March is National Umbrella Month

March is National Umbrella Month

Despite Washington’s notoriously long (okay, endless) rainy season, Washingtonians tend to be ambivalent about the use of umbrellas.  The following is a typical conversation in a Washington workplace…

Jill: “Ack, it’s pouring!  It wasn’t pouring two minutes ago when I was packing up for lunch.”

Jane: “Give it two minutes, and it’ll stop.”

Jill:  “What do you think?  Should I bring my umbrella?”

Jane:  “No.”

Jill:  “But I don’t want to ruin my suit.”

Jane:  “Fine, then take an umbrella.”

Jill:   “Okay…[looks for umbrella under desk]…um, I can’t find my umbrella.  May I borrow yours?”

Jane:  “I haven’t used an umbrella since 1976.  Check with Bob.  He’s from California.”

Jill:  “Okay.  Oh, look!  It stopped raining!” 

And scene. 

It is no wonder that our Archives staff had a tricky time digging up historic photographs of umbrellas in our records.  We did find a great picture of Sylvester Park in Olympia, circa 1900, replete with several umbrellas…on a very sunny day.  This was, undeniably, not a day in March.  Yet this month does serve as a good reminder that the umbrella truly is…sometimes…a useful invention…rain or shine…on occasion- even for us frontiering Washingtonians.

Photograph courtesy of Washington State Archives

Comments are closed.