Hats

[gothwalk]

Hats, I am discovering, make an unreasonable difference to your experience of weather. Yesterday, there was a vague attempt at rain while I was walking home, with no hat. I felt chilly, rained on, somewhat soaked, and rather put out, despite the fact that I was heading home for a few hours of EVE before watching the first episode of the new season of Torchwood (review coming up on dukestreet later today).

This morning, I wore my winter hat, a black trilby-sort-of-thing, through the driving rain and nasty winds walking to work. I was warm, comfortable, and felt dry, despite the fact that I was, well, walking to work in the rain.

And yet, a good half of the people I passed had wholly inadequate hoods, scarves tied over their heads, ineffective umbrellas (many of which turned inside out at each street corner), or the old classic of a newspaper over the head. The people who were wearing hats were black, oriental, Polish, or quite old. Hats are not that hard to get - why do Irish people not wear them?

Comments

Is it possible that it may be a vestige of class?

[will-sample.livejournal.com]

....given that people who work out of doors find greater necessity to shield themselves against the elements, there does seem to be a propensity among the Irish to want to disassociate themselves from 'laborers' -- a Polish construction worker can acceptably wear a hat, but an office secretary not as much--- think of it this way; when you see a well-to-do gentleman about town, how likely is it that he is wearing a hat, and if he is, how practical a hat is it?

Just a thought.

Re: Is it possible that it may be a vestige of class?

[bluedevi.livejournal.com]

a propensity among the Irish to want to disassociate themselves from 'laborers'

Yes. It winds me up how much my parents' generation look down on builders. With charming naivete, they actually believe education is purely meritocratic and people in the trades are there because they're stupid.