Seattlest: The Inalienable Right to Bear Umbrellas

WetLocal

Sun, 08 Oct 2006 12:27:43 -0800

I've lived here my whole life (3rd gen Seattlite) and I can honestly say that I've never had an umbrella. My family has never used them either. My mom's got one in the trunk of her car, but never breaks it out. I guess you just get used to getting wet at a young age. Also, let's face it, when they say that it rains a lot in Seattle, they mean "often". It just doesn't rain hard enough here that often to carry an umbrella around.

john patrick

Fri, 06 Oct 2006 16:20:23 -0800

I am a native of Western Washington. Sit at my feet and learn from me. Northwesterners who drive to work, park in a lot, and then spend all day in a building do not use umbrellas. However, university students and people walk or take the bus to work DO use umbrellas. Absolutely. Posession of umbrellas is NOT an indication of out-of-towners or whimps (redundant). The mark of an out-of-towner is that they complain about the rain. Now, as for socks & sandal intolerance... there are real problems in the world. Hunger. War. AIDS. Please leave your intollerance in the cold, cold Midwest. Seriously? If we DIDN'T break your fashion taboos, it wouldn't be Seattle.

Jason

Fri, 06 Oct 2006 15:01:42 -0800

Umbrellas are for wimps. Kidding, kidding, though I personally choose the traditional no-umbrella Northwest lifestyle. Of course, I've since moved to the desert of Phoenix ;)

Chris

Fri, 06 Oct 2006 13:59:14 -0800

I have no moral or philosophical objection to umbrellas. Personally I don't carry one because I like to keep my non-Starbucks hand free in case I need to get my street kung-fu on. Besides, I like REI and just about any engineered fabric they can come up with. Deal with it, I promise I won't infringe on your right to carry a portable canopy around. What really pokes me in the eye is when Sheila, the 42-year old Bellevue aristo-bitch is walking around downtown Seattle, under the not-portable building canopies, threatening me with her Vietnamese torture device being used as an umbrella. Never mind that it isn't raining ON HER... It's enough that it is raining NEAR her for her to walk around, oblivious to my attempt to get out of the rain (mostly to protect the latte I just took a mortgage to acquire), trapping me between the immovable wall of a building and her unstoppable spinning wheel of rusty death-spikes. Just give me a little room so I don't have to crawl around on 3rd avenue, please.

Seth

Fri, 06 Oct 2006 12:53:55 -0800

If you want to wear clothing that isn't manufactured via some plastic polymer process, and doesn't have the suffix "Tex" in it, an umbrella is a neccessity. Your wick-water away super REI enviro-tex shirt (which, by the way, looks HORRIBLE on you) may react to water the same way Dick Cheney reacts to long-haired protestors. My cotton shirt, or my wool jacket, or my wool pants, don't. They get soaked through by water (because they are a NATURAL fabric and that's what fucking water is supposed to do to actual things that weren't invented in the REI fucking labs).

Jack

Fri, 06 Oct 2006 12:43:23 -0800

Ah, thank you Robin for becoming the very unreasonable character Tom was describing in this wonderful post. Before you chimed in, I was having trouble imagining what kind of person might possibly deride someone for using an umbrella. Hopefully with a little help from a priest or shaman you'll someday find it in your soul to forgive those folks with other other ideas of fashion than what you might find in an LL Bean catalogue. If you're really being poked in the eye, than it seems like you wouldn't be too put out wearing a sensible pair of ski goggles downtown.

Robin

Fri, 06 Oct 2006 12:25:22 -0800

Only out-of-towners and wimps use umbrellas. I have never been poked in the eye or had water shaken or poured on me by someone wearing a sensible hooded raincoat.