This year for my birthday, I got a waxed-cotton jacket. You don’t see a lot of those here in the U.S., but they are popular rain gear/outerwear in the U.K. I’ve been wanting one for a while, as I like the look and they always seemed a good fall/spring choice for the wet and dismal Central New York climate.
I read online that it was a good idea to hang a newly unpacked waxed jacket up for a while to let it air out. Here it is, right out of the box, hanging out in my garage. (That lantern-looking object behind it is my father’s old 1980s-era bug zapper.)
Having received the jacket in mid-August, I assumed that it would be about a month before the weather would be appropriate to wear it. The day it arrived, I actually found myself wishing that the weather was worse, so I could wear the jacket around for a bit and break it in. Today, I got my wished-for bad weather and decided to see how watertight my new jacket really was. My two takeaways from the experience were: 1) it’s very watertight, indeed; and 2) even with a fancy watertight waxed-cotton jacket, walking around in a downpour is still a miserable experience.
It started to rain this evening and the temperature dipped down to around 60. I had the bright idea to take advantage of the wet autumn-like weather and test out my new jacket’s water-repelling properties.The “before” picture as I was leaving the house.Naturally, shortly after I began my walk, the showers intensified into a full-fledged downpour. The jacket performed like a champ. The water beaded up on the waxed surface and none of the seams leaked. Of course, the parts of me that weren’t covered by the jacket got absolutely soaked. My shoes and pant legs were waterlogged by the end of the walk.Back home at the end of the walk, realizing that this was a terrible idea.
Researcher. Marketer. Teacher. Father of adult children and dogs. 20th Century holdover. Central New York native. Long-suffering Buffalo Bills fan. History nerd. Traveler. Vintage advertising enthusiast. Hat wearer.
a.k.a. V.J. 
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