For nearly twenty-five years I have owned a Railroad Vest from Woolrich. The first one I wore for about fifteen years and then passed it down to my son. The second, and current one, is the replacement.
No one in my family traces employment in the railroad industry (though my grandfather worked as a carpenter for the CTA, the Chicago Transit Authority.) No nostalgic root, the damn thing is functional.
The vest has four pockets and is made of a coarse wool, black, flecked with gray. I have two buttons on the left breast pockets, one featuring Bagel Radio, an Internet radio station and the other the first Birdmonster button. At times I have adorned that pocket with a Division Day button and a pin from the Cowboy Poetry Festival in Elko, Nevada.
Fuctional, utilitarian. And, it gathers a lot of compliments. Not that I am clothes horse (I was in my younger days), nor do I really give a lot of thought to what I wear (though, again, in the old days...), but the vest works. It brings in the fall, lasts through the winter, the tougher spring days and then gets hung for the duration.
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