A Tale of Two Coats...

Look back at your teenage years or further back to childhood, then come back to the present and discuss.

What's the first thing most people say they don't see no more... white dog poo!. and that wagon wheels are no longer the same size, along with polo's and curly wurlys. But has something else seem to be in decline too? but more silent that sun bleached fecal matter and chocolate treats and sweets....

What ever happened to the memorable lovable tramp?... It seems they have just been replaced by scagheads and beggers... even big issue sellers now seem to be mostly "imported" beggars.

In the town I currently work in, all I see is what I just mentioned, scagheads etc, I do see this one old guy walking the same bit of road, in the same clothes, but he lacks the ubiquitous big bushy beard, he may have the pungent odour, but never been that close.... thankfully...

So what has happened to the quintessential Tramp?... are they in decline like the bees? or have they all died out... because they were so old in the first place? and because they seem to be in decline.. are we importing foreign tramps in? to replace the national shortage...

But I digress so back to the blog about a Tramp...

In the town where I used to live as a child there were tramps and one that became a very familiar sight, Mr Two Coats...

Now Two Coats first came to the attention of my mother, who when on her lunch or just around town, would notice him, with his funny gaited walk and vaguely odd appearance, strolling all around town. She pointed him out to me once when I was with her in town, as mothers do and blatantly said, that's a tramp. (I think he was a "care in the community" refugee to be honest, abandoned by the system, but most people just think they are just weird..)

From then on, I would notice Two Coats when in town and I named him thus. This is all due to seeing him on a daily basis, once in the morning and going home in the afternoon, but each time he would be wearing a different coat.

In the morning, he could be sporting a long blue mac, a little too small to cover his rotund belly. Later he would be dressed in a short leatherette jacket. I think any coat was fair game to him, as I think I saw him in a ladies coat once.

This was the case for the many years I used to see him, his beard growing ever larger and his belly, the top of his head becoming ever balder and his apparent wardrobe full of coats becoming ever more large and equipped for all seasons.

I wondered where this wardrobe might be? Narnia?... did he have a stash behind the big skips in town? or where they simply dropped in specific places...

Considering these days seeing abandoned clothing around town is a common sight, back then there was simply nothing.

I often wonder if he's still around, swapping fashion ever couple of hours, mumbling to himself about what is in this season.. and which designer is the one to be seen in?... as he passes his day of travel.