Inadequately clothed young ladies

[strange_complex]

I just spoke to my Mum on the phone. She'd recently been out to a concert in Lichfield, and was commenting with disbelief and disapproval on the girls she'd seen afterwards, walking down the street in thin sleeveless dresses without any kind of coat, despite the fact that it was freezing winter weather.

I explained that pointing and laughing at such girls (and their shirt-sleeved male companions) is a recreational sport which had long been enjoyed by both Goths and Metallers, so that this was one area in which middle-aged ladies and alternative sub-cultures could find common ground. She chuckled.

Incidentally, I don't think a post about The Order of the Phoenix is going to happen today after all, since I've spent most of it asleep. It'll turn up eventually.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

A fifteen year old in the north-east died from hypothermia last weekend, collapsing while walking home across snowy fields after a party, somewhat the worse for drink and wearing only a short sleeved t-shirt.

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Wow, I wish I knew who this was from. Or whether they'll ever see my reply. But yes, my Mum was well aware of this story. Who knows, maybe this comment is even from my Mum? Although I think she would say if so.

[(Anonymous)]

No, I'm not your mum (*amused*) but I am a mum, with a teenage son who thankfully wears his coat, though I remind him all the time.

I live in the same town as the boy who died. Although alcohol and/or drugs might possibly have played a part (toxicology results are not complete), the cause of death was hypothermia.

The thought (never verbalised) is that it's cool or tough to go out without a coat. Whereas in the short term it's dangerous and in the long-term you risk heart problems in later life because your arteries/veins gradually adjust to being tighter and constricted being out in the cold all the time, rather than feeling wide and expansive in the warmth of a coat, so when you have clogged arteries in old age, long-term non-coat-wearers are more prone to getting blockages of their narrower tubes. Research in Scandanavian countries and Iceland bears this out.

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Ah, right. Well, hi, and welcome to my journal!

I was pretty sure not wearing a coat would be a bad idea in the short-term, but didn't realise it could have such worrying long-term consequences as well. I will have to tell my Mum about that - she'd be interested to know (she's always interested in health issues).

I'm glad to hear your son is mainly sensible about it. If you're worried about him not heeding your warnings, though, perhaps you could persaude him to become a Goth? ;) Then wearing a long black coat will become cool - as demonstrated by this lot (http://lyssa.fotopic.net/p12482056.html), for instance!