My Umbrella

I bought my umbrella two or three years ago, back when I was at community college, in the community college bookstore. It cost about eight dollars, but I've already forgotten the precise number. That's not why I got it, though.

The thing I liked best about my umbrella was that it was simple and sturdy. The shaft (chimney? trunk?) was a largish-diameter aluminum tube – it was advertised as "windproof", and it really was – and the fabric (nylon, I think) opened up by the simple sliding of a shuttle along the length of the shaft. It was held closed by a small strap and Velcro. I had used collapsable umbrellas many times before, but I found their mechanisms too fragile. I never had that trouble with my umbrella.

The cloth of my umbrella was red and white, with the colors alternating in adjacent panels. The strap was red. The cloth was held on in part by small plastic caps which were fixed onto the ends of the radial wires in the frame – when the umbrella was closed, these caps were covered by a small aluminum piece which slid on the shaft. The handle was chipboard, I think – at some point, I chipped a corner off of it, revealing the unpolished material below. It was a straight handle, with depressions for the fingers.

Also, my umbrella was quite large. Two people could fit under it without undue difficulty, or it could be tilted backwards to protect the bearer's backpack as well as the bearer.

I lost my umbrella today. I've lost it before, but this time I think I might not get it back.