Flannel shirts are still some of the most important “wardrobe items” in my closet. Nothing beats a large flannel shirt for comfort on a cold winter day!
I don’t know what it is about large flannel shirts I like so much, but I’m sure the appeal started when I was a teenager, living on the second floor of a 2-story flat in San Francisco.
The flat where my family lived was near the end of Church Street in Upper Noe Valley (in the Mission District). We were a half-block up the hill from the end of the J Church streetcar line on 30th Street.
That streetcar was the starting point for almost anywhere I needed to go in the city.
Flannel shirts, it turned out, especially when worn under a comfortable sweatshirt, were the perfect attire for a place that felt cold most of the year.
The only way I could ever really get warm in that flat was by standing in front of the large brass radiator that stood in our dining room. (We didn’t have central heating … but we DID have a fireplace, which was nice.)
After moving away from there to finish my last 2 years of college in Chico, flannel shirts were still part of my wardrobe. However, instead of wearing them all year long (like I did in the city), I only wore them in the cooler parts of the year.
(I’m thankful for summers actually being WARM in the towns I’ve lived in since moving away from the Bay Area!)
Comfort and warmth are what I like best about flannel shirts. In my book, that beats “glamour” and “style” any day.
