VI. Fashion
Not fashion, whatever the magazines say — just the clothes a man keeps for a particular kind of day: the wax jacket for the lane, the good coat for church, the workshop apron for everything else.
First Cold Evening
Green waxed cotton jacket · Tattersall shirt · leather belt · brown cord trousers · hobnailed boots · tweed cap · ash stick
“The waxed jacket was new in 1949 and has been Charlie's towel since 1950. The stick I cut from the ash by the top gate. He regards it as half his, and carries his half whenever I put it down.”
Fetching the Cake
Brown leather flying jacket · check shirt · leather gauntlets · brown cord trousers · boots · tweed cap with ex-RAF goggles
“Oldham and back with Mother's cake on the carrier at a steady twenty-five. The goggles came out of the war with me. The cake came through without a crumb lost, which is more than can be said for the jacket.”