NaBloPoMo 2020 My Grandpa's Navy Jacket from WW2

We will not be going skiing in Craftsbury this year, after almost a decade of going up there over New Years. So let me recount a little incident from last year that I haven't told anybody about. 

Before we begin, it would be key to know about the annual fire. It's a main event. It's a little tough to see the scale by this video, but this fire is about as big as one of those fires you see on the news when someone blows up their garage with their new turkey fryer:

The ski center celebrates new years eve with the Burning of the Christmas Trees. So many Christmas trees, so little time. The sparks fly everywhere, and you can take that as a pro tip. 

Bottomline, if you wear your normal winter coat made out of whatever newfangled fabric your normal winter coat is made out of and you stand anywhere near this conflagration ... your normal coat will, at a minimum, have little burn holes all over it. At a maximum it will start to melt, but that only happened to that one woman that once as far as I know and she never came back.

btw- I know a lot about melting synthetic fabric ever since I melted my shoelaces out at the forge many years ago. So I can tell you first hand it kind of sucks when your clothing begins to transmogrify into lava.

Anyway, I don't wear my normal jacket to attend the Burning of the Christmas Trees. For the past decade, I've gone with my grandpa Frank's Navy jacket. He wore it in WW2 on a PT Boat in the South Pacific.

My Grandpa Frank's WW2
Navy Jacket

This beast is 100% Wool. Not synthetic at all. Holds up in earth, wind and fire situations. 

Anyway, I wore my grandpa's jacket down to the cafeteria at the ski center one evening and hung it up on a peg before dinner. After dinner, I retrieved it and walked outside wearing it. I reached in the pocket for my gloves, and instead, pulled out seventy-five twist ties. Like an electrician would use to bundle wires or something.

For a moment, I stood there blankly, wondering why twist ties I'd never seen before may be in a coat from WW2.

At some point, it occurred to me that this was not my coat. It was an LL Bean that looked strikingly similar.

I ran back inside and swapped it out before anyone noticed. I hope.