Leather jackets ( personal story)

After my divorce about two years ago, there were several things that I had always wanted, and first on my list was a leather jacket. For some reason, I had always found an excuse not to get one.

One morning I got up, on a particularly cold winter day, and decided to change that. A local store was having a sale, and I walked out with the first of a series of purchases.

I hated the "newness" of store bought jackets, and finally found a solution to that problem.

The Salvation Army outlet down the street from my apartment.

My first purchase there was this vintage brown leather motorcycle jacket, it's colour faded to a light brown. I decided to see what would happen if I put some work into it. For about 15 dollars, there was little to lose.

The main thing is to find a dry cleaner that knows a leather cleaning professional. I was lucky enough to find one nearby. After cleaning, the next step was to condition the leather.

To do that is actually quite simple. I purchased some mink oil, and walked out to the local park on a nice hot summer day. Mink oil is actually more like a grease, and it's been used for centuries to restore and protect leather.

One just has to apply it by hand, and work it into the leather's surface. The heat from your hand will begin the process of restoration. One has to be patient, and it will take a few days for the leather to assume it's new patina. One never should use anything synthetic on leather, and mink oil is the perfect solution. It is often used in cosmetics, and will soften your skin as equally well as it softens leather.

Those second hand vintage leather jackets have a character unlike any one can find in a store. They have a style and cut that is unmatchable. The leather itself has aged and softened, and they are like fine wood in the grain and texture they offer.

My faded jacket turned into a deep rich luxurious brown, and the brittle leather became as soft and supple as a glove's. It turned out to be a quite successful experiment. I am now a bit like one of those people that finds and restores old cars. My wardrobe now contains about seven different jackets, and they are the first thing I reach for when the weather turns cold and windy.

If you can learn a lot about a man by walking a mile in his shoes, just think what can happen when you walk a mile in his leather jacket.

John Lennon - In My Life. ( musical commentary)

I always asked why people did things and why society was like it was. I didn't just accept it for what it was apparently doing. I always looked below the surface. - John Lennon

We are coming up to what would have been John Lennon's sixty fifth birthday, on October 9th. That's as good a time as any to speak of the man - and what he meant to me.

I can trace back the exact moment when I decided to take up playing guitar. I was walking into a small theatre in Quebec City, which was playing " Help" . As I came in Lennon's image was on the screen singing " You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" .

Here is that exact scene:



I was hooked.

The 12 string in the corner of my living room can trace it's roots to me seeing that scene, and hearing that wonderful full sound of a 12-string acoustic guitar for the first time.

I remember the night he was murdered. In my tiny 1 1/2 room apartment in downtown Montreal...sitting there alone on that strange warm December night...the phone ringing....

My girlfriend crying, and the sudden shock at the horrific news I she told me.

Turning on the TV...lost...

For about a week, I had a sign in my window that simply read " Goodbye John..."

The worst part was realizing I could have gone to NYC easily, and have met him and simply had the chance to say a simple "thank you" for everything he had given me, and the world.

Aside from all the great music, including that last LP that showed he was still at the top - he was much more than that. He was one of the first celebrities to come out against Vietnam, and war in general. He asked us to "imagine" a better world - and called on all of our better angels. From a young man filled with anger, he grew to be a person of great spiritual depth - and of non-violence. His political views helped to form a generation's mindset.

He could be counted on to give some great interviews, so far from what we see today from the people that call themselves "artists". He was brutally honest, even when it worked against him. The job of any good artist is to invoke emotion and thought through the expression of their honest personal vision of the world.

Lennon certainly qualified himself to that title, in my regard.

Today's world needs artists like Lennon, and the world is certainly a lesser place without his great talent and personality. He asked us all to dream, but not to sleep.

Thanks John, you influenced me towards being a better person.

Take some time Sunday, and listen to his music again, if you feel so inclined.

Here is a rather rare video clip of him doing "Imagine", live on the Mike Douglas show in 1971.