Holy Cow, I’m in STYLE again.
Over a year ago, my favorite source for hard-wearing work pants (aka “Trou”) dried up. The Canadian firm that made ‘em stopped.
I was an anti-jeans person for over twenty years. Working on “the Hill,” cotton isn’t the fabric of choice. I had a vintage collection of wool whipcord carefully purchased at various second-hand stores, and many pairs of shorts which I wore until scraping ice off bare legs became too painful.
I went through a transitional period wearing “Carhartts”. Duck weave (a form of canvas) dries better than Jeans twill, and the pants hold up. At some point, the fashion-conscious discovered the brown pants, and the price shot up. Sorry, but this frugal Vermonter won’t pay suit-clothes prices for work gear.
If you really want the top, and cost isn’t an object, I suggest Filson clothes from Seattle, Washington. Made in the US and supported without reservation. My friend Commander Putt RMG visited their factory wearing his 20 plus year old Guide vest.
Upon entering the factory, the receptionist asked if they could strip him and repair his tatters.
At the end of the tour, they gave him back the vest, completely rebuilt. Filson’s motto is “Might as well have the best.” Filson gear is the best, and so is their attitude.
On a bimble through the coastal range of California, I came across Bailey’s Logging Supply.
Before we get into an environmental brouha about logging, let me say this. I despise corporate logging. I spent six very demanding years working for an environmental organization. My knees remind me of this every damp day. Being a wood person, I also know a number of people who make their living through cutting trees. Logging is a skilled, brutally demanding occupation, where danger is always close. One only needs to hear the evil sizzle of a tree “barber chairing” once to drive this home. One friend who works alone took a rogue tree in the face, and lay in the woods six hours in sub-zero weather before being discovered. Another friend from the Forest Service recently died of pleurisy because he took a commercial flight home after battling the fires in Montana, which is the equal of smoking about ten packs a day.
We remember you, Eric, tall and proud.
If you are truly an environmentalist, don’t spike a tree. Spike a corporate headquarters. The fellows (and an increasing number of women) who work in the woods are merely trying to feed their families, and have a hard go of it in the best of circumstances.
None other than Henry David Thoreau observed of the cutters, “They are reckless, generous, and social.”
Anyway, Bailey’s is the sole distributor of “Wild Ass” Jeans.
This is what one of my tattered pairs look like:
They come with suspender buttons. Gitcha some “spendies” to go with your new trou, and you’ll be living large.
For historical references, you might read Tall Trees, Tough Men, by Robert E. Pike. Pikey lived just down the road here. A good and vivid writer.
Tim