On the other hand, there is a wider variety of ethnic groups than there were several years ago–everybody isn’t Irish or Italian any more (although plenty still are.) But people tend to be prosperous and suburban. You don’t see women with multi-colored hair or men with multiple piercings. We’ve started to see bushy beards and tattoo sleeves as hipsters have started moving in to raise families.
There’s one guy who is different. He’s lived here for several years. He is big, brawny, with long grey hair and a grey beard. He looks like he ought to be riding a Harley. Except he wears a skirt.
He is not the least bit effeminate. He wears athletic socks and running shoes, flannel shirts in winter and voluminous dress shirts or t-shirts in the summer. And he wears them with a pleated or gathered skirt, sometimes in denim, sometimes in a lighter cotton fabric. Once I saw him in a wool kilt, but only the once. His skirts generally come just below his knees, so he can walk along with an easy stride. Sometimes in the summer he wears a broad-brimmed straw hat, like people wear in the tropics for sun protection. So far as I can tell, he doesn’t wear jewelry or makeup.
I have seen him walking along the sidewalk with grocery bags, by the main road that runs through the river towns. I saw him on a winter day picking his way along the sidewalk through the snow. In a flannel shirt and a gathered skirt.
Every time I’ve seen him I was driving, so I’ve never had a chance to ask him what his story is. I’m not sure I could be rude enough to do that, anyway. Does he find pants constricting? Does he sew his skirts himself? They’re pretty big, like him, so I don’t know exactly where he could buy them ready-made. Is this some kind of political stand against sex roles as defined by clothing?
Whatever his reasons, I admire the way he does what he wants without regard for public opinion. I hope no one hassels him for wearing his skirts. And I’d love to know why he does it.
writinghersense 