Thursday, January 24, 2019

T-shirts and Parkas

Those who know me well, know that I have two items of apparel that border on addiction. Winter wear and T-shirts.

Favorite T-shirts listed in no particular order of greatness...


1. The Northford Potato and Corn Festival t-shirt from 2012. A gift. Sadly a bit too small so it went to my nephew. Shirt features a corn cob and a potato dancing. Yay corn and potatos!.

2. World of Mirth - Toy store in Richmond VA. Shirt featured a giant globe head driving a toy car, bizzare as the store. We used to take the kids when visiting my sister. I guess the owner's wife was tied up and murdered execution style in the basement and her husband was wrongly accused. Wore the shirt for years not knowing why the toy store was so famous. But then I saw the 20/20 special on it where the husband was finally vindicated.

3. Diablo Motorcycle Club- T-Shirt featured a skull wearing a bandana with guns. It was a block-party commemorative t-shirt from Bridgeport CT, with a full back advertising its sponsor, Atty. Dean Popkin, a dad of one of my son's friends. - I thought it would be better worn by my niece so I gave it to her when she got engaged. Very nice in terms of T-shirt design.

4. Ralph Nadar for President - It was proudly made in the USA says the tag. Unfortunately the shirt is mishapen and the logo on the front is off center. This was an ironic statement I often argued with friends. Is it better to buy the best quality, or by shit if its made in America. My argument has always been if you want Americans to be competitive, make things higher quality. If quality is a tie, I'd buy American, but as an American, I expect our stuff to be better made. It went as a gift for my nephew.

Amazing Gnar Weasels illustration and color choices.
5. Gnar Weazels - Great MTB race name with even better t-shirt design. I got web-shamed from this race for admitting to throwing a Gu wrapper on the ground with less to a minute to start the race and no where to put it in the cattle call. I figured I would return and throw it away when I finished, but someone had picked it up by the time I came around.
Nonetheless someone saw me drop it and thought it was worth posting. Still came in second, so that's some consolation, public shame aside. As for the shirt look at the brilliant color choices. I still have this.

6. Skinny Legs - St. John, USVI Does not overly boast like other tourist shirts did. Just the average server wear at a restaurant on the far side of St. John, in Coral Bay, where most of the traffic is from boats. These guys are die-hard Pats / Sox fans and somehow make the best cheeseburger I ever had. The back of the place is open to a multi bar sport sand pit. It's what my bar would look like if I owned one. This one is 12 years old and falling apart, but I think its even better that way.

7. Don't shoot me bro - A bikerag.com bright orange shirt for riding during hunting season. While this is a long sleeve, I think it is still a T-shirt, but I wore it to March for Our Lives, last summer. I realized its greatness when people were asking to get their pictures taken with my back, I guess the color and the slogan fit right in.



Winter Jackets

Perhaps this started when my mom and her new husband went on vacation in New Hampshire when I was in my sophmore year of high school. I told them I would like 1 quality thing instead of a lot of junk for Christmas. I was hoping for a Gerry down ski jacket because that was all the rage in the day. But instead they brought me some strange brand I never heard of "The North Face" goose down jacket. This was in 1978. I still had that jacket until 2006 or so when I finally gave it to my nephew.

North Face Mc Murdo Parka
Currently, my outerwear arsinal merely consists of three North Face jackets, two Mountain Harwear, an Arcteryx, a Yeti Down, a Ronin snowboard jacket, a Fox Thermal, maybe one or two others, but some of my favorites have moved on...

My warmest coat ever was a North Face McMurdo
parka. It was a 3/4 length coat stuffed with goose down and an oversized hood ringed with rabbit fur. It would have been great for Antarctica, where it was primarly used, but here in CT, even with a t-shirt under it, it was too hot for anything other than waiting on the train platform. It would ride up in the car, and would cause profuse sweating for any excercise greater than standing. I shipped this off with my SAAB keys in the pocket. The buyer Fed-Exed them back with a funny note. great.

Like wearing a hot burrito...
gore tex layer wrapped in goose down 
wrapped in a mexican blanket.
Another ridiculously warm parka was my Burton Mexican Blanket Parka. This was gore tex wrapped in goose down wrapped in a mexican blanket. It was such overkill, I was tempted to remove the lining and just leave it at Mexican blanket. I sold it last year for close to what I paid for it originally, though was kind-of sad to see it go.



There are plenty more to list, but I'm out of time. So that's all for now.