Thankful in the Small Things
Ignoring combats*, which I hate because 1- they aren’t smart and 2 – they are army clothes, there is one piece of my uniform which I hate. Not with a passion, as I do camos*, but I really don’t like my RAF jumper. It’s one of the biggest ones on the Squadron, about four sizes too big, with a neck that gapes around my collarbone, sleeves that need to be doubled up, and a hem that also has to be tucked under as it reaches to my knees. It’s a good, thick blue grey wool, with a pocket on the sleeve for a pen as well as having the blue-grey shoulder patches with epaulettes for brassard and rank slides/flight tapes. In the icy blasts of winter, it provides a wonderful warmth.
But for all of its serviceable self, most 196 girls – definitely myself, any rate, and my mother – hate our jumpers. Why? Because they literally hang like feed sacks. They don’t give a hint of a shape or a figure, and when you’re used to walking round in a smart blue shirt with sleeves rolled up, a belt around your waist (well, for female NCOs anyway) and a shorter, smart feminine skirt – basically, looking smartly feminine, wearing a thick, fattening feed sack jumper is not the most...comfortable feeling in the world.
With the modesty plumbline starting to hang in front of my nose, I’m beginning to think twice about that jumper. All right, I don’t like looking like a roll of kitchen towel dressed in a uniform. But still, it hides me. So instead of feeling insecure and disliking it, maybe I should start giving thanks for my jumper every time I pull that scratchy woollen feed sack over my head! ;)
~ Janie
* Army clothes are generally known among us as cabbage kit, greens, camo, combats or DPMs. (Displaced Pattern Material). So now you know what I’m talking about if I mention any of those. ;)
But for all of its serviceable self, most 196 girls – definitely myself, any rate, and my mother – hate our jumpers. Why? Because they literally hang like feed sacks. They don’t give a hint of a shape or a figure, and when you’re used to walking round in a smart blue shirt with sleeves rolled up, a belt around your waist (well, for female NCOs anyway) and a shorter, smart feminine skirt – basically, looking smartly feminine, wearing a thick, fattening feed sack jumper is not the most...comfortable feeling in the world.
With the modesty plumbline starting to hang in front of my nose, I’m beginning to think twice about that jumper. All right, I don’t like looking like a roll of kitchen towel dressed in a uniform. But still, it hides me. So instead of feeling insecure and disliking it, maybe I should start giving thanks for my jumper every time I pull that scratchy woollen feed sack over my head! ;)
~ Janie
* Army clothes are generally known among us as cabbage kit, greens, camo, combats or DPMs. (Displaced Pattern Material). So now you know what I’m talking about if I mention any of those. ;)
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Thanks for sharing your thoughts. :)