Fairly standard (for the UK, in the '70s): black trousers, blue or white shirt, dark blue blazer, school tie etc.
BUT, the blazer had the school emblem on, which was derived from the poultry trade that had been a major feature of the town’s prosperity at one time: we all had a large un-ironic turkey embroidered on our chests.
Does Ivor the Engine count as a cartoon? Animation, certainly, but I’m not sure about ‘cartoon’ as such.
Anyway, it is the 1975 version for me.
The single biggest thing for me is having a range of knowledgeable and intelligent friends and spending time with them. It very soon puts things in perspective.
The “British Warm” was the intermediary as I understand it: a shorter greatcoat favoured by Britsh officers in WW1. The Trenchcoat itself was modeled to fit over, accompany or replace this.
The original type of coat that would have been worn when riding was the Great Coat - which did cover the whole body, down to the ankles (and included the front of the body much better than a cloak). Those would have been worn by military officers, particularly.
Those were fine for riding, but then if you were off your horse and end up in the newly developed trench warfare - starting from around the US civil war onwards - you ended up wading through mud which got caked to the coat. So then they started cutting the coats shorter and they became Trench Coats.
The actual reason that we don’t is pretty much because of the invention of sewing machines. Once sewing machines were widespread, making coats became sooo much cheaper than they had been. Coats need a lot of tightly made seams which took time and so made coats very expensive. With sewing machines, making these seams was vastly quicker and more reliable.
Coats win over cloaks in so many ways because you can do things with your arms without exposing them or your torso to the rain and cold: impossible with a cloak.
Capes were the short versions - and intended to cover the shoulder and back without seams that might let the rain in, but with the new machine made seams, they were not needed either.
The really big change was when it became affordable to outfit armies with coats instead of cloaks or capes. At that point all the caché and prestige that was associated with military rank disappeared from cloaks and capes and they were suddenly neither useful not fashionable.
Nowadays, of course, they are no longer what your unfashionable dad would have worn: they are quite old enough to have regained a certain style.
I’m in the UK - live in a rural location and work at several other rural locations. It is a 10 - 45 min drive depending on which one I am at. There is no suitable public transport to any of them - and since I sometimes have to head over to another for some incident or another, cycling - which would be possible to the closest one otherwise - would then prove difficult.
In my first job, I used to cycle 5 miles each way daily, and I was able to walk to one job for a while, but pretty much every other job has required me to commute by car/truck - mostly 20+ mins. One short-term job involved driving 1 hour 30 or more - but it was only ever going to be short-term.
And if it is, are they fans of the Wurzels?
Right now? I’d hardly notice. I get paid tomorrow. This time tomorrow would be a bit better. Even better if it was this time tomorrow and the joint account too, that would be a lot better.
None of it would actually be life changing though. It would just make up for our recent house move and all the associated stuff really.
The Third Man (1949) if I had to pick just one. It is cinematic poetry from start to end.
I have experienced the blank looks and total misunderstanding since primary school and have developed a range of measures for dealing with it.
Of course, I take great pleasure in meeting people with whom all those are unnecessary. It was a revelation when I joined Mensa and found whole rooms full of them.
Safety Not Guaranteed (2012) - Aubrey Plaza in an engaging character piece that has hints of Eagle vs Shark among others. It’s not outstanding by any means and not among Plaza’s best, but still witty and touching.