Wednesday, April 24, 2013

U is for Umbrella




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. 

I always felt reluctant to leave my umbrella in the suggested receptacle at the doorway of a restaurant or bar, worried that someone would take it even though it was cheap. They’re all the same, how could someone not?

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4 comments:

  1. Happy V Day! You have an award to pick up over at The Armchair Squid.

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    1. Thank you, again, and wow, that was an interesting mission, Q & A wise. I'm exhausted.

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  2. love 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.

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    1. Yes, umbrellaless in Seattle = tough. Or bad ass. or you have two small children and no free hands!

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