What to Wear in Winter

As a high school student, I came up with a foolproof (and very mathematical) way to determine what winter clothes I needed.

I attended a PK-12 school, and the estimate depended on the behavior of two very different student groups: kindergarteners and sixth/seventh graders.

The K students were sent in (by parents) with masses of winter protection--coats, boots, hats, mittens, earmuffs, scarves, alpenstocks, beeveils, etc--and sent out (by teachers, into the elements) the same way.

The 6th/7th graders, regardless of what they were sent in wearing or sent out wearing, very quickly removed as much outer clothing as possible. There was something truly cool about wearing short sleeves as the mercury dipped down to the single digits Fahrenheit. (Also something truly frostbitten about it, but when you're in middle school you don't care.)

My formula was simple: to determine what level of clothing I needed, I found the halfway point between the overdressed kindergarteners and the underdressed middle school students. That was what I put on before leaving school.

Worked every time. And to judge by what I see out on our playground this winter, the formula continues to work today!