
in bars, on subway trains and quickly blew inside out and were dumped into a
corner garbage can.
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Happy V Day! You have an award to pick up over at The Armchair Squid.
ReplyDeleteThank you, again, and wow, that was an interesting mission, Q & A wise. I'm exhausted.
Deletelove these simple memories your letters are evoking! I never owned an umbrella until after I moved back to San Francisco at the turn of the century. Not even in 6 years of Seattle living did I think to own one. In Seattle an umbrella meant you weren't tough enough to handle the rain on your own.
ReplyDeleteYes, umbrellaless in Seattle = tough. Or bad ass. or you have two small children and no free hands!
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