I'm in the process of changing the style of clothes I wear.
For years, it was basically t-shirt and shorts in the summer and t-shirt and either jeans or bib overalls in the winter.
But times are changing. My thyroid quit working about two years ago. The earliest signs were a major increase in pains and a drop in body temperature. After more than a year of taking thyroxin pills daily, the pains have mostly disappeared, but my body temperature is still low.
One day when it was 28 F outside, I put on a heavy coat and was driving a pickup out to a feedlot. About a mile after I left the office, I took my temperature and it was 92.5 F. As the pickup warmed up, by the time I got to the feedlot, it was back up to about 97 F. This past fall, I was out doing some work in 69 F temperatures without a coat on for about half an hour and my body temperature fell to 93.7 F.
Any more, it is very uncomfortable for me to be in a building with the air conditioner turned down much. I'm already feeling cold by the time the temperature falls to 78 F.
This calls for a major change in attire. First, I'm going to wearing jeans year round.
For the winter, I went to wearing long sleeved flannel shirts. They are far more comfortable than the t-shirts. I used to wear Pendleton wool shirts in the 1970s and 1980s, but they are now kind of tight. Also, some of them got some insect damage and ave holes in them. Now they are close to $100 apiece and so I'm not inclined to buy more anyway. Also, they need to go to the cleaners instead of being washed. For me, that's a 70 mile round trip to drop them off at a cleaners and another 70 mile round trip to pick them up.
For the summer, it will be a light shirt with a jacket and jeans. Obviously, the normal sports jackets doesn't go well with jeans. Plus, where I live, I'd feel really out of place going around in suit and tie most of the time -- suits and ties here are for weddings, funerals, and occasional Sunday church services (most people don't wear suits and ties to church around here anymore). Furthermore, suits and ties are expensive. They also need to be cleaned.
So what I'm going toward is wearing western style shirts (i have a few but will have to buy more) Some will be ordinary shirts and some more on the order of dress shirts so that they go with a western frock coat better. Obviously, with a bolo tie as well.
I wore a hat for much of my younger years, especially in college, but haven't worn one very often in the last thirty years. My preference is a Stetson "Open Road", but don't have one. My dad had a similar hat so I may go find it and see if it will fit me. If it does, I'll wear it.
If you don't know what a Stetson Open Road hat looks like, take a look at the easy to find pictures of Jack Ruby shooting Lee Harvey Oswald. The detective in the light colored suit to Oswald's right is wearing a hat that could easily be a Stetson Open Road.
So this should work fine for both every day wear and for being somewhat dressed up for more formal occasions such as weddings and funerals. And it should help me tolerate stores and restaurants that keep the temperatures too low with their air conditioners.
I almost forgot. Also a good overcoat for when it is raining or is cold. I used to have a hand me down overcoat in the 70s that I really liked. It was probably 20 years old then. I don't know whatever happened to it, but it was great.
Most overcoats these days seem to go down to maybe mid thigh. The older ones would go down almost to the ankles. The reason for the change is that people are more likely to drive than to walk and so didn't need as much to keep their pants legs dry as they used to need.
My old overcoat went down nearly to my ankles. When it was pouring down rain. about the only part of my pants that would get wet would be the last inch or so. It's difficult to find the older overcoats, but they are around.
One option is a western style overcoat known as a "duster".
I remember one time when it was pouring down rain and I needed to go to the local convenience store. At the time I was living in a house behind the convenience store and the convenience store was behind the most popular bar in the area. Many people going to and from the bar would cut across the side of the convenience store and by my house to get to their cars.
So this one night in the rain, I was wearing that old overcoat and my old flat brimmed black hat. I also had a very full beard at the time. As I came around the back corner of the convenience store, I nearly collided with someone cutting across from the bar. The way he reacted when he saw me, I think I may have given him a bit of a scare.
25 Feb 2017, 4:01 pm
