Elizabeth Weinstein

I bought this Eddie Bauer coat in 1996 to insulate myself from the harsh Chicago winters I’d be experiencing as a Northwestern University graduate student.

I always felt a little like Barney, the big purple dinosaur, whenever I pulled it on. But in 1997, I was thankful for it: While doing a reporting project in the Chicago housing projects, I was attacked by a man wielding an ice pick, who stabbed me in the head, neck and back. Luckily I wasn’t seriously injured, partly because “Barney’s” downy filling protected me.  I haven’t worn Barney much since, but out of respect, I can’t seem to part with him, either.

Originally posted on The Kojo Nnamdi Show Blog on occasion of the Worn Stories segment, available here: http://thekojonnamdishow.org/shows/2015-01-29/worn_stories_sartorial_memoirs

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