If you hold onto something long enough, it will come back in style. And this year – among the wide leg jeans – it’s the barn jacket.
It was during my time in college that everyone was wearing barn jackets. Neutral colors. Plaid interior. Corduroy collar. Big buttons. My college campus looked like a walking J. Crew catalog.
My barn jacket was light khaki in color, dark brown collar. And the pockets! So big and roomy! My claim to fame was the time I was able to sneak a 12-pack of beer (Icehouse – what were we thinking??) on my person into Flynn Hall because of my barn jacket. Cans in the outside pockets, cans on the inside pockets, maybe one or two in the small of my back. This feat could not have been accomplished without my trusty barn jacket.
The place the barn jacket truly came into its own was for parties at the Caves. When I went to Stonehill College, it was surrounded by woods. Now, those woods have been leveled to make room for dorms and buildings. But back in the day, following a path behind New Hall (the new dorm that no one could apparently name?), up hills and through trees and around thickets, there was a clearing with huge boulders. This could be one of those times that the boulders felt huge looking at them through my beer googles, but if I saw them today theywould just be regular sized rocks.
The barn jacket was the perfect outerwear for the Caves. It was likely the only coat I had at college or was willing to wear out, jury is still out on that one. No one gets cold in college. Hundreds of kids would gather at the Caves to drink and party. I think there might have been music if someone had enough batteries to power their boom box (hey kids today, your lives are so pampered with music libraries in your pockets!) and we’d listen to Pearl Jam or Nirvana or Oasis. Someone made a bonfire in the middle of a wooded area, tended by drunk twenty year olds (how did we not burn down the town?), which looking back seems like a sure fire way to draw attention to underage drinking in the woods. “Hey Earl, do you see that FIRE over there on the top of that hill? Wonder what that is?”
The barn jacket held many purposes on Caves nights.
- Transporting beer
- Providing a nice little shield for your privates when you had to pee in the woods
- Warmth (questionable during winter months)
- Making it nearly impossible to find your friends in a sea of neutral-colored barn jacket-wearing drunk kids
- Repelled any beer spilled on you
- Camouflaged you when you were running from campus police
If you’re getting nostalgic for your barn jacket reading this post, you’re in luck. They. Are. Everywhere! Long and short lengths. Variety of colors. Snaps, zips or buttons. Quilted or canvas. A style for every day of the week.
And if you want to go old school, J. Crew is selling a vintage barn jacket this year for $188!
NOTE: I’m sad to say, that the Caves no longer exist at Stonehill College. They are now dorms or buildings or some shit. I feel sorry that the students do not get to experience a Caves night. My 22nd birthday was celebrated at the Caves at a party during the day (man, we were bold!) and I will never forget running through the woods being chased by campus police careful to not spill a drop of beer out of my red solo cup. Now, they have fancy lounges and bars on campus, and I feel sorry for them. You have not lived a true college experience unless you wake up hungover with twigs and leaves out of your hair, and you glance over to your desk chair for the comforting sight of your barn jacket hanging on it (most likely with mystery stains on it).
Life of kk 