November 9, 2008

It is starting to get cold outside and I am hoping to have a very white and snow filled winter.  The cold air seems to bring back a memory from my childhood.  When I was younger, around 3rd or 4th grade, I believed that gloves were cool and mittens were dorky.  I wouldn’t be caught dead going out to play with mittens on.  All the cool kids wore gloves.  At home we had a pair of mittens that were never taken out of the hat and glove box.¹

Then I advanced into middle school and high school.  Magically, mittens were cool.  It seemed like everyone had a pair of those knitted mittens.  They would wear them all the time: indoors, outdoors, summer, and winter.

In hindsight all this was pretty silly.  Hand garments aren’t a status symbol.  It is crazy how young people put a coolness factor on everything.  Mittens are more practical because they keep your fingers together to maintain warmth.  Gloves are practical because they allow you to use your fingers.  They both have their advantages but I wouldn’t consider either one dorky or cool.  People can and have devoted lifetimes to understanding these social trends.

In case you are wondering, I had planned this whole post to be about gloves and mittens.  That is dorky.

Photo by kathrynivy