I've seen an old woman on the bus-stop 2 days ago and thought about incredible health or force of traditional mentality in that generation.The weather was not good that day. It was raining -not too hard, some drops, but you know it very good: you become all wet after 15 minutes with these "some drops". Than, it was cold too, not more than 7°C. All persons had waterproof jackets.
But the old lady had only just under knee long skirt, a cardigan, a kerchief on the shoulders and... knee-length socks. The only difference from traditional look was the colour of these clothes. They were brown, not black. The thing that impresses me more from all this look are those socks.
Bet you, I did everything possible different times to look under their skirts (of these women) to see if it's true. You will laugh, but I could not believe that a person, specially of this age, can go out in the street in winter with nacked legs. When I was a girl and we weared minis and tights, many of us were often ill for this reason. Our mothers did not know how to explain to us that we have to wear warm pants. Yes, it was Lithuania, not Italy, but 5-10°C is a good reason for an older person to wear something very warm, I think.
Some young girls were sitting on the bench but the old woman was standing in feet. And there were 2 enormous bags near her. This is an other thing I'm always surprized to see: the weights they take. Once I saw in a supermarket: a woman took a pack with 24 tomatoe-tins with one hand, posted it on her head without any effort and went to the pay desk. I had cardiac infarction when I saw it. ;)))
The great problem with busses is that they pass very rarely here, so you need often about one-two hours only to wait for it. And the old lady was surely for many time there.
What did she think in that time? Did she feel cold? Maybe not. Surely she had her family problems to think about. Not tradition. It's a thing that is not discussed. It's so because it's so.
